New Delhi, July 9 (Inditop.com) India’s Finance Commission has been asked to recommend that states that have kept their forest cover intact be rewarded for it.
“There should be an incentive to states to keep their forest cover,” Minister for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh said here Thursday. “I met Finance Commission chairman Vijay Kelkar and requested him to consider this.”
The commission is expected to submit its report in October or November.
Ramesh mentioned Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Arunachal Pradesh among the states that should get the incentive.
This year’s budget has allocated Rs.500 crore for an afforestation scheme by state governments, and Ramesh said most of the money would be used to restore forests that were now degraded.
“It is definitely not for plantations,” he told the media in response to a question over the danger of the money being used for monoculture.
The minister estimated that 21-odd percent of India was under forest cover — around nine percent was degraded while the remaining 12 percent were medium-density and high-density forests.
It takes Rs.30,000-50,000 per hectare to restore degraded forests, experts in the ministry have estimated.
