Thaindian News

Shimla, June 5 (IANS) A huge chunk of barren land along the Sutlej river in Kullu district of Himachal Pradesh has been converted into a dense forest thanks to the efforts of a group of ex-servicemen who have lunched an operation to re-green the hills.
“A contingent of 100 ex-servicemen has re-greened 280 hectares along the Satluj river in Kullu district in just three years,” Major Ajay Sangvan, who commands 133 Eco Task Force based at Kufri, 25 km from here, told IANS Saturday.

The task force monitors the work of the eco-battalion.

Sangvan said the area converted into the green patch falls in the catchment area of the 800 MW Kol hydropower project, 250 km from here.

“Even the survival rate of the saplings is more than 85 percent. After this success, we are now targeting to re-green 2,500 hectares of denuded areas under CAT (catchment area treatment) plan in the Larji, Parbati and Allian-Duhangan power projects in Kullu, Chamba and Mandi districts,” he said.

According to him, the funds for this would be provided to the task force by the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management And Planning Authority (CAMPA).

Col D.S. Chauhan, to whom Sangvan reports, said: “A separate eco-task battalion to afforest the catchments of the Larji, Parbati and Allian-Duhangan projects would be set up. Our target is to carry out afforestation in 250 hectares per year.”

Chauhan and Sangvan are Indian Army officers on deputation to the citizens’ Territorial Army that has re-employed the ex-servicemen for the task force.

The task force not only works to green the hills, but also educates villagers about the importance of rainwater harvesting.

Nishan Singh, a farmer at a village near Kullu, said: “With the help of the task force, we have set up rainwater harvesting dams. This not only provides water to the livestock but also helps in re-charging the groundwater.”

Himachal Pradesh is a storehouse of biodiversity and is most vulnerable to climate change as the Himalayan glaciers have been retreating due to global warming.

As per a 2005 report published by the Forest Survey of India, the hill state has 14,752 sq km of forest area, of which 1,097 sq km is very densely forested.

The hill state supports 25 percent of the country’s mammalian fauna.

The Zoological Survey of India in its report, Fauna of Western Himalaya, has recorded 447 species of birds and 107 species of mammals in the tiny hill state.