Greening cities: Centre to develop 400 city-forests across India
New Delhi: Union Minister for Environment, Forest, and Climate change Ashwini Kumar Choubey has said the Centre is planning to develop 400 city forests across the country to provide a green cover to the urban areas.
Interacting with the representatives of the Panchayati Raj institutions (PRIs) on Friday, he said, “A nagarvan (city forest) will be developed in the Ramban district of Jammu and Kashmir as part of development projects and a gift to Union Home Minister Amit Shah on his birthday.”
“Nurseries would be set up in educational institutions to promote an environment-friendly attitude among children,” he said.
“The people dwelling in and near the forest areas are the real custodians of the forests, and the central government is mulling to frame a liberalised policy to ensure the development and protection of the forests with regard to the Forest Rights Act,” he added.
Choubey was on a two-day visit to Ramban as a representative of the Centre’s public outreach programme.
During a three-day visit to the border state, Amit Shah will conduct a security review and interact with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers.
Last week, a global study conducted by the University of Maryland, USA, reported, “India lost about 2 million hectares of tree cover between the years 2001 and 2020. There is a 5 percent decline in the total tree cover since the year 2000.”
“Three-fourths of the total green-cover loss is from the North-Eastern States,” it added.
(Avya Mathur)
