For more than a decade Himachal Pradesh has not done anything to assess its forest cover.
The government is still relying on the data based on the Indian Institute of Forest Management of Bhopal that conducted the forest survey in 2000.
“The state has 37,033 sq km under forest cover”, Forest Minister Thakur Singh Bharmouri informed the assembly on Thursday.
He said as per the forest institute report the net worth of the forest is around Rs. 40,860 crore. On a supplementary, the minister said that the government didn’t assess separately the monetary value of the trees of ‘khair’ species.
On the demand of BJP member Mohinder Singh about the specification adopted by the forest institute to conduct the survey, the minister said he would look into it. “The information will be provided in this session only,” he said.
