Minister for Forest, Ecology & Environment, Choudhary Lal Singh today informed the House that 57.78 lakh cubic feet (cft) of timber has been extracted from Chenab range during the last 6 years and the revenue generated was Rs. 246.22 crore for the same period.The Minister was replying to a question of Naresh Kumar Gupta.
Ch. Lal Singh informed that timber is being extracted from various forest divisions of the state directly by the Forest Department or through State Forest Corporation (SFC).Giving break-up of the Timber extracted from Chenab circle, the Minister informed that the Forest Department has extracted 8.67 lakh cft during the last 6 years and generated revenue of Rs. 16.59 crore. Similarly, SFC extracted 49.115 lakh cft of timber and generated revenue amounting to Rs. 229.63 crore. The income generated from minor forest produce in Doda-Kishtawar districts is Rs 8.04 crore during the last 6 years, he added.The Minister further informed the House that adequate staff is deployed to protect the forests, besides forest check posts have been strengthened and officers of the department paying regular visits to forests to check timber smuggling.Ghulam Nabi Monga and Sajjad Kichloo raised supplementary to the main question.