Special Chief Secretary, Environment & Forests, A. Santhi Kumari has asked the Forest officials to seek the help of the district Collector and other officials for resolution of issues pertaining to demarcation of forest boundaries and other disputes wherever urban forest parks are being developed.
During a review on urban forest parks in progress across the State here on Tuesday, Ms. Santhi Kumari directed the officials to plant tall saplings in the parks wherever there is empty patch, so that the forest grows thick and green with improved biodiversity.
A total of 179 urban parks are being developed in isolated forest blocks extending into 1.77 lakh acres of land in the State, by departments including HMDA, GHMC, Forest Development Corporation, Municipal Administration and others apart from Forests.
It had been decided to plant a total two crore saplings in these parks in addition to the existing greenery. Of these, plantation of 60 lakh saplings has been completed, officials said. Ms.Santhi Kumari directed them to complete the remaining 1.4 crore plantations by November this year.
She said the parks are being appreciated by various sections of the society, and asked the officials to provide basic amenities, and educational facilities to improve understanding about environment, and forest rejuvenation.
PCCF and HOFF R.Sobha, PCCF (Social Forestry) R.M.Dobriyal, Commissioner, Municipal Administration N.Satyanarayana, GHMC Commissioner D.S.Lokesh Kumar, TSFDC Vice Chairman & Managing Director G.Chandrashekhar Reddy, and Director, HMDA (Urban Forestry) Prabhakar and others participated in the meeting.
