Ministers Conference passes 35 resolutions

Hyderabad, Oct 26 (UNI) The two-day Southern Forest Ministers Conference in its concluding session today resolved to address the Centre to amend the Wild Life Protection(WLP) Act 1972 to delegate powers to the Chief Wildlife Warden to deal with wild animals.

Addressing the Conference here, Andhra Pradesh Minister for Forest and Environment Satrucharla Vijayarama Raju said the conference passed 35 resolutions on the forest development.

The conference resolved to urge the Centre to consider eco-tourism as a forestry activity and earmark one per cent of the protected area or ten hactares of it to provide facilities for the visitors by ensuring relaxation of the WLP Act.

It also resolved to urge the Centre to include forestry sector as a Mission Mode Project under the National e-Governance Plan for improved serice delivery to citizens. The conference resolved that all states should take up pilot studies on carbon sequestation to facilitate trading of carbon in the voluntary carbon market.

The Minister said the Centre would be urged to operationalise Wildlife Crime Control Bureau and Tiger Protection force, apart from convening the national-level conference of forest ministers.

It was also resolved to provide a forest protection force like home guards in police department at the disposal of DFO and FRO to help them in improved forest protection in vulnerable areas.

Forest Ministers from southern states, including Minister for Forests and Housing Kerala, Binoy Viswam, Minsiter for Forests Tamil Nadu, N Selvaraj and Minister for Forests Goa, Filipe Neri Rodrigues attended the conference.

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