EU Funded Project Improves Forest Cover in India's Haryana
Copyright 2000 Asia Pulse Pte Limited
December 18, 2000
NEW DELHI, Dec 18 - A Social Forestry Project funded partly by the European Union has helped increase forest coverage in India's Haryana state by 59 percent, from 604 sq km to 964 sq km, a state Forest Department spokesman said.
The multi-discipline Aravali project, which succeeded in planting trees on 33,000 hectares in the state, had spent over Rs 1.17 billion (US$ 25.02 million) as of the end of the last fiscal year. Of this, Rs 8.93 billion came in the form of aid from the European Union, the spokesman said in an official release here.
Because of this, the recent Forest Survey of India report brought out by federal Environment and Forest Ministry placed Haryana at the head of a list of 17 states where forest cover area increased.
The project also received the federal Environment Ministry's Indira Priyadarshini Vrikshamitra award.
A total of 39,390 hectares of Aravalis hills and 20,000 hectares of Shivalik hills had also been afforested under the World-Bank aided Kandi Project, the release said.
The Aravali project, which would be reviewed by a high-level delegation of Ambassadors of EU states visiting the project sites next week, helped meet fodder scarcity in 294 project villages by bringing 21,000 hectares of land under grasses and legume cultivation.
It also helped improve the condition of women, enabling them to "function as an agent of change" in common land management program.
Women groups were also involved to establish nurseries and handicraft centres.