Funds crunch hits Forest Deptt development works

Funds crunch hits Forest Deptt development works
PRADIP KUMAR MAITRA

NAGPUR, APRIL 30: The funds crunch has severely affected the development works of State Forest Department, including the afforestation, eco-development programmes, joint forest management and wildlife conservation undertaken by the department.

The paucity of funds in the department could be gauged from the fact that the wildlife wing of famous Tadoba tiger reserve in Chandrapur district, Nagzira and Navegaon National Parks in the region have been using the usual funds for extinguishing the on-going fire (a regular feature during summers) in the jungle as the government did not provide the ritual Fire Prevention Fund in the current budget.

The department was perturbed over the provision of `negligible' funds in the budget for the afforestation programme particularly the arrival of monsoon two months away. The worst-hit area due to the `fund crunch' would be the ambitious Joint Forest Management and eco-development porgramme, initiated by the department, a few years ago through the World Bank finance.

Besides, the state-sponsored Forest Development Corporation of Maharashtra (FDCM) and Social Forestry Department are the other worst affected sectors.

According to available information, the FDCM is desperately looking for financial agencies which could provide them fund on long-term basis. If the situation continues, it would be difficult for the state undertaking to even provide regular salaries to its staff. The corporation could not implement the Fifth Pay Commission recommendations so far to its staff due to the paucity of funds.

The state government made a provision of a meagre Rs 61.30 crore for the Forest Department in its annual budget of 2000-2001 as against Rs 120.41 crore in the last financial year. The government provided Rs 82.11 crore in 1998-99 financial year for the department.

The state forest headquarters here feels that the present meagre allocation would badly hit the routine works of the department as it would not get the World Bank assistance from this year. The department was getting financial assistance from the World Bank for the last seven years. The Forest Department used to get at least Rs 50-crore every year for its overall development through the International Monetary Fund. The Maharashtra Forestry Project, funded by the World Bank, ceased its works from March last.

Talking to The Indian Express, a senior forest personnel pointed out that the poor allocation for the department was totally unjustified as the department itself collected over Rs 170-crore net revenue last financial year. The department gets at least Rs 80-crore revenue from the tendu leaf collection alone every year. Besides, a huge money is being given to the government as royalty, he further pointed out.