IT News
CCpur/ Senapati, Mar 11:
With the ongoing 4 years of citizen-centric governance, the District Administration of Senapati, Churachnadpur and Chandel started Tree Plantation drive today at Taphou Naga, near SKABU Prayer Centre, Senapati Disrict HQ on the second day.
D. John Sha, MFS, Divisional Forest Officer, Senapati on his speech stated that the economic growth of humans had continuously affected the forests and environment radically. He also stated that forests provide goods in the form of timber, food, fuel and bioproducts; in the ecological functions such as carbon storage, nutrient cycling, water cycling, air purification and maintenance of wildlife habitat; and social and cultural benefits. Forests are home to 80% of the world’s land- based biodiversity and in addition, 1.6 billion people depend on forests for livelihood, he added.
He said that the forest cover 7,08,273 sq. km in India, which is 21. 54% of the total geographical area of the country and in Manipur, the forest cover about 78.01% of state geographical area as according to Indian State Forest Report 2017 published by FSI. He also said that resources are reduced day by day as human population are increasing day by day.
With the increasing population, about 12 million hectares of forest are destroyed every year since 2000 (the equivalent of 5 football pitches are disappeared every minutes). He further stated that India has 4 biodiversity hotspot out of 34 biodiversity hotspot in the world. Manipur lies in the Indo- Myanmar hotspot region is known for rich in biodiversity, he added. He mentioned that 115 species of bamboo are found in India out of which 53 species are found in Manipur. Regarding the forest fire, he said that lots of forest fire incident has occurred several times in the district which is harmful to the forests as it destroyed the biodiversity. As per FSI report, Dziiko fire had lost 627.12 Ha of forest. Burning of forest is like burning own house, he added. He also narrated an exemplary on planting trees practice in Philippines where the government has passed a bill in the House of Representatives that students from school to graduation are required to plant 10 trees compulsory to graduate and in another incident, final verdict passed by Delhi High Court to the accuse to plant 100 trees and get plantation certificate from DFO.
He further said that the immediate effect of deforestation is water crisis. He also mentioned some of the places where severity water crisis has reached its height like in Cape Town in South Africa, Shimla in Himachal Pradesh and Kabul in Afghanistan. Therefore, he appealed member present to inculcate the practise of planting trees to conserve their biodiversity.
S. Lohrii Mao, Executive Engineer, PHED, Senapati on his speech also highlighted various achievement in the district during the last 4 years of governance. He said that Jan Jeevan scheme has been implemented in the district for the year 2021-22 in 30 villages and the rest of 106 villages in the district will be taken up by New Development Bank. He also said that NESID’s scheme implemented at Karong for supplying portable water in the district HQs is on the verge of completion and soon to be inaugurated by CM of Manipur. He also appealed the member present to educate its own people in conserving the forest by stopping the burning of forest and encouraging in planting trees.
In today’s Tree Plantation Drive, around 60 sapling of trees were planted at Mini Secretariat complex and District Court complex. Besides, Parallel plantation programmes are conducted in all the Block Head- Quarters under the supervision of SDO/BDO, Hospitals and Public Offices, villages, Schools and colleges and Anganwadi centres. The DLO’s, village authorities and various government officials and staffs were present in today’s Tree Plantation Drive.
On the other hand the Churachandpur District Administration has also organised a tree plantation drive today through District Level Officers and Sub-Divisional Officers under active monitoring by Additional DC and overall supervision of the Deputy Commissioner as part of 4 years of Citizen Centric Governance the celebration.
Staff of ADCC planted tree saplings along the Mary Kom Ring Road while the DC Office staff planted saplings at Mini-Secretariat campus. The District Police planted saplings at Peace Ground while the Forest Department, other DLOs and SDOs within their respective jurisdictions.
It may be mentioned that slew of activities to be taken up on daily basis have been lined-up till March 15 to commemorate 4 years of Citizen Centric Governance.
Tomorrow, a campaign regarding village health and nutrition, Covid-19 appropriate behaviour and Covid Vaccination awareness will be held at DTC Hall, DC Office, Tuibong from 9.30 AM. By the sideline of the programme, different stalls will be opened by the Medical Department where free oral cancer screening, blood sugar /BP testing and CMHT and PMJAY enrolment shall be done.
