The State Forest, Environment and Climate Change department is all set to launch a wildlife crime control cell by the end of this year.
Talking to media persons here on Monday Additional Chief Secretary of the department Indu Shekhar Chaturvedi said, “A wildlife crime control bureau is already functional at centre and the cell would be made at the State headquarters, having all the modern equipment and GIS system. It will not just be for preventing crime against wildlife but other issues as well including sightings and conflicts. We plan to bring all these issues under one platform.”
The officials informed about the new initiatives of the department in the duration including natural regeneration of forest on 36,310 hectare of land which is 1.5 per cent of the total forest land which was started in 2018-19, expansion of trees outside forest area under which beneficiaries are given 75 per cent of subsidy on buying saplings, construction of 820 check dams in forest areas for water conservation among others.
The secretary informed that the State of Forest Report 2017 showed that there has been a forest and tree cover expansion in the State on an area of 37,300 hectare as compared to 2013. Also, the report mentioned that the forest area in the State has increased to 33.21 per cent. The growing stock in State, which was 15.97 crore cubic metre increased to 18.2 crore cubic metre in 2017, which is an increase of 14 per cent.
Compared to 2011, the bamboo producing area has increased from 867 sq km to 4470 sq. km in 2017. Also, the total area of water bodies which was 147 sq. km in 2005 increased to 211 sq. km in 2015, registering an increase of 44 per cent.
Chaturvedi informed that in the monsoon of 2018 and 2019 a total of 16.20 lakh saplings were planted on the river banks across State, stretching on an area of 408 kms.
Talking about wildlife preservation he said, “In 2018-19, 11 quick response teams were formed to deal with the man animal conflict. Construction of wild life rescue centre has already started.”