CCpur to host State level Van Mahotsav celebration
Source: The Sangai Express
CCpur, June 29 2019:
Churachandpur will be hosting its maiden State level Van Mahotsav celebration on Monday at Tuibong peace ground, with the Chief Minister set to grace the event along with hordes of Ministers, peoples' representatives and officials.
Putting focus on saving the rapidly depleting forest cover in the State, the Government has, this year, scheduled the State level festival of plantation at Churachandpur district after organising the event at Ukhrul last year.
The festival will provide an opportunity to the citizens of Churachandpur to save the green cover in the district and decrease deforestation, said Churachandpur Deputy Commissioner Shyam Lal Poonia.
The celebration will also encourage the residents to plant more trees to save the depleting resources as all stakeholders, from Ministers, MLAs, ADC members to NGOs, CSOs and school going students, have been invited for the event, he added.
Briefing reporters at the DC's chamber today, State Mission Director (NBM) as well as Additional PCCF (NBM&MP), Dr DD Haokip said that tree plantation is an effective solution to mitigate climate change and global warming.
Since these two alarming issues doesn't spare anyone, Churachandpur has had its share of consequences with water scarcity being the immediate effect, he said adding, Churachandpur may be advanced in many areas but it has a long way to go when it comes to environmental issues, particularly on poppy cultivation and stone quarrying.
Poppy cultivation which, he said, is rampant in the interior areas of the district, is more disparaging than the jhum cultivation which even the local NGOs and CSOs have been struggling to replace with an alternative form of farming for decades.
Besides corrupting the moral and spiritual being of the citizens, poppy cultivation has spoiled the soil as chemicals and fertilizers are employed by the cultivators and they are grown in the same fields not for a season but for years, unlike jhum cultivation.
This has resulted in the soil loosening up and will likely lead to soil erosion, he said.
The water scarcity in the town and the reported sinking of soil at Pearsonmun area, are some of the hard and immediate effects of deforestation along with cases of stone quarrying in the district, he added.
A total of two lakh tree saplings will be planted in the district during the festival and in subsequent exercises, said officials of the Forest Department.
These saplings will be given away free of cost to anyone who is willing to join the campaign from various stations across the district.
Out of the targeted saplings, about 15,000 are expected to be planted on the day of Van Mahotsav, which will also be graced by Forest Minister Th Shyamkumar, Agriculture Minister V Hangkhanlian, HAC Chairman TT Haokip, MTDC Chairman V Valte, MANIREDA Chairman GS Haupu, Chairman of Tourism Corporation Ltd Manipur Dr S Ranjan Singh, Chairman MB&OCWWB H Dingo Singh, Vice Chairman MIDA O Lukhoi Singh, former MPCC President and Saikot MLA TN Haokip, Tipaimukh MLA Dr Chaltonlien Amo and Yaiskul MLA Th Satyabrata Singh.
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