India now pays more attention to environment: Venkaiah Naidu
Dehradun, April 25: Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu on Wednesday said India now pays much more attention to environment than earlier.
Addressing the convocation of 2016 Indian Forest Service (IFS) officers at Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy here, Naidu said states must be incentivised for increasing forest cover, adding that Niti Aayog and the Centre must have provisions to encouraging states doing well.
"India is among the fastest growing economies in the world today... It is now paying much more attention to environment than earlier," Naidu said, adding while 15,000 hectares of forest land was anually diverted to non-forest activities before 1980, it was then reduced to 15,500 hectares.
Addressing the trainee officers, Naidu said: "You are entering the forest service at a crucial time in which India is trying to carve out an important and rightful position in the world."
The Vice President also pointed out how management strategies were changed over time.
"I have been told that scientific forest management in India is more than a century old We have come a long way in changing the management strategies from keeping people away from the forests for protection purposes to managing the forest with cooperation of people," he said, asking the batch of IFS, comprising two trainee officers from Bhutan, to keep an approach to balance national interest and welfare of people.
He said top most priority must be given to the forest, rivers, adding that environment protection and economic development must go together.
As per the India State of Forest Report, 2017, India is ranked 10th in the world with 24.4 per cent of land under forest and tree cover. Between 2015 to 2017, India has recorded one per cent growth in forest cover.
Naidu stressed that overgrazing, shifting cultivation and fires have resulted in elimination of many species.
"We need to work with local communities to rehabilitate the degenerated forests and encourage farmers to adopt ecologically sustainable practices. This is not an easy job and best brains and hearts are needed to make this fine balance," he said.
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Minor girl out with friend raped in MP forest; truck driver, associate held
Raisen (MP), Nov 24: A 15-year-old girl was allegedly raped by a truck driver while his two associates restrained the teenager’s male friend in Madhya Pradesh’s Raisen district, an official said on Sunday.
Police have arrested two persons, including the truck driver, in connection with the alleged crime committed in Siyarmau forest on Silwani-Sagar Road, some 110 km from the district headquarters, on Saturday evening, he said.
The teenager and her 21-year-old male friend were returning after visiting the Vandevi temple in the area when they parked their two-wheeler and entered the forest, said Silwani’s Sub Divisional Officer of Police (SDOP) Anil Maurya.
At the same time, a truck broke down following which its driver, later identified as Sanju Adivasi (21), and his two friends also went inside the forest, where they spotted the girl and her friend.
The trio thrashed the young man and snatched the key of his motorcycle, he said, citing the FIR.
The driver took the girl deep inside the forest and allegedly raped her, while his associates restrained her friend, the official said.
After the three accused left, the girl and the youth walked to the road and alerted some policemen who were passing by.
Police registered a case against Sanju Adivasi and his associates Shivnarayan Advasi and Akshay Ahirwar under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections 64 (rape), 70-1 (gang rape) and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, he said.
Sanju and Shivnarayan have been arrested, while Ahirwar is on the run, the official said.
