In a bid to help families residing in forest areas earn livelihood in recession, Gujarat government has decided to implement a package, which will allow usage of protected forest land falling under forest department of the state.
A recent resolution passed by the government government allows Joint Forest Management Committee (JFMC) to use protected forest land for plantation of bamboo, mango, eucalyptus, custard apple, lemon and other fruits and herbs.
"We will give forest blocks to families residing in forest areas, which will reduce their dependence on department. It will also help arrest migration", said SK Nanda, principal secretary, forest and environment department, Gujarat.
The basic objective of the scheme is to provide an opportunity to earn livelihood by using protected forest land. The idea to allow usage of such land was under consideration of the state government for quite some time and recently it decided to implement this package.
The scheme will be implemented through JFMC and the members of JFMCs will be eligible to avail the benefits of the package. It may be mentioned here that there will be no allotment of land on individual basis.
"Under the package, plantations would be allowed in minimum of 5 hectares and maximum of 50 hectares. Small blocks would not be allowed for plantations", states government circular.