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Category: ENVIRONMENT

Published: 18 May 2016

• Chairs 10th Standing Committee meet of State Board for Wildlife

SRINAGAR: Minister for Forests, Ecology and Environment Choudhary Lal Singh today chaired 10th meeting of the Standing Committee of State Board for Wildlife at civil secretariat here. The meeting was attended by all the senior officers from the Department of Wildlife, Department of Forests, Department of Revenue, BRO among other officials of concerned department. The meeting discussed threadbare various issues pertaining to the Wildlife Department of Jammu and Kashmir.

The officials informed the minister about the proposal for the construction of road from Chusmule-Dungti-Fukche-Damchock by BRO using 161.76 hectares land in Changthang Cold Desert Wildlife Sanctuary. The minister recommended the proposal, which would be now listed in the National Board for Wildlife. Another agenda discussed in the meeting was Optical Fiber Cables by the Network for Spectrum (NFS) Cell, Directorate General of Signals, Ministry of Defence. The minister recommended that the officials should jointly survey the sites and come up with a detailed report over allowing the user agency for carrying out their work.  In this regard, the user agency, Directorate General of Signals, Ministry of Defense, has been approved in the Jammu region.

In a supplementary agenda of National Large Solar Telescope, the minister expressed happiness over setting up of such mega projects in the State. According to officials the project which is to be installed at world famous Pangyong Lake in Ladakh would help in research and attracting tourists. Regarding the guidelines for the research projects, the minister said a comprehensive plan should be drafted for engaging research fellows. The minister was also informed about a proposal for engaging research fellows in the internal projects of the Wildlife Department.

The minister later told officials that there won’t be any compromise on the Wildlife and Forest areas. He directed officials to work in close tandem for protection of Wildlife and forests across the State. The Minister directed the officers to immediately start fencing of the land and plant saplings of fruit plants, mulberry, Sisso, Tun, Amla, Guava, Jamun etc across the forest areas. He directed the concerned forest officers to develop view points in the land so that the locals could enjoy their spare time there. Singh directed to ensure proper grafting on Pyrus species.

Singh on the occasion issued instructions to bring reachable Wildlife areas under eco-tourism sector and make a comprehensive plan to attract tourists to the State. He directed the officials to upgrade the existing facilities for the visitors and make these places more attractive so that the visitors spend more time there. The Minister also called for creating special recreational facilities for the school children, who visit these parks for excursions etc, but without causing any harm to the natural topography.