Himachal Pradesh: CM Sukhu directs to formulate SoP for marking, felling of dried trees

Shimla (Himachal Pradesh) [India], May 17 (ANI): The marking of dried trees on the forest land would be done on a daily basis in the state and the responsibility of the concerned DFOs will be fixed to ensure it happens in time, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said on Wednesday, informed a press release.

While presiding over a meeting of HP Forest Corporation, Sukhu directed the DFOs to prepare a list of dried trees by June 15 after marking these and send them to HP State Forest Corporation. He also said that the state government would take stringent action.

The Chief Minister directed to formulate Standard Operating Procedure (SoP) in this regard and submit the report at the earliest. He said that due to the delay in cutting dried trees, the State has to suffer a financial loss of Rs 1000 crore per annum as dried trees have been decaying with the passage of time.

CM Sukhu asked the officers to expedite the procedure in this regard thereby checking the illegal felling of the trees in the forests. He also directed to rationalize the delegation of powers of the forest officers in order to speed up the process of transporting the timber to the nearest depots of the Forest Corporation.

CM Sukhu also directed the officers to rationalize the staff in Forest Corporation besides incorporating technology in order to enhance productivity. He stressed on making the marketing of timber in an effective manner so that the revenue of the Government could be increased. He directed the concerned authorities to convene a meeting of Forest Corporation on 8th June to review the progress of decisions taken in the meeting today.

Chief Minister said that contractors for felling the dried trees would be empanelled so that dried trees could be extracted from the forest land in time and revenue could be generated for the State exchequer.

Chief Parliamentary Secretary, Sunder Singh Thakur, Vice Chairman, H.P. State Forest Corporation, Kehar Singh Khachi, Chief Secretary, Prabodh Saxena, Principal Secretary Forests, Onkar Chand Sharma, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Bharat Khera, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Rajiv Kumar, Additional Deputy Commissioner Shimla, Shivam Pratap and senior officers of the State Government attended the meeting, the release stated.