ITANAGAR, Sept 13 � Setting an example, Arunachal Pradesh Environment and Forest department has achieved 70 per cent afforestation in the State at a time when forest areas are decreasing alarmingly in the country.
The afforestation programme was undertaken under the State Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority in 2010 in the areas where trees were cut by user-agencies for various purposes.
A Supreme Court judgement recently directed that there should be compensatory afforestation by the user-agency which should set apart a sum of money for the purpose.
�The fund for CAMPA are generated from the user-agencies who are proposing various developmental activities and against which they are applying for forest clearance,� Diganta Gogoi, deputy conservator of forest (CAMPA & WP), said.
The State with a total 83,743 sq km geographical area has more than 5,000 species of flowering plants, 600 species of orchids, 89 species of bamboos, 18 species of canes, 400 species of ferns, 24 species of gymnosperms and equally high number of unexplored algae, fungi, lichens, bryophytes and micro-organisms.
Moreover, it is home to more than 100 species of mammals, 650 birds, 83 reptiles, 130 fishes and seven non-human primates and innumerable species of insects, mirco-organisms and other life forms. No wonder Arunachal Pradesh with its rich bio-diversity has been listed as one of the 18 �biodiversity hotspots� in the world.
