Imphal, March 18: The directive of the Supreme Court against felling down of trees has affected the revenue growth of the State Forest Department, according to a reliable source.

The State Forest Department is keeping a revenue target of Rs 120 lakh in the current financial year.

But far of being able to achieve the set target, the revenue collection of the Department has been even lesser that the amount it managed to collect during 2003-04, the source informed.

In the last financial year, 2003-04, the revenue target of the Forest Department was Rs 113 lakhs, but is could collect only Rs 29,30,371 including Rs 29,27,980 from minor forest produces and another Rs 12,67,579 from other items.

In the last financial year, the Department produced 648.55 cubic metre of teak, which is considered as one of the main forest product and managed to earn an amount of Rs 14,78,154 as revenue.

Besides this, the Department produced 860.5398 cubic metre of timber and another 24,44.01 tonne of fire woods thus accruing a revenue amount of Rs 3,26,486 and Rs 11,18,770 respectively.

During the same period, the Department also earned Rs 21,23,676 from pebbles (another minor forest produce), Rs 6,28,190 from 52,68.07 cubic metre of sand, Rs 4,97,554 from rice husks apart from Rs 3,17,980 from 63,588 kgs of Ushingsha produce.

As the Department could only collect Rs 77,52,626 out of the total revenue target of Rs 120 lakhs set by the Department during 2002-03, the revenue target was set at Rs 117 lakhs during 2003-04.But it could managed to collect only Rs 95,30,371, thus prompting the department to set it revenue target as Rs 120 for the current financial year, the source added.

Apart from the fact that the revenue collection of the State Forest Department has come down following the Supreme Court's order, many timbers which were cut down prior to the order were lying in the forest, thus requiring the intervention of the Court to allow lifting of these timbers by setting up a high-powered committee (HPC), the source said.

With the permission of the HPC, a large quantity of the timbers were lifted last year, thereby adding to the revenue of the Department to some extend.

Comment