NASHIK: A tree planting campaign was implemented in Nashik district during 2016-19 at a cost of crores of rupees. Meanwhile, the state government has constituted a committee to check the transparency of this plantation and this committee will soon come to Nashik district. As this is the first time in five years that such a committee will come to the district, the forest department officials are also a bit worried.
The BJP government planted 50 crore trees to increase the forest cover in the state. A few days back, the government formed a special committee to look into the issue of tree planting as some people in the Mahavikas Aghadi started accusing the BJP government of irregularities in tree planting. Meanwhile, the committee will soon visit Nashik district.
For this, work is underway to collect all the information from the forest department. All eyes are on the findings of the committee’s inquiry. The ambitious tree plantation choked down by the then Forest Minister Sudhir Mungatiwar was very popular in the state. Various organizations including Gram Panchayat, Panchayat Samiti, Police Administration, Higher Secondary Department, All Journey Construction Department, Zilla Parishad, District Collector’s Office, Social Institutions participated in this.
Most of the trees were planted by the forest department. An attempt will be made to find out whether there has been any malpractice in this, as well as what has been planted in the district in five years by the social forestry department along with the regional forest department. The Forest Department has been collecting information from the committee for the last few days. The committee is likely to inspect the planted areas directly to check where the trees have been planted and how much the seedlings have grown.
Details provided to inspecting committee “The Nashik Forest department has sent the information requested by the investigating committee formed by the government. When the committee comes here, they can go to the desired place and inspect it. The committee can get various information including where the seedlings were planted, how many seedlings were purchased.” – Nitin Gudge, Chief Conservator of Forests, Nashik Region
Plantation in four years
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2016 – 9,45,078
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2017 – 43,77,266
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2018 – 33,61,000
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2019 – 85,55,407
