Forest & Wildlife Preservation Minister Lal Chand Kataruchak kickstarts pilot project in Dhar Block
Chandigarh/Pathankot, August 20:
The Forest and Wildlife Preservation Department is leaving no stone unturned to ensure increase in forest area besides the security of our precious forest assets in the Dhar Block. As part of this, Seeds of multiple varieties were sprinkled through drone in the 30 Hectare forested area of Village Ghatera near Shahpur Kandi.
The Forest and Wildlife Preservation Minister Mr. Lal Chand Kataruchak accompanied by the DC Pathankot Aditya Uppal, Conservator of Forests Sanjeev Tewari, DFO Dharamvir mixed the seeds of Tulsi, Awla, Jamun, Harar, Bihra, Suajan and various other types in the small balls made,of sand and sprinkled them over the forests through the drones.
The Minister said that under the Haryali Mission, the sapling plantation is being carried out in entire State. Under this initiative, more than 3 crore saplings of multitude of varieties are intended to be planted in the State and now as part of the pilot project, 5 lakh seeds would be sprinkled via drone in the Forests of the Pathankot District.
There is approximately 24000 Hectare forest area in the Dhar Block. Hence, where due to the dense forests the saplings cannot be planted with the help of labourers and other means, the same is done through the drone technology. The seeds sprinkled via drones today would start sprouting automatically within 20 days in the forests thus leading to the expansion of the forest area, revealed the Minister.
Among others present on the occasion included the DC Aditya Uppal, Conservator of Forests Sanjeev Tewari, DFO Dharamvir, Range Officer Mukesh Verma, Block Officer Ajay Pathania and Pawan Kumar, Sahib Singh Saba, Block Committee Member Balkar Singh Pathania, Sarpanch Kartar Singh, Sohan Lal, Roshan Lal Bhagat, and Mintu Masih.
