Haryana to give 80,000 acres of panchayat land to forest department for plantation

Haryana continues to witness an acute decrease in the green area which is a matter of serious concern. Although, the state government as well as the forest department are putting their best to increase green area. In this continuation, the state government has come ahead with a new initiative in a bid to increase the green area along with a plantation of grafted fruit trees in rural areas. According to the information made available by the Forest Department, the Panchayat Department of the state has given the nod to provide 10 percent of Panchayati land for the plantation of grafted fruits.

Panchayats of Haryana own a total of 3.5 lakh hectare land and out of which, 10 percent, i.e, nearly 80000 acre, of the land will be provided to forest department for the plantation of grafted fruits. A plantation on one acre land is likely to cost an amount of Rs 25 lakh. The forest department will bear this expenditure while the planted fruits will be sole property of the Panchayats. Thus, the new scheme is going to benefit the rural areas along with increasing the greenery across the state. The Chief Minister, Manohar Lal had announced the scheme on June 5, 2021 while likely to state soon.

Kanwar Pal Gurjer said that the forest department is leaving no stone unturned to increase the green area. As a part of aforesaid scheme, the Forest Department has been permitted to get 10 percent of Panchayati land for the plantation of grafted fruits. Further, he said, the new scheme will undoubtedly benefit the rural areas. It is worth mentioning that prior to this, the Forest Department had planted trees in nearly 400 acre land of Gwalra village of Panipat area along with many villages of Yamunanagar and Jind districts. Likewise, the department had planted trees in 1100 villages of Haryana in 2020 across the state.

Veerhabn Singh Tanwar, The Principal Chief Conservator Forest, said that in order to plant the trees of grafted fruits and implement the scheme, the officials of the department will work in collaboration with Panchayat department of the state. Further, he said that the officials of the department have been directed for the implementation of the scheme.