Forest and Environment Department today stated that 8.56 crore new plants have been rooted across the State during last 1,000 days which also included those under the newly started CM Jan Van scheme.
“We have succeeded in planting 8.56 crore saplings in the last 1000 days with the cost of Rs 718 crore. This apart we are working on silviculture on 7000 hectares which is about the re-growth of degraded forest shoots. Our total land under forest cover has gone up by 947 hectares but still we at 31.5 per cent of the total geographical area and below the national benchmark 33 per cent,” said IS Chaturvedy, Additional Chief Secretary of the Department addressing a press conference adding that the Jan Van scheme needed to go through a revision to make it more acceptable.
He added further that about 1500 hectares of forest land has been made encroachment-free on which 11 parks are being developed. Chaturvedi also informed that Rs 120 crore has been earned by e-auctioning of kendu leave against Rs 56 crore last year.
Talking about polybag ban in the State for which notification has been issued on Friday, the official said that UlB in urban areas and Panchayats in rural areas would be implementing it with the help of designated officers.