The Hindu : Other States / Haryana News : Haryana to promote medicinal plants

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Tuesday, Nov 23, 2004

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Other States - Haryana

Haryana to promote medicinal plants

By Our Special Correspondent

CHANDIGARH, NOV. 22. The Haryana Chief Minister, Om Prakash Chautala, today announced that his Government would make arrangements for the sale of medicinal plants being grown by the people, especially the farmers.

Inaugurating a three-day National Workshop on Agro-forestry organised by the Haryana Forest Department here, he reiterated that his regime would recruit `Van Rakshaks' to protect plants grown in villages.

About 200 delegates from Forest Departments of various States and several institutions are attending the workshop.

Even though the climate in most parts of Haryana was arid, about 23 crore saplings had been planted during the last about five-and-a-half years and of these over 80 per cent had survived, he claimed. It had been decided to provide saplings to the farmers free of cost and also plant them in the complexes of Government institutions to further increase the green cover. Suitable markets, on the pattern of mandis, would also be set up for the sale of trees, he added.

A Rs.286 crore scheme was also being introduced from this financial year with financial assistance from the Japanese Bank for International Funding under which an area of 50,000 hectares would be brought under afforestation. He also thanked the European Commission for giving financial assistance of Rs.126 crores for the implementation of community forestry scheme in the State.

Mr. Chautala urged the delegates that apart from making other recommendations, they should also suggest what kind of plants should be planted in a particular area and how their marketing could be made more effective.

Earlier, the Haryana Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, J.P.L. Srivastava, said that emphasis should be laid on agro-forestry to increase the green cover in the country. Out of a total geographical area of 329 million hectares in the country, the forests covered only 64 million hectares. Only half of these forests were healthy and the rest of them suffered from soil and water erosion or faced threat of fire. Since it would be difficult to further increase the green cover, the only possibility would be to plant trees outside the conventional forest area.

Mr.Srivastava said that the tree cover in Haryana had increased from four per cent to eight per cent due to plantation of a large number of trees in areas outside natural forests.

Noted environmentalist, Chandi Prasad Bhatt, pointed out that afforestation schemes could be implemented effectively only with the involvement of the people.

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