Jayalalithaa announces project to increase green cover in Tamil Nadu

Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Monday announced implementation of an eight-year Rs.686.28 crore Tamil Nadu Biodiversity Conservation and Greening Project to increase green cover in the State, avoid conflict between man-animal and prevent animals from migrating to grassfield in search of food and water.

An official release said the new project was in continuation of the State government's earlier initiative of Tamil Nadu Afforestation Project II spanning from 2005-06 to 2012-13. The new project to be implemented in a span of eight years from 2011-12 to 2018-19 would be implemented in forest areas not covered under the State's earlier afforestation schemes. Both these projects are being carried out with financial assistance from Japanese International Cooperative Agency (JICA). A high-level authority headed by the Chief Secretary will decide the functions of the project that would focus on bio-diversity conservation, increasing the natural resource base, institutional capacity development and consulting services, the release said.

As per the proposed plan, Rs.93.46 crore is allocated for bio-diversity conservation, Rs.182.55 crore towards increasing the natural resource base, Rs.260.03 crore towards institutional capacity development, Rs.6.93 crore for consulting services and Rs.143.31 crore for other works.

To avoid increasing man-animal conflict, a sum of Rs.5.19 crore has been allocated to form elephant trenches and implement various development schemes in Dharmapuri (Rs.2.21 crore), Erode (Rs. 2.14 crore), Dindigul (Rs.50 lakh) and Tirunelveli (Rs.34.30 lakh) districts, the release said.

A background paper of the Forest department said the objective of the project is to strengthen biodiversity conservation by improving the ecosystem and the management capacity as well as undertaking tree planting outside the recorded forest areas, thereby contributing to environmental conservation and harmonised socio-economic development of Tamil Nadu. In order to support the main goal of bio-diversity conservation, the project envisages large-scale tree cultivation on private lands to increase the natural resource base outside the forest area. Besides, training, education, research and extension activities have been designed to develop the institutional capacity that would enhance the quality of bio-diversity conservation efforts and ecosystem management, the note said.