Face to Face with Lal Singh / Conservation of natural resources, Govt’s top priority: Lal Singh

“World Arbor Day” offered an opportunity to everyone to contribute their part in making the earth a better and a healthy place to live.
This was stated by the minister for Forests, Ecology and Environment, Choudhary Lal Singh during his exclusive interaction with the Young Bites.
Here are the excerpts of his interaction.
Vijay Gupta
VG: What is Arbor day, what is its importance for us?
LS: Arbor Day is a Latin word, which means tree, this day means a holiday in which individuals and groups are encouraged to plant trees. Today, many countries observe such a holiday. Though usually observed in the spring, the date varies, depending on climate and suitable planting season.
“World Arbor Day” offered an opportunity to everyone to contribute their part in making the earth a better and a healthy place to live. The climate change and global warming are greatest challenges confronting mankind; there is need for a collective action to reverse its negative impact.
In our country, alongwith the arbor day, we also celebrate, Van Mahotsav, this is an annual pan-Indian tree planting festival, occupying a week in the month of July. During this event millions of trees are planted.
It was initiated in 1950 by K. M. Munshi, the then Union Minister for Agriculture and Food to create an enthusiasm in the mind of the populace for the conservation of forests and planting of trees.
The name Van Mahotsava (the festival of trees) originated in July 1947 after a successful tree-planting drive was undertaken in Delhi, in which national leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru, Dr Rajendra Prasad and Abul Kalam Azad participated. Paryawaran Sachetak Samiti, a leading environmental organization conducts mass events & concrete activities on this special day celebration each year.
The week was simultaneously celebrated in a number of states in the country.
VG: Out state is very rich in bio diversity, what efforts have been done by you to save it in our state?
LS: This is true that the Jammu and Kashmir has blessed with rich biodiversity in its social, cultural and climate arena and efforts are afoot to preserve the natural wealth of the state. I always stressed on maintaining a clean environment with abundance of forests as the only way to guarantee human survival on the globe. There is need for public participation at large in the campaign of tree planting and make ‘World Arbor Day’ a great success. In this context, the Department of Social Forestry has been working relentlessly for increasing tree cover both inside and outside forest areas.
VG: Decreasing forest cover is a big issue, what is your take?
LS: Our main thrust is on to increase the forest cover in our state in this regard, the department is putting determined efforts in generating awareness among the masses by organizing plantation drives across the State and educating the population towards safeguarding the environment to secure future generations. Due to increasing human interference, exploitation of natural resources and climate change in the recent times has threatened the sustenance of its ecosystem.
Everyone has a moral duty to preserve greenery, protect tree belts and to go for large scale plantations on all wasteland and areas available around their houses, road sides, canal banks, schools, and other institutions.