Hyderabad: Telangana State has again proved that it is always a step ahead in everything it does. This time around, the State government has set a record, a unique one at that, by completing the 'Compensatory Afforestation' for displaced trees under the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS) even before the scheduled time-frame for the exercise set by the Union Ministry of Environment was to start!

The compensatory afforestation for KLIS was to begin during the 2020 monsoon season as scheduled by the Union Mnistry, but the State government completed the exercise of planting a whopping 52 lakh saplings in 6,000 hectares in December, 2019, a full year ahead of schedule.

The State government took up the afforestation simultaneously with the construction of the complex Kaleshwaram project without waiting for the scheduled beginning for the green exercise. The project, described as an engineering marvel, comprises a complex package of reservoirs and canals spread over thousands of hectares in the State. The compensatory afforestation was taken up in various districts of the State.

Speaking about the massive exercise, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) R Sobha told Telangana Today: "Out of the land that we received for compensatory afforestation, 3,000 hectares was non-forest land and another 3,000 hectares was degraded land."

Initial hiccups

Pointing out that the department faced problems initially as only 2,600 hectares was found fit for plantation, she said the issue was that in some places, the department could plant only 100 saplings per hectare and in other places, they could plant only 200 saplings per hectare even though the afforestation rule stipulates planting of 1,000 plants per hectare for every hectare of area diverted.

"To reach the target set by the Ministry of Environment, we decided to go land-to-land and plant-to-plant replacement, which meant replicating planting of saplings of one land parcel in another area," she said. In places where the land handed over for afforestation was fit for plantation, the extent was too short as most of the good lands were under cultivation.

The forest land lost in the construction of Kaleshwaram project was thus replaced by taking up compensatory plantation in districts such as Medak, Siddipet, Sangareddy, Bhupalpally, Mulugu , Karimnagar, Rajanna Sircilla and even distant lands in Nagarjuna Sagar. "First, we took up degraded lands that were encroached and tackled them. On non-forest lands, we went for hardy plants like ficus (Marri), Ravi, Maddi , Juvvi and Neem plants. In good lands, we went for some more varieties of indigenous plants," the PCCF said.