(News) Bundelkhand tree plantation drive faces space crunch

News : Bundelkhand tree plantation drive faces space crunch 

Problems have begun to surface in the state government’s decision to plant 10 crore trees within two months in the seven districts of Bundelkhand.

Scarcity of land in comparison to the plantation targets has emerged as a major problem forcing the district administrations to start looking for alternatives.

Hamirpur District Magistrate Sameer Verma has already written to the Department of Urban Development to allow them to plant a part of their targeted saplings in the rural areas, as the land belonging to the local bodies are far less than the required target.

Talking to The Indian Express, Verma said: “We have a target to plant 3,50,306 saplings in Hamirpur’s urban areas, which the local bodies will plant.”

He added, “But we are falling short of land. We have to adhere to the forest department’s guidelines and can plant only 1,100 saplings per hectare.”

The Mahoba district is also facing a similar problem. District Magistrate V V Pant said: “There is a huge difference between the land available with the urban local bodies and our targets. After having completed nearly 50 per cent of our targets, we are facing a scarcity of land. If we are allowed to use rural land, we might be able to achieve our targets.” 

Courtesy : Expressindia.com