New Delhi, July 09: With an aim to regenerate degraded forests, the Centre has kept additional assistance of Rs 500 crore to be provided to state governments for afforestation and restoration of forest cover.
If this centrally assistance fund is adequately utilised by the state governments, the move would help in regeneration of nine per cent degraded forest area in the country, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh told reporters here.
Presently, about 21 per cent of the land is under forest cover, of which around 12 per cent is high density and medium density forests while nine per cent is degraded forest.
The money will be given directly to the state governments by the Planning Commission for afforestation activities, Ramesh said.
Hailing the allocation announced in the Budget 2009-10 by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee early this week, he said that it would help increase the forest density.
“This is the first time that the central government has announced such a scheme and it is additional central assistance to be utilised by the state government,” he added.
The details will be worked out later, he said but made it clear that the funds were not meant for plantation purpose but for forest lands
where green cover has come down dramatically and allocation would depend on the demand from the states.
–Agencies–