: The Andhra Pradesh government has scaled down its requirement of forestland to facilitate the expansion of the new Capital City Amaravati.
Against the initially proposed 19,256 hectares of diversion of forestland in Guntur and Krishna districts, the Government apparently decided to seek only 13,226 hectares by excluding the forest cover on the top of the hills as construction of structures might not happen at such a height.
It also completed the required formalities of identifying the compensatory afforestation land in Kadapa and Anantapur districts and calculated the Net Present Value to be deposited with the Centre and it works to be about Rs.1,322 crore to Rs.1,500 crore. The State government’s proposal will be examined by the Forest Advisory Committee at its meeting later this month or in the first fortnight of June, sources said. The State failed to get the Centre’s nod in its previous attempts. It has to be seen if the State succeeds this time.
Against the opposition to allotting compensatory afforestation land in Kadapa and Anantapur in lieu of forestland diverted for capital city in Krishna and Guntur districts, the sources said that the revenue land chosen in the two Rayalaseema districts was lands and would not be fit for industries. The Government would raise suitable trees in those areas. The land chosen for diversion consisted of scrub forest and not thick forest, the sources said.
Meanwhile, concerns were raised that the diversion of forestland in Krishna district could affect the availability of ‘Poliki’ or ‘Poniki’ wood extracted from slender and deciduous trees (gyrocarpus) grown in these regions. The Poliki wood that is soft and suitable for carving is used for making the world-renowned hand made Kondapalli toys.
However sources allay the fears and said that the bulk of trees grow on the hill tops which were being left untouched.
