Demo Forest to showcase benefits of plantation: CM

Demo Forests will be set up around all district headquarters in Chhattisgarh to showcase the benefits of the Chief Minister’s Plantation Promotion Scheme, it was announced on Friday.

Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has directed the Chief Secretary to earmark at least 10 acres of government land around all the district headquarters for establishing Demo Forests. Baghel said these will create public awareness on the provisions and benefits of the scheme and motivate them to embrace it. Other than timber and other species, medicinal plants will also be planted as an intercrop in the Demo Forests, he said. For this, Baghel wants the Forest and Agriculture Department and scientists of the Agricultural University to help out. The Chief Minister further said that in the coming years, people in the private sector will also be encouraged to go for commercial plantation. The Chief Minister’s Plantation Promotion Scheme started from June 1 with the objective of promoting plantation in the state and to provide a new source of income to the farmers. Under this scheme, if the farmers who have taken paddy crop in Kharif year 2020 plant trees in their fields instead of paddy crop, they will get incentive at the rate of Rs 10,000 per acre per year for the next three years. Similar benefits will also be extended to gram panchayats.