New Delhi, July 31 (Inditop.com) A scheme to improve forest management and another to enhance the capabilities of foresters have been approved by the government, Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh announced here Friday.
The approvals came at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) Thursday evening, he told reporters.
The scheme to improve forest managements will get Rs.600 crore in the 2007-12 11th plan period, up from Rs.209 crore in the 10th plan. It will include measures to protect and conserve sacred groves, unique vegetation such as sandalwood and junipers, eradicate weeds and to meet the challenge of bamboo flowering.
Different species of bamboo flower every 50-100 years. The flowers are a favourite food of rats, whose population explodes as a result. The next year, when there are no flowers, the rats often eat up so much food grain nearby that there is a major shortage, as happened in Mizoram last year.
For the second scheme, the CCEA approved an outlay of Rs.369 crore in the 11th plan, up from Rs.46 crore in the 10th. The Japanese government is giving a soft loan of Rs.206 crore for the training scheme, Ramesh said, adding that in different states, the centre would bear 75 percent of the cost of training forest department personnel, while the states would be asked to pay the rest.
