The Supreme Court of India has permitted felling of khair trees on government forest land in 10 forest divisions of the Forest Department of the state.
This could be a big relief to the Himachal Pradesh government making efforts to mobilize additional sources for the state.
Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said, “The state government was able to get this relief from the Apex court after forceful pleading of its case; the Supreme Court had banned felling of green trees in the state for commercial purposes.”
The CM said, “ The Forest Department has already prepared a working plan for felling khair trees in five forest divisions i.e Una, Hamirpur, Bilaspur, Nalagarh and Kutlehar divisions and annual yield in these divisions is 16500 trees .”
He said , “ the working plans for five more forest divisions i.e Nahan, Poanta Sahib, Dharamshala, Nurpur and Dehra is also underway and the department would soon start the process of counting the trees and prepare a working plan.”
The CM asserted, “The felling of khair trees as per silviculture process helps better forest management and rejuvenation, besides generation of additional revenue.”