Pics: Umesh Marpalli
Daijiworld Media Network-Udupi (HB)
Udupi, Aug 22: Forest minister Ramanath Rai laid the foundation stone for tree-park at Badagubettu gram panchayat, Manipal on Monday, August 22.
After laying foundation stone for the park, he said, “The tree-park will be spread in 5 acres of land and would be constructed at a cost of Rs 1.3 crore.”
“Walking track, various games for children and toilets for visitors will be constructed at the park. The work will be completed in one and half years. Trekking facility will be provided in the park. The forest department has launched ‘Chandanavana’ project in the state with an aim to preserve nature and sandalwood grove. The area will be covered with chain-link mesh fencing and a guard will be deployed to look after it.”
“This scheme will be implemented in twin district of Dakshina Kannada and Vandaru in Udupi. Another tree park will be constructed at Tannirubavi in Dakshina Kannada. Vandaru sandalwood grove covers 32 hectares of land and was constructed at a cost Rs 1.2 crore with a compound wall,” he said.
“The department has also launched ‘Siri Chandanavana project’ in Veerakamba gram panchayat. All these projects will preserve trees and natural surroundings. Our first priority is to protect trees rather than planting new ones. The department launched Koti Vruksha Abhiyan to distribute saplings to various organizations and prevent shortage of trees in future.”
As an RDPR of panchayat, Rai instructed all panchayats to start a tree nursery in small scale with 2000 to 5000 saplings under Mahatma Gandhi Udyoga Khatri project.
A person from Bellary district has adopted 100 hectares of land from revenue department to develop forest area under CSR fund.
“We have planned to meet all industries in city to create awareness about environmental protection. We will provide them saplings and reserve forest area to develop.”
“In Bengaluru, nearly 12 different companies have been given one lake each with certain agreement to develop it. Forest Protection Act 1980, introduced by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi has helped immensely in protecting forest area,” he said.
Replying to queries about land expansion for UPCL, he said, “Protection of environment is a responsibility of UPCL Company too. If they violate the rules, we will not delay in taking action against them. I have not got any proposal from the company regarding expansion. As a forest custodian, protection of environment is my first priority,” Rai added.