(a) whether the Government proposes to focus on planting trees on railway land;
(b) if so, the number of hectares of land covered under plantation and the number of saplings planted during the current year;
(c) whether the Railways has set any target for tree plantation during the current year; and
(d) if so, the details thereof?
MINISTER OF RAILWAYS AND COMMERCE & INDUSTRY
(SHRI PIYUSH GOYAL)
(a) to (d): A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.
STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (d) OF UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 5175 BY SHRI PRATAPRAO JADHAV TO BE ANSWERED IN LOK SABHA ON 24.07.2019 REGARDING PLANTATION ON RAILWAY LAND.
(a) to (d): In pursuance of Railways’ commitment towards environmental improvement and sustainable development, Railway has planned to plant 5 crore sapling/plants upto March, 2020 on railway land boundary along the railway tracks depending upon availability of resources and co-operation from the State Forest Department. To achieve this, Railway has taken many strategic initiatives. Forest Departments of the States are being involved in plantation as well as maintenance and disposal of trees, thus bringing in the much needed expertise in afforestation. For this purpose, Ministry of Railways have finalised a model agreement in consultation with Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) in January 2016 to be entered between Zonal Railways and respective State Forest Department for plantation of trees on Railway land along the railway track and station yards without transferring the ownership of the land in favour of State Forest Department. As per this Agreement, plantation along the railway track on railway land boundary can be done by Forest Department without declaring such land as protected forest and can be re-used by Railways at any time without any hindrance to Railway works/development projects, cost of the plantation including its protection and maintenance can be borne by State Forest Department or Railway Administration or can be shared by both. Some Zonal Railways have already signed agreements with Forest Departments of Andhra Pradesh, Assam,
Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal based on Model Agreement finalized in consultation with MoEFCC.
A target of 1.35 crores saplings/plants (Boundary and Block Plantation) have been fixed for the current year and about 34000 trees/saplings covering 37 route kilometres in boundary plantation and about 39,000 trees/saplings covering an area of 34 hectares (approximately) in block plantation has been planted up to the month of May of current year.
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