Saving forest should be developed as civic sense among Children

DAINIK NATION BUREAU

The Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat said that to mitigate the problem of forest fires, social participation and awareness was needed. School children should develop affinity and responsibility towards forests. Saving forests should be developed as a civic sense among the school children and Forest officials should go to schools and take classes on discussing the importance of forests to the school children.

CM expressed these views after inaugurating the 10th three days long National Workshop of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) that began under the aegis of Uttarakhand Forest Resource Management Project (UPFRMP) in Mussoorie on Wednesday. The CM also released two booklets titled “Walnut development in Uttarakhand” and “Avnat Vanon Ka Sudharikaran” on the occasion.

Welcoming to the representatives from 13 states participating in 10th JICA national Workshop and training programme, CM said that the workshop will play an important role in the conservation and augmentation of the forests. He said that the knowledge and experiences shared during the workshop would help in the management and conservation of the forests.

There are around 11000 Van panchayats in Uttarakhand and JICA is also funding Van Panchayats. the Himalayan region faces frequent problems of landslides and the technical expertise provided by JICA will help in mitigating the landslides in the region. THrough effective implementation of projects under JICA, forest conservation, curbing land erosion and the improvement in the quality of the soil along with increasing the mineral content can be done.

The rejuvenation programme of Rispana River in Dehradun and Koshi River in Almora have started in the state. For Rispana river a target of plantation and cleaning the source area has been fixed and to achieve the same, mass scale participation of people will be ensured. The campaign will send a positive message towards conserving environment in the country. The Uttarakhand Forest and Environment Minister Harak Singh Rawat said that the role of villagers is very important in forest conservation and the attraction towards forests has been part of our culture.  MLA Mussoorie Ganesh Joshi, Harak Singh Rawat addressed the people in the workshop.

MLA Munna Singh Chauhan, Additional Chief Secretary  Ranvir Singh, Director General Union Forest Ministry Sidhant Das, Japan International Cooperation  Agency Tori (Imachi) were  present on the occasion.