By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The ongoing eco-restoration programme to improve the ecology and environment of Sohra is making a good progress.
Although 1172500 seedlings, mostly indigenous, were planted in the first year to replenish the lost greenery of Sohra, the department in the second year of the project has decided to plant 1298750 seedlings.
Talking to The Shillong Times here on Wednesday, Soil and Water Conservation director D Langstieh while claiming that the project is making good progress informed that 748000 seedlings will be planted in the third year and while the next two years will be for the maintenance of the plantations.
The eco-restoration programme has been initiated by Soil and Water Conservation Department along with Israel-based firm, ARGOS (Agri Projects) Ltd encompassing 45 villages. The programme aims to ameliorate the ecology and environment of Sohra plateau by restoring degraded lands, institution. It also aims at minimizing human activities detrimental to the environment.
The total cost of the six-year project is Rs 87.16 crore out of which Rs 16 crore had already been spent in the first year while an amount of Rs 18 crore will be spent in the second year.
The programme besides improving the greenery of Sohra also tried to boost up the horticulture sector. In the first year fifty hectares of land was utilised for citrus fruits while the 35 hectares of land was used for temperate fruits.
According to Langstieh, in the second year 30 hectares of land will be used for citrus fruits while 50 hectares will be used for temperate fruits.
Under the programme, the department has also asked the residents to prohibit from rearing goats for few years since all the greenery may be eaten by goats.
“We are giving them other options of piggery, tailoring besides other activities and we are even paying 14000 for per unit of pigs,” Langstieh said.
The department has also built 152 such structures which can be used for multipurpose activities.
The department has roped in schoolchildren and members of the public for the successful implementation of the programme as Barefoot Environment Educators (BEES) who are being paid a monthly remuneration of Rs 4000 per month to take care of the environment.
The idea of roping students is to ensure that d that children who have to learn from scratch about the importance of preserving greenery are not left out of the loop.
The project was sanctioned by the Centre in 2010-11 under special plan assistance with the objective of enhancing soil moisture, identification of critical areas for immediate restoration of degraded soil and amelioration under scarcity during drier months. Rainwater harvesting has been included as a component in view of the inability to retain the heavy rainfall as rainfall is the only form of precipitation in the state.