CS pushes for achieving green goals under CAMPA

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Apr 16: Chief Secretary, Atal Dulloo, today while addressing the 25th Steering Committee Meeting of Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA), emphasized on the department to work dedicatedly towards achieving the set targets in a given timeframe.
The meeting besides Commissioner Secretary, Forests, Ecology & Environment was attended by Principal Secretary, Finance; PCCF; Chief Wildlife Warden; Secretary, Planning; Director, Remote Sensing; CEO, CAMPA and other concerned HoDs of the department.
During the meeting, the Chief Secretary took stock of the afforestation efforts made during the past year and the targets achieved during this time. He asked the officers to complete installation of Boundary Pillars (BPs) around the forests across J&K to ensure their protection.
He also enjoined upon the concerned to digitise these BPs in order to create digitized maps of all the forest areas. He urged them to give details of the areas treated in lieu of the forest areas that came under Hydro Electric Projects of Kwar, Kiru and Ratlehere.
Dulloo further remarked that forests are lungs of the earth guaranteeing its sustainability. He advised for adopting modern technology to map the highly degraded areas for its treatment on priority basis.
On the occasion, Commissioner Secretary, FE&E, Sheetal Nanda, informed the meeting about the role and responsibilities of the Steering Committee in deciding the future course of action to take up the CAMPA works during the year ahead.
She also made out that the Committee had an overarching role of monitoring the department’s activities besides giving necessary directions for utilization of resources to achieve the desired goals.
Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Suresh Kumar Gupta, gave out that the scheme is being implemented smoothly in the UT, obtaining tangible results over the years. He said that installation and digitization of BPs around the forests had been achieved to a larger extent with the left out forests to be demarcated in the year or two ahead.
Elaborating further, CEO CAMPA, T. Rabi Kumar, revealed that the third-party evaluations show improved survival rates. The third party evaluation (2012-2019) reported a 50% survival rate and in the next phase (2019-2022), conducted by AFC India Limited, survival rates improved significantly to 62.70%, with Kashmir at 65.40% and Jammu at 60%.
The Committee also reviewed and approved several key targets for the upcoming fiscal year. These included Plantation & Assisted Natural Regeneration on 14,680 hectares, Soil & Moisture Conservation Works on 6,468 hectares, Forest Protection Works (Fencing etc.) on 8,087 hectares, Fire Protection Measures on 2,061 km (firelines), establishment of 163 Nurseries and plantation of 1.82 crore saplings to be planted generating 20.24 lakh casual labour man days across the UT.
Later, the Chief Secretary also released the ‘Annual Asian Water bird Census’ (AWC 2025) of 26 wetlands/ waterbodies of Kashmir valley. The Count was conducted simultaneously in all the major water-bodies along with lesser-known wetlands of the valley which included Hokersar, Shallabugh, Hygam, Mirgund, Wullar Lake Badinambal, Narkara, Nigeen Lake, (6 associated wetlands, Anchar Lake, Dal Lake, and wetlands from Pampore viz., Manibugh, Kranchoo, Chatlum and Fashkhoori.
On the occasion, the Chief Secretary launched two mobile apps pertaining to monitoring of CAMPA works and its nursery module for real time updation of data by the concerned to chase the targets on time.

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