Rs 1471 crore proposed for the forest department in the state budget

HYDERABAD: The forest department and the Haritha Haram programme received a Rs 500 crore boost on Monday. Finance minister T. Harish Rao increased the allocation to Rs 1,471 crore for 2023-24, up from Rs 932 crore last year.

Harish Rao said 13 lakh acres of forests had been rejuvenated, which had resulted in the increase in the number of tigers to 26 and leopards to 341, he said. Many birds facing extinction had regained their habitat.

He said the Indian State of Forest Report 2021 had stated that green cover in Telangana had increased by 7.7 per cent. “This is equivalent to 5.13 lakh acres,” he said. The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation had described Hyderabad as ‘Tree City of the World’ twice, he said, the only city in India to have received this recognition.

He noted that the Sustainable Development Report of the Niti Aayog had placed Telangana first on the basis of improvement in the greenery. The International Association of Horticultural Producers (AIPH) in South Korea had conferred the ‘World Green City Award-2022’ on Hyderabad.