NEW DELHI, Apr 25:
The Government is working on a draft policy which encourages private and public sector companies to take up afforestation of degraded forests to reduce import of wood products, Rajya Sabha was told today.
“The Environment Ministry has not issued any guidelines allowing degraded forests to be handed over to private companies so far. “However the Environment Ministry is working on draft policy guidelines for encouraging participating of private/public sector in afforestation of degraded forest with a view to improving forest condition and decrease import of wood products,” Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said. He said that proposed guidelines titled ‘Guidelines for Public participation in afforestation of degraded forests’ provide for consultation with gram panchayats, village panchayats and joint forest management committee wherever necessary and obtain their consent in respect of forest land identified under the scheme before inviting Express of Interest (EOI). (PTI)
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