To stop the illegal felling of trees in Himachal Pradesh, the Himachal Pradesh government will prepare a policy on licensing cutters running on diesel and petrol.

Furthermore, to expand the forest cover, the government will give the responsibility of increasing forests to Mahila Mandals and for this, they will also be given incentive money.

This was stated by Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu during the Monsoon session on Thursday in response to the resolution brought by BJP MLAs Dr Janak Raj and Sukh Ram Chaudhary in the context of making a policy on climate change.

“To protect forests from fire in Himachal, the government has stopped planting of pine trees. Apart from this, cutting of local mango trees has also been banned,” said the chief minister.

He said that under CAMPA, saplings worth lakhs are shown to be planted, but if in reality so many saplings had been planted, then there would not be any space left today.

A total of 12 members spoke in this resolution, in which 5 members from the ruling party and 7 from the opposition expressed their views.

Satisfied with the chief minister’s answer, both the members withdrew their resolution.

Earlier, Chief Minister Sukhu said climate change is becoming a serious problem. The temperature is increasing and in Himachal’s Lahaul-Spiti and Kinnaur, where there was no rain, it is raining today.

He said after the formation of the government, many changes have taken place in the forest department.

The government has made a policy on the plantation to be done next year in which 60 percent of the plants to be planted in the forests will be fruit-bearing. The plants will be selected keeping in view the geographical area, he added.

The chief minister said that if Mahila Mandals want to plant trees on vacant lands, the government will encourage Mahila Mandals for this and will take the help of Panchayats.

He said that by bringing changes in the system, the responsibility of planting forests will also be of DFO, Ranger, and Guard.

He also said that Van Mitra will also be appointed in every Panchayat to deal with incidents of fire.

The chief minister said now new plants will gradually replace the pine plants, however, it will take time. He informed that he has also demanded a green bonus for Himachal from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the 16th Finance Commission, because a majority of the state’s area comes under forest land, and due to this development work is not being done.