Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar calls for massive plantation in urban forests

Hyderabad: Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar has said that the Telangana State was leading in the country in effective utilisation of CAMPA (Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority) funds.

The Chief Secretary held the 8th steering committee meeting of Telangana CAMPA here on Tuesday and reviewed the progress achieved under various components of compensatory afforestation in the State for the approval of action taken for the year 2022-23.

The officials informed Somesh Kumar that after extensive capacity building and field exercise by all field officers, a Forest Rejuvenation Action Plan for all 1,769 forest blocks was prepared with appropriate forestry interventions.

The forest cover in the State has not only increased consequently since 2015, but there has also been an increase in biodiversity, increase in water availability in forest areas and increase in carbon stocks as per ISFR reports, officials said. They further added that the Telangana was the only State to have increased its forest cover across all canopy density forest areas due to the comprehensive forestry interventions in forest areas. The Chief Secretary underlined the need to focus on taking up massive plantation drive in urban forests, more particularly in the surrounding districts of Hyderabad. He directed the forest officials to set up state-of-the-art nurseries in five different locations in the State which will have a big impact.

In addition, an action plan should be formulated and a concerted efforts should be made over the next couple of years in those districts with low afforestation so as to increase the forest cover substantially, he added.

The steering committee also approved the annual plan of operations for the Biodiversity Conservation Society of Telangana for the year 2022-23.