Officials set to create green spaces in 1,500 J&K villages

Samaan Lateef

Srinagar, May 1

The authorities concerned are set to create green spaces in 1,500 villages of J&K to combat climate change. Under the ‘One Beat Guard One Village’ programme, officials will provide free saplings, seed balls and grass slips to villagers for increasing the green cover on non-agriculture land.

The programme is a low-cost innovative method of greening villages with the involvement of local communities to significantly reduce air and noise pollution.

The figures of the India State of Forest Report, 2021, a biennial publication of the Forest Survey of India, suggest that J&K has the highest carbon stock per unit of forest area in the country.

At least 73.16 lakh saplings were planted in 2019-20 and 101.98 lakh in 2021-22.

J&K holds the most diverse forests in the country and tops the list in terms of standing timber volume per unit area at 144.16 cubic metres.

The forest cover has been increased by 20%.

As per the 2019 report, the total forest area in J&K was 10.46% which increased to 39.66% in 2020. In 2021, the forest department covered 1,000 villages under the programme in all districts of J&K. Each territorial forest division adopted 35 revenue villages for planting material worth Rs 0.01 lakh, which includes 600 saplings and 2,000 seed balls.