Title - Plan to plant trees on vacant rly land

Faridkot: In view of the felling of trees on a large scale for various development works and to widen the national and state highways in Punjab, the state forest department has come up with a plan to use vacant railway land, alongside the railway tracks in Punjab to grow new plants, so that the threat of pollution can be tackled effectively.Surjit Kumar Jyani, Punjab Forest and Wild Life Protection Minister, said a proposal has already been sent to the Railway Ministry for formal approval to use the vast stretches of vacant railway land, to grow trees.With an area of 1,764 square kilometers under forest cover (as per the recent report of the Forest Survey of India), Punjab has a target of increasing the area under forest cover from the present 6.5 per cent to 10 per cent in the next two years, said Jyani. “To meet this target, we have plans of using the vacant railway and panchayat land,” the minister told TNS.Keeping in view the future expansion of railway tracks, the forest department has planned certain amendments in the law pertaining to seeking permission for axing of the trees. “To ensure that the railway authorities do not face any problem in seeking permission for axing the trees along the railway line in case of any expansion, the district-level forest officer can grant the permission to cut the trees,” said the minister. Presently, this permission is given at the headquarter level in Chandigarh.

Indian Railways is the second largest owner of land in the country (after the Ministry of Defence), owning 4.32 lakh hectares. Over 44,894 hectares of railway land is vacant and a large portion of this is under encroachment. 

After over 10 years of extensive research by Rakesh Kumar, a senior section engineer in the Railways, it was revealed last year that 1999 hectares of railway land in the country is under encroachment as it is lying vacant.

The plantation on this vacant land will not only add to the green cover in Punjab but also save the railway land from encroachment, said Jyani.

As the plants and trees on link roads always face threat from the farmers having fields adjacent to these roads, the forest department has plans to rope in these farmers to help in plantation. “A plant on the side of the link road would be as per the choice of the owner of the adjoining field. He will be the owner of that plant. But before axing a plant, the farmer has to grow one plant fully in lieu of the chopped tree,” said Jyani.