PANJIM: Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant on Saturday announced that Forest Department will develop 100 new water bodies in the wilds for animals as part of its measure to reduce human-animal conflict.
In a video message released on the occasion of Environment Day, Sawant also said that Forest Department will plant five lakh fruit-bearing trees in the forests over the next 3 months.
The department has taken up the initiative under the Central Government campaign ‘Jal Shakti Abhiyan’, a campaign for water conservation and water security. The scheme focuses on renovation of water bodies, regulating industrial consumption, harvesting rainwater and reuse of wastewater
Sawant said that the government is working towards reducing the incidents of human-animal conflict and that the government has paid in all Rs 10 lakh as compensation to those who have suffered losses due to such conflict, he added.
Further, the Chief Minister said that 250 local youth have been trained as nature guides by the department and are involved in promotion of eco-tourism activities. “Also there are 50 ‘vaidya mitra’, who harvest different herbs that are available in our forests, registered with the government so far,” he added.
Speaking about various programmes initiated by Forest Department, Sawant said that events like bird festival, turtle conversation, bird walk, bio-diversity conservation, are held throughout the year.
He said that eco-tourism has been promoted through bio-diversity parks while new nurseries have been set up at Harvalem and Dharbandora.
