300H land to be under forest cover in Fatehgarh Sahib

Fatehgarh Sahib, Aug 30 (UNI) The state government has decided to bring 300 hectare land in district Fatehgarh Sahib under forest cover.

Divisional Forest Officer Nidhi Srivastva, while presiding over the meeting of district Fatehgarh Sahib development agency here, said 100 village-level committees had been registered by forest department in the district and the comprehensive micro plan for development and plantation in villages was being prepared.

She said that micro-plan of 34 villages was ready and plantation on 60 hectares of land in six villages has been done. She informed reporters that Rs 4,000 per hectare incentive would be given to Panchayats for development projects of village, doing plantation under the project.

She said that expenditure involved for plantation would be met by forest Department with the funds provided by the Centre. Free plants were being supplied for plantation on non-forest government land to the government offices and other institutions. Already 6000 free plants have been supplied to schools and 3000 to PSEB Grid at Mullepur, she said urging the NGO's to plant medicinal trees like Ambla, Jamun, Neem etc.

Ms Nidhi further said that though 84 per cent land of the state was under plough, the area under forest cover was only 5.7 percent.

In Fatehgarh Sahib, of the total 1,14,779 H, only 1200 H was under forestry which included block and strip forest along rail, road and canals, she said.

UNI