HimVani
San Jose: Himachal Pradesh would replicate the Costa Rica model for protecting Himalayan ecology by conserving the environmental conditions in the state by initiating the steps that had been taken by Costa Rica. This was revealed by Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal while speaking in the concluding ceremony of the International Conference on Environment at San Jose, Costa Rica, last evening before he leaving for Washington.
The Chief Minister said that Costa Rica and Himachal Pradesh had many a similarity in climatic conditions and added that mutual exchange of expertise was bound to usher in achieving the objective of emerging carbon neutral state of the country in near future. He said that ecological conditions of the state had direct impact upon rest of the northern states. He said that out of total geographical area of 55,674 sq.kms 37,033 sq. kms. area was under forest cover. He said that out of the total 45 thousand plant species 3,295 i.e. 7.32 percent were in Himachal Pradesh, and the total forest wealth had been estimated at over Rs. 1.5 lakh crore.
