NNWN / New Delhi, 2015-09-15
A new step towards involving private players in the use of degraded forest land. Union Environment Minister Prakash Javdekar said that the government will soon announce a scheme to allow private players to develop degraded forest land under the private-public partnership model. Speaking on the sidelines of CII’s 10th Sustainable Summit in the Capital on Tuesday, he said, "We have forest land where there are no forests. We have already formulated a scheme and it will be put on the ministry's website soon." For the degraded forest, the government will give land on lease to industrialists, who otherwise import wood, could harness for commercial purposes. The agreement will have few riders. He however explained that it would be mandatory to grow local tree species on 10 percent of such land for sustainability of flora and fauna. According to him, the scheme would benefit the industry as their dependence on imported wood would be reduced and employment generated for the locals.
