Rs. 100 Crore Schemes to Rejuvenate Forests, Bring Down Forest Fires
The scheme would ensure forest protection, wildlife management, bringing down man-animal conflict and facing field level challenges
Chennai: Forest minister R.V. Ranjith Kumar on Monday announced a scheme to rejuvenate the forest areas in the State for the next five years at a budget of Rs. 100 crore. The scheme would ensure forest protection, wildlife management, bringing down man-animal conflict and facing field level challenges.
Replying to the discussion on the demand for grants to his ministry, he also announced a forest fire management scheme at a cost of Rs. 60 crore for the next five years. He said the forest fire incidents had increased in recent times and instead of resorting to temporary firefighting measures, actions to handle forest fires throughout the year would be taken under the scheme.
He announced an induction training for the newly recruited 1,947 forest personnel with field visits and training besides martial arts, mountaineering and physical exercise. He announced the setting up of 25 nature parks in land belonging to the government and local bodies and said they would facilitate entertainment, environment education, biodiversity protection, social participation and improving the local climate.
Ranjith Kumar announced the setting up of an analytical centre to identify the variety of wood seized by the department through molecular analysis for the purpose of creating evidence and help the investigation in the crimes related to deforestation, adding intern naturalists would be recruited from districts of Eastern Ghats and coastal districts.
A mobile wildlife forensic and disease diagnostic laboratory would be set up in the southern districts to detect the diseases affecting forest animals, take action at the right time, monitor the disease, prevent the spread of the disease and prevent the zoonotic diseases that spread from animals to human beings. A scheme to classify the genome of palmyrah palm and improve them would be implemented, he said, adding district biodiversity symbols would be declared to create awareness on the endemic animals and plants in each district. He said five boats functioning in solar power would be bought to encourage tourism at Pichavaram and smart identity cards for free bus travel for 6,260 forest personnel.
