Cement cos to be persuaded to buy pine needles

Pratibha Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, May 4

In an endeavour to save its valuable forest wealth from ravaging fires, the Forest Department will convince the cement companies like ACC, Ambuja and Jaypee to purchase dry pine needles from villagers so that these can be converted into combustible bricks for use in cement plants.

In case the cement companies agree to purchase these highly inflammable dry pine needles, which get heaped up and result in devastating fires, these infernos can be contained to a great extent. These pine needles are converted into combustible bricks and can be used in cement plants and other industry as a very good source of energy.

“I will be holding a meeting with the representatives of the three main cement companies- ACC, Ambuja and Jaypee on May 7 here to convince them to enter into an arrangement with the locals to purchase the pine needles,” revealed S.P. Vasudeva, Principal Chief Conservator Forest (PCCF). In case this arrangement works out, the forests will automatically get cleared for the dry pine needles, minimizing chances of forest fires.

Even though efforts had been made to work out a similar arrangement with the cement companies in the state about five years back the experiment did not work out. The main reason for this was that the very low rate of Rs 1.65 per quintal pine needles which failed to attract much response from the villagers.

“Our efforts this time would be to convince the cement companies to give better rates so that the villagers can be convinced to take to collecting and selling dry pine needles in a big way,” said Vasudeva. Even though the local communities have been involved in forest management and protection but once the locals start getting good returns from sale of pine needles, they will be incentivized to clear the forests of the pine needles.

With more than 550 forest fires affecting over 4,000 hectares of forest land in the state this summer, the Forest Department is looking for ways to check the menace. Though pine is a natural species and some plantations have also been undertaken by the Forest Department under the Rs 310 crore German-aided Himachal Pradesh Forest Ecosystem Climate Proofing Project efforts will be made to bring about a change in the plantation in the two districts of Kangra and Chamba.

Out of a total of 37,000 sq kms of total area under forests in Himachal, more than 1250 sq kms is constituted by pine forests in the districts of Shimla, Solan, Sirmaur, Hamirpur, Bilaspur, Mandi, Kangra and Chamba.

Forest officials said that wherever there are degraded pine forests, miscellaneous species would be planted as pine is highly susceptible to fire and also makes the soil very arid and unsuitable for any undergrowth. The project with German collaboration and funding from KfW Bank will be implemented in eight forest divisions of Chamba and Kangra through local registered societies and will provide employment to 1.5 lakh people of 600 cluster villages.