Minister for Forest, Environment and Ecology, Choudhary Lal Singh on Tuesday chaired 5th Board of Governors (BOG) meeting of Jammu and Kashmir State Forest Research Institute (SFRI) at civil secretariat here.The Minister took a detailed appraisal of activities of SFRI and called upon the functionaries to adopt a pro-active and coordinated approach in strengthening the areas of research in department.As the meeting was organised after three-year gap, the Minister directed officials that a high-end mechanism should be adopted to deal with issues pertaining to research areas and also emphasised on widening their research areas across the State forests.The meeting was attended by Vice-Chancellor, Shere-i-Kashmir University of Agriculture Science and Technology-Jammu (SKUAST-J) Pradeep K Sharma, Principal Secretary Forests, R K Gupta, Principal Chief Conservator, Forests, A K Singh, Chief Wildlife Warden, Kashmir, Deepak Khanna, Director Social Forestry, Suresh Chugh, Director State Forest Research Institute (SFRI) Suresh Gupta, representatives from SKUAST-K and other allied departments.Mr Singh called for devising a comprehensive plan to develop adequate number of green pastures across the State. He directed SFRI officials to upgrade their nurseries and set a target of planting one crore saplings which would help Jammu and Kashmir to turn greener. The Minister assured SFRI officials that additional staff would be provided to achieve the target.
He further said that among these one crore saplings, the SFRI should plant 20 per cent fruit nurseries.Mr Singh also stressed on developing barren lands, preferably near populated localities, for producing fodder based plants and special species of grasses suiting the climate, which are useful for catering to local needs.Mr Singh directed digitalisation of Forest land and asked for regular patrolling of Forests by FPF guards.The Minister called for upgrading the seed testing laboratories, nurseries, germination units, green houses. He said that scientific methods should be adopted to carry out functions of the department.The Minister was further informed by Director SFRI, Suresh Gupta that over 16 lakh seedlings and plants of conifer and other forest spices were provided to people and other allied wings of the forest Department in last couple of months. He further apprised the Minister that the Department has retrieved 911 kanals of land in 2013-14 from encroachers, 451 kanals in 2014-15 and 4233 kanals in 2015-16 respectively.He informed the Minister that SFRI is producing quality plant material and supplying to various sister departments.The Minister said that the Forests and its allied departments have been asked to conserve natural resources which are directly connected with the life of human beings and other living creatures. He stressed the need for coordination of various stakeholders to minimize loss of the natural resources. He said the Department should keep close watch on the activities of executing agencies to ensure that soil erosions are minimized.