From relocating villages in the heart of a tiger reserve to activating six city parks in one day, to keeping tabs on tigers relocated from neighboring countries due to increased conservation activity, 2022 will be quite a busy year for the forestry sector.
Release Date – 11:45 PM, Thu – 22 December 22
Hyderabad: Telangana’s green forests may be beautiful and peaceful, but efforts to protect them and ensure peaceful coexistence between forest dwellers and those who depend on them have kept Telangana’s forest officials on their toes for a busy year.
The relocation of villages from the core area of the tiger reserve, the activation of six urban parks in one day, the close monitoring of tigers relocated from neighboring countries due to increased conservation activities, and the development of an action plan for the 1658 positions recently approved by the department, will be implemented in 2022. It’s been a very busy year for the forest department.
The relocation of villages in the heart of the Tiger Reserve has been a major challenge for the sector for many years. With the full support of the state government, the voluntary relocation of villagers in Ranpur and Maisangpet, the core areas of the Kawar Tiger Reserve (KTR), has been successfully completed. All NTCA rules for relocating villages from the core area were duly followed. In the relocation operation, besides the homestead and other benefits, the villagers have two options, that is, to pay a monetary compensation of 1.5 million rupees per person to a family or to allocate farmland. Encouraged by the successful relocation of two villages, the department is now working to relocate more villages in tiger reserves.
Among the green initiatives, the sector received deposits of Rs 2,333 crore as the state government set up Haritha Nidhi (Telangana Green Fund) to donate from various sources. Measures taken to increase forest cover have been endorsed by the federal government. According to the 2021 State of India’s Forests Report (ISFR), Telangana currently has a forest cover of 21,214 square kilometers. States such as Uttar Pradesh (12), Madhya Pradesh (11), Maharashtra (20), Gujarat (69) and Karnataka (155) experienced minimal increases in forest cover. As for Telangana, there was an increase of 632 square kilometers between ISFR 2019 and ISFR 2021, which is the second highest increase in forest cover in the country.
On July 28, six city parks were opened by Forestry Minister A Indrakaran Reddy. Likewise, on December 12, 100,000 tree saplings were planted in Nalgonda township to increase green coverage as directed by Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao. Even with all of this happening, the department is now expediting steps to approve three-phase power supply to tribal villages across the state. The state government has identified 3,146 tribal hamlets in various districts for the supply of three-phase electricity at an estimated cost of Rs 2.5 billion. Among them, 232 residential areas have not expanded the three-phase power supply. A committee has been formed, headed by the district directors, to deal with the work on these residences.
