Team Herald
PANJIM: The State Forest Department has dropped its plan to take up compensatory afforestation (CA) in Madhya Pradesh towards tree loss in Goa, and instead is using remote sensing technology to identify degraded land for fulfilling the CA criteria.
The department has proposed to take up 300 hectares of plantation in the first phase, for which land has already been identified in the interior forest and wildlife areas.
The department, in their Annual Plan of Operation (APO), submitted to the Executive Committee of the National Authority of Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA), has proposed raising of new CA plantation with protective fencing and chain link, in an area of 300 hectares, within the State. The total cost of the project is Rs 2.50 crore.
“We had no land to take up CA and accordingly had proposed to plant samplings in Madhya Pradesh. But, following a request from the government, we have decided not to go ahead with the Madhya Pradesh proposal. There are nearly 1,600 hectares of CA backlog, which we have to clear,” sources said.
Sources said that the department is making use of remote sensing technology to identify the land, most particularly in the extreme interiors of the forest and wildlife areas. “We have identified 300 hectares of land and the concerned range forest officials are working on the plan,” sources said.
Goa has carried out only 53.9 per cent of the total 3,541 hectares of CA and penal compensatory afforestation (PCA) target.
A total of 1,630 hectares of backlog were highlighted by the State during the CAMPA meeting. The state has set a target of 2023-24 to clear the backlog.
The State had proposed to clear the backlog by planting sampling across 500 hectares, during the last financial year and another 565 hectares each in 2022-23 and 2023-24.
