Ground truthing to identify forest areas to start from Rewari district

The ground truthing activity, to identify forest areas as defined under the Punjab Land Preservation Act (PLPA), will be conducted using forest and revenue records.

First such exercise will start in Rewari district, followed by other districts, as decided by the Haryana government in a meeting in Chandigarh on Monday, which was held to examine the status of land under the PLPA.

However, it is unclear when the ground truthing exercise will start.

The meeting comes in the backdrop of the NCR Planning Board (NCRPB) asking the state, in November last year, to prepare a report on status of forest areas in Haryana.

According to officials in the Haryana government who are in the know, help will also taken from the satellite images from 2011 for evaluating PLPA areas in the state.

“Examination of the forest areas will start soon,” TL Satyaprakash, director of town and country planning, who was also present in the meeting, said.

Meanwhile, the forest department officials said that to examine the PLPA areas, forest records will also be taken into consideration.

“We discussed all possible parameters and we are yet to draw a conclusion. Soon we will be able to wrap up things,” SN Roy, principal secretary to government of Haryana, Forest & Wildlife, said.

Examination of areas under PLPA as confirmed forest areas will bring clarity on the area of land under the Aravallis that can be defined as forest.

About 1,00,000 hectares of land falls under the Aravallis in southern Haryana.

More than 25,000 hectares is identified as forest under sections 4 and 5 of the PLPA.

Around 62,000 hectares have been identified as natural conservation zone, while another 12,800 hectares in the hills have been put under the ‘yet to be decided’ category.

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