Water woes hit green project

Mahbubnagar: The water scarcity in Mahbubnagar has hit the urban forestry projects across the district real hard. As against a target of planting 5 crore saplings during the first phase of Haritha Haaram programme, the forest department could plant only 6 lakh saplings so far. In the last two consecutive years, the low rainfall has crushed the social forestry in the district.

According to A. Prabhakar, Forest Section officer, the district had never witnessed such a drought during the past 10 years. He pointed out to the arid condition of Mayuri Central Nursery, which used to stay green even during the severe summer conditions.

“The government has given a target of rearing a minimum of 10 nurseries in each mandal, but due to decreasing ground water levels the bore wells have all gone dry and the nurseries have gone arid. Shortage of water made it difficult to raise nurseries and this has directly affected the plantation targets under Harithahaaram programme,” informed Prabhakar.

Not just the scarcity of water, the forest department is also facing the shortage of workforce that can supervise and preserve the forest. “Mahbubnagar mandal itself requires about 84 members of staff at various levels such as security guards, Beat Officers, Section Officers, Junior Forest Range Officers and Forest Range Officers.

At present, most of the staff in the district- about 120 employees- is allocated to Achempeta mandal, which has a dense forest, and the remaining district is given only 40 employees. Because of the inadequate workforce, we are not able to meet our goals in time and our efficiency levels are falling.

As majority tribal villages are located across the forest, it is becoming difficult to conduct regular patrolling in the forests to protect the trees and animals,” explained the Forest Section officer. However, he predicted that the urban forestry projects could be executed successfully if there are sufficient rains in the coming monsoon. “We can implement the urban forestry projects along the roads and in the major towns and will reach the target of planting 5 crore saplings across the district at least by next year” he hoped.