Decision to protect ecology: HPCC

Tribune News Service

Shimla, July 27

The Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) today welcomed the decision of the High Court of accepting government plea for not felling apple and other fruit trees and said the decision would go a long way in protecting the ecology of the Himalayan region.

HPCC president Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu said the party had urged the state government to approach the HC against the felling of apple and other fruit trees as it would not only damage the forests, but also lead to environmental degradation in the fragile Himalayan region.

He said there was a need to conduct a study in the state to measure how much land was required for making agriculture economically viable as it was being done in other neighbouring states.

Sukhu said after the High Court’s decision, the state government should explore possibility of formulating a policy, so that relief could be given to small and marginal farmers who had planted orchards on 2 or 5 bighas of government land.

“The state government has a policy for allotting nautor land to small and marginal farmers who do not have enough land holdings to carry out agricultural activities. On the same lines, the government can look for ways to give relief to such affected farmers as tree felling was not the solution to the problem,” he said.

He added that besides this, it had been witnessed that land holdings had been distributed among various family members in these areas, due to which each horticulturalist had been left with small land upon which they would not be able to earn their livelihood. Hence, there was the need to look for a scope of granting relief to these small and marginal farmers.