CHENNAI: Forest and tree cover has declined in Tamil Nadu and the State has not prepared its own forest policy even though five years have passed since a recommendation to do this was made by the National Forest Commission, says a report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.The report - released by principal accountant generals Suhasini Srinivasan and S Murugiah at the office of the the Principal Accountant General on Wednesday - states that the state achieved only 22 per cent forest and tree cover against the target of 25 per cent, by 2007.It also says that against the Union Planning Commission’s recommendation of 4 per cent allocation for the forestry and wildlife sector, the state’s allocation for the 11th five-year plan was 1.51 per cent only.“The state government released Rs 693 crore for forestry activities in four years (2007-2011) out of allocation of Rs 1,285 crore for the plan period 2007-12,” the report states. Arrears of lease of Rs 105.20 crore remained to be collected from three public sector undertakings. In addition, the progress of declaring areas as reserve forest was tardy and 1,12,386 hectares of land remained to be notified, the report said.Interestingly, as per the records of the Forest Survey of India, forest and tree cover of the state showed a marginal decrease from 28,665 sq km in 2005 to 28,306 sq km in 2009. This decrease was mainly due to decrease in tree cover area from 5,621 sq km to 4,968 sq km, despite spending Rs 471.61 crore during 2002-07 on social and farm forestry activities.The report also pointed out that in 12 of the 26 test-checked divisions, 9,547 cases of encroachment involving an area of 10,197 hectares of forest land were pending eviction as of March 2011. It also stated that in 23 of the 26 test-checked divisions, the survival rate of plantations is less than 40 per cent in the majority (59 per cent) of plantations.Earlier this week, Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan had noted, in response to an unstarred question in the Rajya Sabha, that there had been notable increase in forest cover in Tamil Nadu, and two other peninsular states, in the past three years.
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