The Minister for Forests & Environment Chowdary Lal Singh today assured the House that government will initiate all necessary measures for safety of human lives and property of village Dhanna situated on Zero Line in Kupwara district.The Minister was replying to a Calling attention Notice by Mr Qaiser Jamsheed Lone today. He said the problem of soil erosion in the state is due to heavy rains and snowfall. Further, the faulty land use, deforestation, over grazing of pasture lands, over exploitation of natural resources, construction of infrastructure/ development activities has compounded the problems of soil erosion in the state.He said that as regards District Kupwara, it is estimated that about 35-40% of district area is under the grip of erosion for one or the other reason. On the instructions of District Administration in April 2015, a joint survey team of Soil and Water Conservation Department and I&FC department conducted the survey of affected areas having soil erosion due to heavy rains. A report has been accordingly submitted to the District Development Commissioner Kupwara by the committee, which has identified 181 spots in the District under severe erosion causing damage to the Forest, Agriculture, property lands and even property of the habitation.
The Minister further informed the House that some of the identified sliding areas include, Glassdaji, Guespati, Manigah, Mori, Narikoot, Nagsari, Khurkhama of Lolab, Satkoji, Wudder Payeen, Bala of Rajwar-Handwara and Kharbagh of Kupwara. Soil Conservation Department, is trying its best to tackle this ever increasing menace of soil erosion in the state. He said in addition to this, the Department is also doing afforestation works in the degraded forests of the area in order to arrest the soil erosionHe further said that as per the National Bureau of Soil Sciences & Landuse Planning (NBSS&LUP) report, 32% of the Jammu & Kashmir State is affected by various soil degradational problems, out of which 78% area is under severe erosion. Average soil loss in J&K is 20 tonnes/hectre/year, which is higher than the National average loss of 16.37The Minister said whenever there is a continuous, unseasonal and heavy rainfall, it results in soil erosion and floods particularly in Kashmir valley. The heavy rains during September 2014 and subsequently similar situations have resulted into large scale soil erosion in the shape of landslides, landslips and soil loss including loss of life and property in the entire state.The Minister appealed the general people of the state to cooperate with the government for saving the forests from degradation which is main cause of the land erosion in the state.