Nearly six months back, Jammu Municipal Corporation constituted its Tree Authority with the objective of saving and preserving all trees within its jurisdiction. So far so good – but whether any concrete steps in that direction have taken place all these six months in respect of devising an action plan and strategising ways and means to realise the same is all not seen on the ground. The importance of trees and discouraging any acts of felling, cutting, damaging and destroying them hardly needs any clarification. Besides, in that respect there is already a legislation like Jammu and Kashmir Municipal Corporation Act 2000 which, inter-alia, states that the Government shall by notification constitute the Tree Authority which shall meet once in two months. All these years successive Governments did not pay the due attention towards the issue until December last year when the Government realised the importance of constituting of the Tree Authority. It was expected, therefore, that not only the existing trees within the jurisdiction of Municipal Corporation would be preserved but also more green cover created. Except convening two meetings till date and collecting some data from the concerned Government quarters resulting in issuing a booklet, nothing tangible is done. A beginning has been made which should be appreciated and some work even in the form of issuing a booklet having been done – all needs to be taken further in framing concrete plans, fixing and achieving targets towards creating and extending the Green Cover which otherwise due to many reasons is fast depleting in Jamm
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