Title - Govt plans to plant trees on vacant rly land

Faridkot : Aiming to make up for the lakhs of trees being axed for widening of national and state highways, the Punjab Forest Department has devised a plan to use vacant railway land alongside railway tracks in the state for afforestation.Forest and Wildlife Protection Minister Surjit Kumar Jiyani said, “A proposal has already been sent to the Railway Ministry for a formal approval to grow trees on vacant land.”At present having 1,764 sq km area under forest cover (as per a recent Forest Survey of India report), Punjab has set the target of increasing the cover from the present 6.5 per cent to 10 per cent in the next two years, said Jiyani. To meet the target, the government has been planning to use vacant railway and panchayat land, the minister said.In view of the expansion of railway lines and tracks in the future, the Forest Department has planned certain amendments in the law pertaining to permission for axing of trees. "Now, a district forest officer can give permission to cut trees along railway tracks falling within his jurisdiction. The step has been taken so that railway expansion does not suffer." At present, the permission is given by the forest headquarters in Chandigarh.

Indian Railways is the second largest land owner after the Ministry of Defence, owning 4.32 lakh hectares in the country. Of this, 44,894 hectares is vacant.