As the centre feels the heat over permitting the felling of over one crore trees in five years, Union Environmental Minister Prakash Javadekar said that for every one tree cut, 5-10 are planted. The minister said that India’s forest cover has grown by 15,000 sq. km. during the past five years.
Speaking on the sidelines of an event in Pune, the minister was asked to comment on the allegations of extensive deforestation under the first term of BJP-led National Democratic Alliance. Javedekar said that the opposition is cherrypicking the data missing the overall improvement.
Last week, responding to a question in the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Environment Babul Supriyo said the ministry gave permission to cut 1.09 crore trees for development purposes between 2014 and 2019. It was also highlighted that out of the total, the maximum number of trees (26.91 lakh) were cut in 2018-19.
Prakash Javedekar, who also served as the environment minister from 2014 to 2016, said that the answer in parliament also mentioned that forest cover has increased by 8000 sq. mt. within two years and 15000 sq. km. in the last five years. The minister stressed that this was better than the performance by the previous government.
