Addressing a press conference in Bangalore on Monday, Forest Minister C H Vijayashankar said afforestation and greenery programmes will be taken up in urban areas, in government schools, adjacent to irrigation canals and waste lands.
The Urban Development Department will soon issue an order directing all urban bodies to earmark funds for taking up afforestation projects. Water Resources Department will take up an initiative of planting fruit-bearing trees alongside irrigation canals, which could generate income for jurisdictional water users’ cooperative societies.
The Education Department will include more chapters on environment, wildlife and ecology in school curriculum. Landscaping will be taken up around government schools, he said.
The Revenue Department has been requested to hand over wasteland to the Forest Department for taking up afforestation programmes. Public Works Department will earmark 10 per cent grants for planting trees on both sides of State highways and district roads.
The government will also come out with a tree policy soon. Nurseries will be set up at pilgrimage centres on hill stations like Chamundi hills in Mysore and Antaraganga in Kolar.
The Forest Department will also institute awards for the best maintained plantation, nursery and also individual awards for the best district forest officer, conservator of forests in recognition of their services.
The awards would be presented on ‘World Environment Day’.
Tobacco growers
The State Government will soon urge the Central Tobacco Board to extend financial aid to tobacco growers in the State to take up alternative curing methods to put an end to the use of fuel wood, which has led to massive deforestation.
He said 53,000 licensed growers and 30,000 unlicensed growers in four taluks annually produce 1,700 tons of virginia tobacco and use about 85,000 truck loads of firewood to cure it.
Ban on eucalyptus, acacia cultivation
The State Government will issue an order, within a month, banning cultivation of eucalyptus and acacia in government land.
Forest Minister C H Vijayashankar told reporters that a decision to this effect had been taken following ecological imbalance due to cultivation of these species.
Ground water table had plummeted below 1,000 feet in parts of Kolar district due to cultivation of eucalyptus, he pointed out. Cultivation of eucalyptus and acacia in rain catchment areas of Malnad had resulted in depletion of underground water level, he said.
Government nurseries will not be selling eucalyptus and acacia saplings.