Raipur, Dec 08 2021. Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has said that under the state government’s ambitious scheme “Narva Vikas”, along with non-forest areas, the works of ground water conservation should be implemented on priority. Under this, the works done in the forest areas under CAMPA head provide important opportunities for employment generation to the forest dwellers, tribals and villagers around the forest areas.
In the second meeting of the Governing Body of Chhattisgarh Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) at the Chief Minister’s residence today, under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Mr. Baghel, instructions were given to the said effect. On this occasion, Forest and Climate Change Minister Mr. Mohammad Akbar, Chief Secretary Mr. Amitabh Jain, Additional Chief Secretary Dr. Renu G. Pillay, Additional Chief Secretary Subrata Sahu, Principal Secretary Forest Department Manoj Kumar Pingua, Principal Secretary Commercial Taxes Gaurav Dwivedi, Principal Secretary, Village Industries Department Smt. Maninder Kaur, Secretary General Administration Department D.D. Singh, Secretary, Finance Department, Smt. Alarmelmangai D., Agriculture Production Commissioner Dr. Kamalpreet Singh, Special Secretary, Agriculture Department, Dr. S. Bharathidasan, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and Chief of Forest Force Rakesh Chaturvedi, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) P.V. Narasimha Rao, Chief Executive Officer CAMPA V. Officials including Srinivasa Rao were present.
In the meeting, Chief Minister Baghel directed to expedite all the sanctioned works by making better use of the amount of CAMPA item in the state. Under this, along with the protection of forests, special emphasis was laid on the work of wildlife protection and development of minor forest produce and their conservation and promotion. He said that this would provide maximum employment to the local people in Vananchal and their income would also increase. Chief Minister Baghel also directed to ensure distribution of compensation by taking prompt action in the loss of life, crop loss and property loss caused by wild elephants in the state.
While discussing in the meeting, the Chief Minister gave his consent to the proposal of using “Lidar” technology to prepare projects for remote forestry in the state and directed to send this proposal to the Centre. Generally, projects are prepared for the development of watershed areas by mapping them in the traditional manual method at the regional levels, in which work can be done in a very limited way. At present, the use of state-of-the-art remote sensing lidar technology would be better for the survey of forests of Chhattisgarh. With this, projects can be prepared for remote and remote areas using mapping from scientific method. Enlargement of forest areas, height and volume of trees, soil moisture conservation status, watershed analysis, encroachment in forest areas, mining activities, fire control in forest area, The number of wild animals and their movement can be accurately estimated. This will help in better planning of development of forest areas.