Andhra Pradesh Government is contemplating levying ‘Green Cess’ for the overall improvement in the forest cover and greenery to reduce impact of climate change and cyclones.
The proposal is under the consideration for generating dedicated fund for greenery on the lines of road cess, said Forest Minister Bojjala Gopala Krishna Reddy who recently attended United National CoP-12 meeting at Gangwon Province, South Korea.
Speaking to media persons here on Monday, the Minister who was away to attend the meeting on ‘Biodiversity Summit for Cities and Sun-national Governments 2014’ from October 11 to 14 and later went to Visakhapatnam said lessons should be learnt from Hudhud.
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A committee has been constituted with officials of Forest, horticulture, municipal administration and urban development and experts and international consultants with a mandate to regain the lost tree cover in Visakhapatnam and elsewhere.
Of 93 lakh acres of forest lands in Andhra Pradesh, Visakhapatnam has 11.57 lakh acres, Vizianagaram- 3.4 lakh acres and Srikakulam- 1.8 acres. As several trees turned bare under the impact of high velocity cyclonic winds, experts would be tackling on bringing these trees out of shock by pruning and other rejuvenating measures.
He said Rs.40 lakh was released to Visakhapatnam Zoo authorities for revival of greenery which had taken a hit in the Hudhud cyclone.
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Hudhud was not a national but international calamity and international community should study the phenomenon and come out with recommendations to tackle them, he said.