Conservation of natural resources Govt’s top priority: Lal Singh

Minister for Forest, Ch Lal Singh addressing a gathering at Kathua on Wednesday.
Minister for Forest, Ch Lal Singh addressing a gathering at Kathua on Wednesday.

Excelsior Correspondent
KATHUA, Mar 21: Minister for Forests, Ecology and Environment, Choudhary Lal Singh today described the climate change and global warming as greatest challenges confronting mankind that necessitates collective action to reverse its negative impact.
“World Arbour Day” offered an opportunity to everyone to contribute their part in making the earth a better and a healthy place to live, the Minister said while addressing a gathering at a function organized by the Forest Department on 43rd World Arbour Day here today.
He said that Jammu and Kashmir has been blessed with rich biodiversity in its social, cultural and climate arena and efforts are afoot to preserve the natural wealth of the State.
The Minister stressed on maintaining a clean environment with abundance of forests as the only way to guarantee human survival on the globe.
Ch Lal Singh called for public participation at large in the campaign of tree planting and make ‘World Arbor Day’ a great success.
He further said that in this context, the Department of Social Forestry has been working relentlessly for increasing tree cover both inside and outside forest areas.
He said that the department is putting determined efforts in generating awareness among the masses by organizing plantation drives across the State and educating the population towards safeguarding the environment to secure future generations.
He said that due to increasing human interference, exploitation of natural resources and climate change in the recent times has threatened the sustenance of its ecosystem.
“Everyone has a moral duty to preserve greenery, protect tree belts and to go for large scale plantations on all wasteland and areas available around their houses, road sides, canal banks, schools, and other institutions”, the Minister maintained.
Elaborating Government’s initiatives in conserving natural resources, the Minister said that during the last three years, over thousands of kanal of forest land has been retrieved and Government has undertook a massive plantation drive across the State to rejuvenate the degraded forest areas.

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