Commonwealth of Penn envoy visits JICA HQs

Tribune News Service

Shimla, September 10

Kanika Choudhary, Special Envoy, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to India and the UAE, yesterday visited the Japan International Cooperative Agency (JICA) headquarters at Potter’s Hill in Shimla and appreciated the rich biodiversity of Himachal Pradesh. She also showed keen interest in knowing about the propagation strategies, medicinal properties and various products prepared from seabuckthorn (charma).

During her meeting with Chief Project Director (JICA Forestry Project) Nagesh Guleria, she said that she was representing the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania with the objective to explore opportunities that promote mutual and strategic exchanges between the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and India. She also planted a Chinar sapling at the JICA Office Complex.

Guleria presented the details of the activities of the JICA Forestry Project in the state. He informed Kanika that the Rs 800 crore project was being implemented in seven forest circles, 18 divisions and 61 ranges in Bilaspur, Mandi, Kullu, Shimla, Kinnaur and Lahaul and Spiti districts.

He said that the Forest Ecosystem Management Plan or Community Biodiversity Management Plans were being prepared in a participatory mode by duly involving all stakeholders. He apprised the Ambassador about the propagation and various environmental, socio-economic as well as medicinal uses of seabuckthorn that grows naturally in Lahaul and Spiti and Kinnaur districts and is also cultivated on marginal land.