CHENNAI: The State government has come out with a forest policy recently, but funds are a hitch in getting it operationalised across the state, according to a top state Forest department official.
The State Forest Policy, which aims to increase the forest and tree cover from the present level of 21.76 per cent of the geographical areas to 33 per cent, is likely to get a new lease of life by January next year when hopefully the supplementary budget could be tabled, the official said.
While the Forest department has asked local bodies and various departments, including the Housing department, to operationalise the Tamil Nadu State Forest Policy, 2018, the irony is that these departments won’t be able to operationalise it without funds, said the official. “The budget has already been passed. Now, since the policy has been approved, we are implementing it with whatever funds we have,” he said. The official told Express that the department is looking at funds from the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to be dovetailed to implement the policy so that by 2030, the state could achieve 33 per cent of forest and tree cover.
“We are planning to plant 1,000 saplings per hectare and the minimum cost would be `50,000 per hectare while taking into account the infrastructure for providing it with water and fencing the area,” the official said, while refusing the give the exact figure required for implementing the policy across the state.
It is learnt that rather going in for a piece-meal approach, the state Forest department is seek funds in implementing the state eco-tourism policy as well as the trekking policy, which is under preparation, along with the State Forest Policy.
According to the Forest Policy, the state will design its tree-based programmes to support planting of saplings on private land. The Forest department with the help of research institutions will develop better quality clones of indigenous species and provide necessary scientific information on tree farming to farmers by developing viable agro-forestry models.
Not only that, the policy also envisages urban forestry, which includes planting tree species as road avenues and tree parks. This has to be promoted with the help of urban local bodies and non-governmental organisations to minimize the level of pollution and to ameliorate the urban environment and this requires funds.
The policy also highlights the management of fragile ecosystem of coastal areas with a thrust on mangrove forests, wetlands and marine national parks and developing mangroves as bio-shield along the coast.
Factfile