The State Legislative Assembly members’ Ad-Hoc Committee appointed following the allegations relating to 50 crore tree plantation drive in Maharashtra, has submitted its report running into more than 700 pages and has concluded that there was ‘no irregularity’. However, the same report states that action was taken against 66 officers/employees for laxity and dereliction of duty relating to plantation. As per the committee’s report, on an average, 72 per cent of the saplings have survived.

 

The committee has went a step ahead and has recommended to take up plantation drive with target of planting 100 crore saplings. The 50 crore plantation drive was planned and implemented from 2017-18 to 2019-20 during the regime of erstwhile BJP-Shiv Sena Government in State. Later, when Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) came to power, a probe committee was formed following the allegations of irregularities levelled during discussion on a starred question in Legislative Assembly on March 3, 2021. Later, since the BJP-led Mahayuti came to power, the probe committee was reconstituted in August 2023. The committee held total five meetings. Its report was tabled on the last day of the recently concluded Monsoon Session of State Legislature. In its report, the probe committee has concluded that there was ‘no irregularity’ in drive to plant 50 crore saplings. “It was, in fact, first such project in the country. It has been successful, and more than 54 crore saplings were planted.

 

The committee congratulates the then Forest Minister, the then officers in Forest Department for implementing the drive successfully. We recommend that the next target should be to plant 100 crore saplings,” reads the committee report. Though the probe committee has said that there was ‘no irregularity’ in implementation of the plantation drive, it has mentioned that ‘action was taken’ against 66 officers/employees for laxity and dereliction of duty. Contd from page 1 Of these 66, four are Group-A offices, 24 are in Group-B, 37 in Group-C, and one in Group-D. Of them, 20 are from different districts of Vidarbha including Nagpur. Some of these staffers have been suspended. In some cases, recovery order has been passed, and in some others, disciplinary action has been initiated. In still some cases, show cause notice has been served to the officers/employees concerned. During the hearings conducted by the committee, the members obtained information regarding target of plantation, financial provision, expenditure incurred, Government agencies/NGOs that participated in the drive, creation of nursery, saplings procured from private nurseries, whether the procurement process was done properly, availability and supply of saplings, cultivation and nurturing of saplings, examination of saplings every year, survival percentage of saplings planted etc. As per the information recorded by the committee, total 45,98,99,216 saplings of 156 varieties were created in Forest Department nurseries. Total 1.04 crore saplings were procured from private nurseries, 1.63 crore were naturally regenerated saplings, 5.80 crore were planted by Sericulture Department, and 19 lakh were planted by citizens voluntarily. 

 

 

As far as survival rate of saplings planted during the drive is concerned, the committee found that 66.73 per cent of saplings planted by Forest Department were found to have survived at the end of October 2023. Social Forestry Department reported 81.97 per cent survival rate, Forest Development Corporation of Maharashtra reported 56 per cent survival, and wildlife areas reported 66.35 per cent survival rate. On an average, thus, survival rate was 72 per cent, noted the committee. ‘72% saplings survived’ Contd from page 1 As per the committee report, the remaining 28 per cent saplings died due to various reasons including floods in Kolhapur and Sangli districts in 2019, summer heat in some districts of Marathwada region, ‘possibility’ of loss due to fire that could be attributed directly or indirectly to human interference, soil health etc. Interestingly, the report mentions that the committee ‘could not make site visits due to various reasons’.

 

It drew conclusions based on the special QR code created by the department to see photographs and videos of the plantation sites, and relied on the data submitted by the agencies concerned. Field officers of Forest Department conducted inspection of 25,311 plantation sites out of 28,098 sites registered, it adds. Further, the committee has stated that Maharashtra’s ‘forest cover’ increased by 116 sq km between 2017 and 2021 due to the massive plantation drive that was taken note of by Limca Book of Records.