Environmental Performance: TS tops CSE's annual rankings
Telangana Municipal and Urban Development minister KT Rama Rao
Hyderabad: Telangana is on top of the list of states which have balanced environment policies according to a report of the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).
Reacting to this, Municipal Administration Minister KT Rama Rao on Sunday said it was a recognition of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao's commitment towards the environment. He said this shows how comprehensive and balanced environmental policies of the BRS government were. They aim at providing an environment-friendly state to the future generations. The CSE has considered many environmental initiatives undertaken by Telangana state such as afforestation and municipal waste management and has given Telangana the top spot, he said.
KTR said the state government had taken up the Haritaharam programme with the aim of restoring the depleted forests for the future generations and increasing the green cover in the state from 22 per cent to 33 per cent and it had yielded positive results. The government planted around 273 crore saplings in the last nine years. The forest area in the state which was 19,854 square kms in 2015-16 increased to 26,969 square kms by 2023.
About 24.06 percent of Telangana's area was covered by forests. As a result of the results of Haritaharam undertaken by the government, the city of Hyderabad has been recognized as World Tree City twice, KTR said.
He said the Telangana government has taken up many environment friendly programs along with green farming. He said that the Telangana state government will go ahead with excellent plans in terms of sanitation management which he said was the most challenging for the environment in urban areas.
As part of this, a programme of bio-mining of garbage accumulated in many municipalities along with all the municipal corporations across the state has already been initiated. In addition to this, Hyderabad city has produced 24 megawatts of electricity in the field of waste to energy and has stood second in this field in the country, he added.