From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network

Bengaluru, Sep 11: With a view to check and make up for the environmental loss in the State, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has promised to introduce environmental budget annually.

He was speaking at a function in the State Aranya Bhavan on Saturday to pay homage to the deceased forest officers and staff.

“It is necessary to assess to loss of green cover every year,’’ he said pointing out that such assessment will enable estimating the green loss. “This can be done only when an environmental budget is started so that loss of green cover can be estimated and necessary corrective steps taken,’’ he said.

The Chief Minister said forest wealth is a natural asset and the older generation people believe that forests are our ancestors, which indicates how forests are revered. "We need to be grateful to the forests as without forests our very existence is threatened,’’ he said.

“We need to change our attitudes towards forests and our natural wealth. It is necessary to realise that there is no rains without forests,’’ he said.

Bommai said it was distressing and sad to note that mankind has destroyed forests and environment of in just 20 years that would have been lost in 2000 years. "We need to protect our forest wealth for the future generations or else we will be stealing their future,’’ he said pointing out that the present generation cannot exploit all the natural resources.

The Chief Minister said Karnataka is still having 43 lakh hectares of forests and faces a shortage of 21.5% of forest cover. It is necessary to check the forest wealth smugglers and take concerted action to increase forest cover. The conflict between man and wild animals must also be reduced, he said urging the Forest Department to increase and protect forests.

Forest Department Additional Chief Secretary Javed Akhtar and other senior officials were present.