Forest, Police department organize Joint Awami Darbar in Kund Valley, Kulgam

SRINAGAR, AUGUST 28: J&K Forest and J&K Police Department today organized a massive public outreach programme in Kund valley Kulgam falling under jurisdiction of Anantnag Forest Division.

The Programme witnessed participation of Deputy Inspector General of Police South Kashmir, Rayees Ahmad Bhat who was the chief guest on the occasion.

DIG South Kashmir in his address impressed upon young boys and girls who had come in large numbers to attend this program, to say no to plastics, polythene and drugs and say yes to forests and health. He also talked about Drug De-addiction programs. He said he is closely associated with Kund valley and is like his second home only.

Conservator of Forests (CoF), Irfan Ali Shah in his address to a mammoth gathering of more than 3000 local people from 30 villages informed that the Forest Department has accelerated its efforts for both Greening of degraded forest areas as well as providing and strengthening of livelihoods for both forest fringe inhabitants as well as local educated youth.

He said during the current year about 16 lakh planting targets are there in South Kashmir and this includes planting of saplings under different schemes like CAMPA, CAPEX etc.

The CoF also directed the concerned Range officer for preparing  immediately a project  within two weeks for Greening of all religious places including Shrines, Gurdwaras, Temples etc in Kund valley which could be taken up during this year so that locals get benefitted both spiritually as well as by clean environment when they visit shrines and temples.

While appreciating the beauty of Kund valley, CoF called it miniature paradise on the lap of Pir Panjal mountains and directed the DFO concerned to start work on identifying of suitable site for construction of Forest Rest House, so that Kund Valley comes on Ecotourism map of J&K.

He also directed for completion of construction of a new Block Forest Office so that there is speedy redressal of forest related public grievances in Kund only and people may not need to travel large distances for their grievances redressal.

Others who addressed the gathering included Imtyaz Ahmad Lone, Soil and Water Conservation, Kashmir and M Ramzaan Mir, DFO Anantnag Forest Division.

Other Officers who participated in the programme included Sahil Sarangal, SSP Kulgam; Shabir Ahmad, SP Traffic Kund; Rajesh Kumar, Dy SP, Kulgam.