In Chhattisgarh, Sal Forest is in abundance and for this the credit goes to the forest department which has been working in this direction for years. However, successful Sal plantation at Village Kurrubhatha has brought Gariyaband forest division into limelight.
According to deputy divisional forest officer RC Meshram, after the formation of Chhattisgarh Sal plantation was done in 10 hectares land at Village Kurrubhatha, located in compartment No. 549 with the help of drip irrigation in 2012 and the effort bore fruit putting the project in successful category.
Success of Kurrubhatha has proved that Sal forestation can be done through plantation contrary to the myth that Sal trees grows itself in forests and cannot be grown separately.
Notably, under the guidance of Meshram at Kurrubhatha, 25 thousand Sal saplings have been planted at 2 metre x 2 metre spacing on 10 hectares out of which about 95 per cent saplings have survived.
These saplings were initially grown in nursery and thereafter were planted at Kurrubhatha village. For irrigation, while 2 borewells have been dug in the 10 hectares area, drip irrigation system was also laid under the project.
Meanwhile, retired forest conservator and member of public service commission R N Deshmukh himself visited Kurrubhatha sometimes back and saw the plantation of Sal (locally called Sarai) saplings.
Expressing happiness over the success of the project Deshmukh termed it as one of the commendable efforts as he himself worked for 28 years in area having Sal forest.
He asked officials to plant more and more Sal trees in the forested area of Chhattisgarh. Deshmukh told the officials to recommend the name of Meshram for giving citation to him for his excellent efforts in this direction and also spread the information regarding success of Sal plantation in other forest divisions having Sal plantations.
Additional chief conservator of forest (Tendu leaf) B l Sharan also lauded the efforts of Meshram in the field of Sal plantation.