Minister of Forest, Ecology and Environment Choudhary Lal Singh, who is on a day-long visit of Leh district, today inaugurated 3-day workshop on Capacity Building for Snow Leopard Range Countries and Autumn Plantation programme at Council Secretariat and Ladakh Eco-Tourism Centre in Leh main bazaar.Speaking during the inaugural session of the workshop, Ch. Lal Singh said that it is a pride for J&K to be a part of snow leopard heritage and thanked the organizers for bringing together the 12 Range Countries on one platform in Leh. He stressed on the need for carrying out surveys to get actual data of snow leopards in Ladakh and to carry out conservation works taking into confidence the people at grass root level.Referring to man-animal conflict, the Minister said that the conflict is manmade and it can be resolved by understanding the needs and importance of wild life. He called for conservation of snow leopards. He said “No one can harm the wildlife. Every wild animal is our heritage and in nature everything is interconnected from plants to animals and humans, adding if we work for them we are working for our nation”.
Calling for proper utilization of government funds for the development of forests and conservation of wildlife in the State, the Minister urged upon the Union Government to ease the system of funding by sending funds directly to the concern state departments. He said that the Government is making all out efforts and taking measures to recuperate the value and importance of forest and wildlife departments.Chairing a meeting with Executive Councilors and officials of Wildlife, Forests and Soil Conservation departments from Leh and Kargil districts held at Council Secretariat, Ch. Lal Singh took stock of the functioning of Forest and Wildlife departments. He directed the concern departments to undertake experiments and develop suitable variety of plants to be planted in the region. He also directed the concerned to increase forest coverage from 0.6% to minimum 1% with fixed targets and develop nursery, launch plantation drive to plant around 50 lakh plants in orchard style by next year.
He instructed SFRI to ensure quality and variety by importing required plant species like conifer, Deodar, Fur etc and to develop them in convergence with other departments. He directed DC, Leh to notify areas to cover under forests but at the same time exclude the villages in the wildlife areas.Responding to the demands projected by the Executive Councillor (EC) Wildlife Dorjey Mutup ad EC Forests with regard to compensation of livestock killed by wild animals, fencing of agricultural lands near wildlife protected areas and check and control on conifer smuggling in western Ladakh, the Minister asked the concerned to take up these issues in Council for redressal.Among others, DC Leh Prasanna Ramaswamy G, SSP Leh Udhay Bhaskar Billa, Director SFRI B M Sharma, Chairman SPCB Ravi Kesar, Chief Wildlife Warden Suresh Chugh, MD SFC S K Gupta, Consevator of Forest Centre Circle Samul Chakija, officers from Kargil and Leh district attended the meeting.