About 100 million saplings of jatropha have been planted in the last three years in Chhattisgarh, which aims to become the model biofuel state in the country.
“The state government’s forest department had planted about 100 million jatropha saplings on about 40,000 hectares in different districts of the state,” Chhattisgarh minister for forests Vikram Usendi informed the State Legislative Assembly today.
The government had spent Rs 74 crore on the plantation that was taken up in the last three years, the minister added. The state government has however set a target to plant jatropha on one million hectares of fallow or barren land by 2012.
According to the officials of Chhattisgarh Bio-Fuel Development Authority, once the targeted area of one million hectares was brought under jatropha plantation by 2012, the state would stand to get socio economic benefits accruing out of the biofuel programme.
They said, as one hectare of jatropha plantation yielded two tons of biodiesel on an average, total two million tons of biodiesel would be produced that would have a market value of Rs 7,000 crore.
The minister said, the commercial production of biodiesel had not started from the jatropha planted under the programme. He added that the forest committees were guarding the plants in their respective areas.