Wapcos, a public sector undertaking of the Ministry of Jalshakti, has prepared detailed project reports (DPRs) for augmenting water and fodder availability in forest areas in 10 States, which is expected to help reduce human-animal conflict.

Wapcos, executing the Ministry of Environment and Forests project, used a sophisticated remote sensing technology called LiDAR to survey forest areas in these States and prepare the reports. This unique experiment is expected to help augment water and fodder in jungles areas, thereby, reducing human-animal conflict, helping in groundwater recharge and helping local communities, said an official statement on Friday.

The Environment and Forests Minister, Prakash Javadekar, who released the reports virtually, asked State forest departments to use CAMPA (Compensatory Afforestation Management and Planning Authority) funds towards implementation of these projects. The States involved include Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Nagaland, and Tripura.

WAPCOS, with the participation of State Forest Departments, identified one major ridge inside a forest block in these States, with an average area of 10,000 hectares selected in each State for preparation of Detailed Project Reports for planning and identifying locations and structures for construction of appropriate and feasible micro soil and water conservation structures consistent with site specific geography, topography and soil characteristics.

States/ UTs identified one major ridge inside a forest block with the criteria that area selected should have the average rainfall of the state, and the area requires assisted natural generation, which means the density of forests should be less than 0.4 or below, but should have reasonable potential to regenerate with interventions.

Similar DPRs are in the making for 16 other States and will be released shortly, the statement said.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW