Minister approves scrapping of forest development body

NASHIK, April 26: The Forest Development Corporation's lopsided policy of felling good trees and planting useless saplings may have done the...

NASHIK, April 26: The Forest Development Corporation’s lopsided policy of felling good trees and planting useless saplings may have done the organisation in, with Minister of State for Environment and Forests, Vinod Gudghe-Patil, promising to seek its closure.

Addressing the third State-level conference of the Maharashtra State Forest Rangers’ Union, at which union President Rajendra Dhongade demanded that the corporation be scrapped, the Minister said he agreed with the demand.

He said shutting down the body would make funds available to spend on both employees and fruitful activities. The minister also said the government is

not satisfied with a study conducted by Tata Consultancy Services, which has presented its recommendations on the functioning of the State’s Forest Department. He claimed the study was not in-depth enough. Therefore, a committee comprising senior forest officials would be set up to streamline the department’s functioning, he said. The government has also drawn up a Rs 12-crore planfor forest employees. Rangers would be provided arms, vehicles and wireless sets within three years for efficient monitoring, he said.

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Environmentalist and founder of the Chipko Movement, Sunderlal Bahuguna, said forests are not timber mines as considered by colonial rulers; they are life-supporting systems.

He said unpredictable weather conditions, which destroy crops and cause calamities are an outcome of severe degradation of the forests. It is wrong to blame nature or bad weather as man is responsible for the depletion of our forests, Bahuguna added.