Centre to emulate B'luru in countrywide tree census

The Union Ministry of Environment and Forests is all set to emulate the example set by the City when it comes to counting the trees throughout the country.

Announcing this to reporters, Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar, who was in the City on Monday, said, “One of the initiatives by the ministry in the next financial year is to count the number of trees across the country. Bengaluru has taken the lead in counting its trees.”

The minister underlined the improvements made in the functioning of the ministry and reduction in processing time of the applications pertaining to creation of Special Economic Zone, Coastal Regulatory Zone, etc. He said that the ministry had now brought in complete transparency and all applications seeking approvals were accepted online and the applicants could even track the files online.

“Indian Navy’s project Seabird in Karwar was pending for three years due to the previous government’s casual approach. After I took over, it was cleared in three days”.

Speaking on the Kasturirangan report on Western Ghats, he said, “By March, we will finalise our stand on it. We have told all seven states including Karnataka to do the ground work soon. They have been asked to tell us what the people want after talking to the villagers. We will bring out a final report in March once we get internal reports from the states. We will not compromise on environment protection. We will also ensure that development does not get stalled”.

Javadekar later met a delegation of BJP legislators and told them that the Centre would not accept any report, other than a survey report from the ground level, for the purpose of relaxing the stringent norms under the report.