MoEF draws up action plan to tackle Bamboo flowering in NE

Shillong, May 31 (UNI) The Union Ministry of Environment&Forests has prepared an action plan to tackle the socio-economic and ecological problems likely to arise out of gregarious bamboo flowering in the North East.

The Action Plan was prepared after thorough consultations with all stakeholders, including research institutes, concerned state governments and organisations.

To aid the North-Eastern to successfully implement of various components of the plan, the ministry had decided to have a new centrally sponsored scheme for partial funding of the identified activities under the programme.

The total outlay under this new scheme is Rs 85 crores for a period of four years from 2005-09.

The proposed activities to be undertaken include infrastructural development, resource survey, regeneration, fire control, rodent control, awareness generation and research on various aspects of management of gregarious flowering.

The progress of implementation of the Plan is being reviewed by a Central Monitoring Committee (CMC) chaired by DGF&Special Secretary with representatives from the NE States and various ministries at the centre.

About Rs 25 crore were released to Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Tripura during the last fiscal under the scheme.

UNI