Project Dolphin to be launched in 15 days
| Date :18-Aug-2020 |
NEW DELHI,
THE ambitious project to conserve Gangetic river dolphins announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be launched in 15 days, Union Environment Minister Prakash Javdekar said on Monday. The Prime Minister had on the 74th Independence Day announced ‘Project Dolphin’, saying it will give a boost to biodiversity and create employment opportunities. “As announced by PM @narendramodi ji on #74thIndependenceDay, @moefcc will be launching a holistic Project #Dolphin in another 15 days for the conservation and protection of the #Dolphins in the rivers and in oceans of the country,” Javdekar tweeted. The PM had on August 15 said his Government wanted to promote Project Dolphin. “We will focus on both types of dolphins living in the rivers and in the seas. This will also give a boost to biodiversity and create employment opportunities.
This is also a centre of attraction for tourism. So, we are going to move forward in this direction too,” Modi had said. Gangetic river dolphins were declared national aquatic species in 2010. The Ganges river dolphin is a species of freshwater dolphins primarily found in the Ganga and Brahmaputra rivers and their tributaries in India, Bangladesh and Nepal. In India, these dolphins are sighted in long deep river reaches in Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. As per official figures, there are about 3,700 Gangetic river dolphins in the Indian river systems.
As river dolphins act as indicators of healthy river ecosystems, their conservation would also ensure controlling river pollution and improving availability of fish and enhancing economies of local communities through sustainable fishery, the Ministry said. “It envisages to address conservation concerns and empower the stakeholders like the river-dependent population in reducing river pollution and allowing sustainable fishery and river-based other livelihood options through scientifically oriented conservation methods,” it said.
Use CAMPA funds for afforestation: Govt to States
NEW DELHI,
WITH an aim to maximise the forest carbon stock by more tree plantation, Union Environment Minister Prakash Javdekar urged the Forest Ministers of the States on Monday to use the CAMPA funds exclusively for afforestation and not for payment of salaries. At a virtual meeting with the State Forest Ministers, Javdekar said 80 per cent of the Compensatory Afforestation Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) funds will only be utilised for afforestation and plantation and the remaining for capacity building. “At the States Forest Minister’s meeting stressed again that States should use CAMPA funds exclusively for afforestation and plantation.
Emphasised that CAMPA funds is not to be used for payment of salary, travelling allowances, medical expenses etc.,” he said in a tweet. “Eighty per cent of the CAMPA funds to be utilised only for afforestation, plantation. Rest 20 per cent will be for capacity building etc.,” Javadekar told the States. He said the Government is focused on enhancing forest quality and increasing the tree cover for maximising the carbon stock, which requires several transformational changes in policies and programmes.
Forest carbon stock is the amount of carbon that has been sequestered from the atmosphere and stored within the forest ecosystem, mainly within living biomass and soil and to a lesser extent, in dead wood and litter. Javdekar said his Ministry has taken several initiatives, including massive tree plantation, promoting urban forestry through the Nagar Van scheme, landscape-based catchment treatment of 13 major rivers, a LiDAR technology-based survey of degraded forest areas for soil moisture conservation projects and launching the National Transit Portal.
“The Ministry is also going to implement the School Nursery scheme shortly,” he said. Javdekar further said these efforts are critical to meet the goals set under the National Forest Policy, Nationally Determined Commitments and for the restoration of degraded forest land. The meeting was held to ensure the participation and coordination of all the States in taking forward various initiatives of the Union Government to meet national and international goals. The States have shown enthusiasm and said they will cooperate with the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF & CC) in this endeavour, spokesperson of the Ministry Gaurav Khare said.
Several initiatives were discussed at the meeting, including the Centre’s Nagar Van scheme that aims at creating 200 Nagar Van on forest land in a collaborative approach, involving various agencies such as the forest and other departments, NGOs, corporate bodies, industries etc., for which the Ministry will be giving grants for fencing and soil moisture works, he added. The School Nursery scheme aims at involving school students in nursery and plantation operations, the Ministry said. “The objective is to inculcate the spirit of forest and environment in the minds of young students,” Khare said.
He added that the study given to the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE) for the rejuvenation of 13 major rivers will promote forestry along the rivers, increase the ground water recharge and reduce erosion. Similarly, the LiDAR technology, using airborne methods, will assist the degraded land for the construction of soil measures, the Ministry said. LiDAR, which stands for Light Detection and Ranging, is a remote sensing method that uses light in the form of a pulsed laser to measure ranges (variable distances) to Earth. A LiDAR instrument principally consists of laser, a scanner and a specialised GPS receiver.
The Environment Ministry had, in August last year, released Rs 47,436 crore to 27 States for compensatory afforestation and other green activities, including prevention of forest fire, biodiversity management and soil conservation. Three States that got the maximum funds were Odisha (Rs 5,933.98 crore), Chhattisgarh (Rs 5,791.70 crore) and Madhya Pradesh (Rs 5,196.69 crore). In February, the Ministry released the CAMPA funds for Jammu and Kashmir (Rs 408.3 crore), the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (Rs 16.4 crore) and Chandigarh (Rs 11.03 crore), taking the total amount of money released from the CAMPA funds to Rs 47,872 crore.