Minister for Forests Allola Indrakaran Reddy on Monday said that the forest cover in the State has increased by 4% and expressed the hope that soon Telangana would achieve the 33% target as per the country’s forest policy.
The Minister attributed the rise in forest cover in the State to Haritha Haram, the government’s afforestation programme, and the person behind it Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao as reasons.
Target
“The 33% target will be achieved in the coming two or three years. Greenery and plantation drives have been given utmost priorities to achieve the target,” he said.
On Monday, along with Energy Minister G. Jagadish Reddy, Mr. Indrakaran Reddy toured various mandals in the district and inaugurated a slew of facilities.
In Bhongir town, he inaugurated the newly constructed forest range officer’s office.
Next at Ibrahimpur of Turkapally mandal, he inaugurated a programme where saplings are to the planted on 121 acres of government land in survey number 120. The land was given to the Forest Department by the government under compensatory afforestation scheme, for its acquisition of lands at Veerlapalem and Dilawarpur to set up Yadadri Thermal Power Plant.
Later, the Forest Minister was also at the Anjaneya Aranyam (Raigiri-I) near Yadagirigutta, the park developed by the Department, which he visited last July and planted saplings.
District Collector Pamela Satpathy, Alair legislator G. Sunitha and Zilla Parishad chairman A. Sandeep Reddy joined the Ministers in the plantation programme.
