Protection of forests in State
SHILLONG: The Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC) wants the Ministry of Environment and Forests to give it the financial support to make rules and implement them for the protection of forests. KHADC CEM PM Syiem on Thursday said that even though forest lands do not fall under District Council, all private forests are looked after by the KHADC.
“We are not financially strong and can’t give schemes for plantation,” he said while adding that they are coordinating with the Ministry of Environment and Forest to encourage people to preserve forests.
He also opined that some regulations and guidelines should be in place in order to restrict private forest land owners from destroying such forests and follow the norms of KHADC for the preservation of forest.
Stating that the norms should be as per the traditional system, he also suggested that there should be coordination between Syiems and the KHADC for the preservation of forests.
Reacting to a query about mapping of forests, Syiem suggested that the State Government through its Forest department and KHADC should coordinate on the matter to find out how much is the forest cover in the State besides expanding it further.
Earlier, the Union Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Prakash Javadekar had stated in Shillong that the Centre will constitute a committee to conduct a study on ownership of forest land in the Northeastern region to ensure forests and environment are protected vis-a-vis sustainable development is allowed at the same time and the committee will submit its report within 6 months
He also had stated that the Centre would roll out a programme to map all the forest land in the country since 24 per cent land in the country is forest land but so far no mapping has been done and therefore the Centre will start a programme to map the forest land in the country and it will take around 2-3 years.
