Bengaluru | Oct 20, 2015:

The Union Minister for Environment and Forests Prakash Javadekar has said that a whopping Rs 40,000 crore would be disbursed to the state governments after the passage of Compensatory Afforestation Fund Bill.

“It is the priority of the Union government to green the denuded forest land. If all the parties support and the bill is passed, Rs 40,000 crore rusting in the banks would be handed over to states,” the minister said here on Monday. He was addressing a press meet in Bengaluru.

Emphasising on the need for sustainable sand mining, Javadekar said that environmental clearance conditions were being made stringent for obtaining the mining licence. “We want sustainable mining. In all states there have been attacks on officers who have taken action against those violating rules. This calls for a need to have a sustainable sand mining policy. A draft notification on it has been made available,” he added.

Satellite imageries would be made available which would indicate the sand deposits and sand mining would be allowed based on this information. “This is the first change that introduction of sustainable sand mining will bring about. The policy is likely to come into effect by 2016,” he said.

While states including Karnataka, Maharashtra and Goa have submitted their contentions on the Kasturirangan report, Tamil Nadu is yet to come up with its version, the minister added.

The minister, who toured Bandipur forest, said that elephants in the forest need more nutrition. A special programme has been planned to work out strategies for minimising man-animal conflict, he added.

(Source: http://www.deccanherald.com/)