Education Minister Ratan Lal Nath who also holds the charge of cabinet spokesperson on Wednesday said that the state council of ministers had given its approval to provide free seedlings to various departments of the State Government and it would also sell it to private parties at a very low price. The objective of the move is to preserve rich bio-diversity of the State as well as utilize huge quantity of seedlings that is presently being produced in the State. Apart from bamboo seedlings, there are Haritaki, Bohera and other such seedlings ready to be planted. Nath said, these seedlings would be planted in Government owned lands.
Briefing the media persons on the cabinet decisions, he said, “With an aim to protect the rich biodiversity of Tripura, the state government has taken the initiative to distribute seedlings free of cost to the TTAADC and government agencies for plantation in state owned land. For private entities also the rate has been fixed at Re 1 that is comparatively cheaper than the usual rates charged by the government”.
Nath justifying the free delivery decision said, “as soon as the BJP-IPFT government has come to power, a huge initiative has been taken to nurse seedlings. Earlier, seedlings were procured from neighbouring states like Assam”.
According to him, in Tripura right now the government has 92. 68 lakhs bamboo seedlings and 1. 4688 crores seedlings of other plants that include Myrobolan, Terminalia Bellirica, Mahogany, Chamal, Wood-apple and various other varieties.
Nath also said that as per the latest Forest report 6.2 percent of the state constituted with very dense forest, 49.9 percent of state had medium dense forest and 17.5 percent of the rest total forest is open forest. He also said that Tripura performed very well in maintaining its forests whereas its neighbours were losing their forest at a steady rate per annum.
