The World Bank authorities have agreed in principle to help Himachal Pradesh in making a Carbon Neutral State of the Country. This was revealed in a high level mid-term HP Mid Himalayas Watershed Development Project implementation meeting with the World Bank authorities here last evening. Chief Minister, Prof. Prem Kumar Dhumal presided over the meeting.

Chief Minister said that the State Government was exploring possibilities of pooling in all internal and external resources to protect and conserve the Himalayan ecology. He said that the initiative of the World Bank was a welcome step and would go a long way in making Himachal Pradesh a Carbon Neutral State in the near future. He said that various initiatives had been taken by the State Government in achieving the objective of environment protection which included complete ban on green felling, massive plantation campaigns, ban on plastic carry bags and negating the approval for setting up of high polluting industrial units. He said that many of such endeavours had received appreciation at the national and international level as well.

Prof. Dhumal said that the Mid Himalayan Watershed Development Project had been a great success. He said that encouraging results had been pouring in besides giving boost to the economic activities in the rural areas by the implementation of this project. He said that the Project had been instrumental in increasing the household income of the people by 9 percent and over 5 percent of the BPL families had been alleviated to APL category. He said that 1,724 hectares of additional area had been brought under assured irrigation through construction of 5,933 different mini and micro irrigation schemes, benefitting 20,795 families.

Chief Minister said that in the project area the High Value Crop registered an increase of 26 percent besides 43 percent increase in the vegetables, which had brought discernible impact in the rural economy. He said that traditional crops also increased by 6 percent and average fruit crops by 11 percent. He said that massive plantation campaigns launched under the Project had brought 8,119 hectares of area under forest cover. He said that 3,67,681 brush wood check dams, 71,944 dry stone structures and 62,074 crate wire structures were also raised for soil conservation which had helped in protecting valuable and cultivable land of the farmers. He said that during the last three years of the project implementation 704 kms. of foot paths, 268 small foot bridges had been constructed and 3,15,961 population of 2,658 villages benefitted with better connectivity facilities.

Prof. Dhumal said that in order to improve the drinking water facilities 281 new sources were created and 583 existing ones repaired to ensure safe potable water to 45,700 households. He further said that with the increase in the green cover and plantation activities Animal Husbandry got boosted and milk production of cows increased by 11 percent and buffalo by 33 percent which had resulted into better income generation activities in the rural areas. He said that 1,872 Self Help Groups, 2,298 User Groups and 532 Common Interest Groups had also been constituted to help and monitor the project activities in respective areas.

Chief Minister expressed his gratitudes to the World Bank authorities for the assistance and said that the State would be looking forward for more such cooperation with World Bank in various other ventures.

Shri Norman Piccani, Task Team Leader, lauded the State for result oriented implementation of the Project and said that water management activities also needed to be carried in a more effective manner keeping in view drying up of traditional water sources all over the world and receding ground water level.

Shri Ranjan Samantry, Co-Task Leader, said that the World Bank would be considering requirement of making Himachal Pradesh a Carbon Neutral State and advised the authorities to submit project in this regard to the World Bank for approval.

Shri Avay Shukla, Additional Chief Secretary, Shri Bhim Sen, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister and Shri Sauzrin, Senior Officer of the World Bank, also participated in the meeting.