Preparation of Five Year and Annual Plans

The Five Year Plans are formulated on the basis of priorities and principles decided by the Forest Department. The schemes are rationalized on the basis of these principles and budgetary projections are illustrated according to the physical targets. The annual targets are fixed on the basis of schemes. Annual Plan is presented to the State Planning Board, which finally approves the budget demands of the Department and sends it to the Finance Department for approval.

     Afforastation to recover forests

The District Collectors present their annual district plans to the State Planning Board for approval, which includes the development schemes of Working Plan Implementation, and Environmental Forestry. Budgetary demand for these schemes is projected on the basis of annual budget requirement of the Divisional Forest Officer. 

   Maintaining miscellaneous forests

The monitoring of Point Number 16 of the 20-Point program of the Central Government is done by allotting targets for seedling distribution (Point 16a) and planting area (Point 16b). This information is sent to National Afforestation and Eco-development Board, Ministry of Environment and Forest, Central Government every month. Annual monitoring of targets achieved under the program is carried out by the State Government also.

  Seedlings prepared for distribution

The Development wing also co-ordinates the schemes of the Central Government ministries and Planning Commission. There are three schemes from Ministry of Environment and Forest and one from Rural Development. The budget is made available to the State for implementation of these schemes and monitoring is done by APCCF Development. The utilization reports obtained from the work centers in the field are forwarded to GoI .

     Plantation of clonal Aonla

Preparation of Silvipastoral model

    Preparation of Silvipastoral model

The Working Plans are prepared for 62 territorial divisions and are screened at two stages at the State level. Thereafter it is presented to Government of India for its final approval for implementation. It is implemented by the territorial Divisional Forest Officer and is supervised by the territorial Conservator. The Conservators are accountable to acquire budgetary provisions for its implementation and report to APCCF Development directly on the issues pertaining to policy decisions regarding implementation.

   Protection of eco-fragile areas

 Felling Permission from Go I

    Harvesting of timber according to Working Plan

 Development of Forests

The foremost development priority of Madhya Pradesh Forest Department  is to implement the Working Plans laid out to enhance productivity of forests for the goods and services to be delivered to the society. This tradition is continuing in the State since 1875 and was reinforced by the Supreme Court of India through its directives in 1996 and 2000 in case of Writ Petition 202 of 1995. There are 62 Territorial Divisions covered by Working Plan in the State, duly formulated to address the biological, economic and social needs of the forest ecosystems. The budgetary allocations for implementation are made from the State Planning Board under two major schemes till the 10^th Five Year Plan. Besides this, the development schemes are also sponsored by the Government of India under Tribal Sub-Plan, SCSP Scheduled Caste Sub-Plan Rural   Development, Wildlife and Non-Plan budget of the State.

 A description of development schemes operational in the State is given below:

 The MPFD has entered into the Public Service Agreement (PSA) with the MP Government since 2002-03 for development of forests and its infrastructure. The arrangement under this is that in the beginning of the financial year, every Conservator enters into the agreement with the Principal Chief Conservator of Forest, who in turn enters into the an agreement with the Government. The Conservators have made agreements with their Divisional Forest Officers for the development activities. The implementation procedure followed for development of forests is by formulating an Action Plan under the PSA for every forest division annually based on the areas due in the Working Plan. The Action Plan consists of the concise detail of the Division, site-wise work detail, budgetary requirement, Forest Committee with whom the work at a specific site is to be implemented and area of work including the area treated in the past. The Time Plan for the activities undertaken is given, and an Expenditure Plan illustrating the details of spending on each component of development activity, Training Plan containing training schedule for all stakeholders in the activity and site-wise minor detail of the works.

1 .Implementation of Working Plans

The name of the scheme is changed since the X Plan as the scheme has evolved from merger of Plan scheme- Rehabilitation of Degraded Forests along with the Non-Plan schemes of Natural Regeneration, Sowing and Planting, Economic Plantation, Fire Protection and Demarcation.

Live fencing around degraded forests

a.   Working Plan

There are 62 Working Plans in the State covering an area of 94,689.38 sq. km. The Working Plan implementation is carried out in three major groups according to broad prescriptions extended. These are Protection, Regeneration and Rehabilitation depending upon the requirements of the site for treatment. Protection is extended to ecologically fragile areas which are prone to rapid degradation due to erosion and biotic pressures. Regeneration is prescribed to forest areas with cover more than 40 percent and is productive stands. The activity consists of regenerating the area after harvesting and is usually achieved by natural assistance extended to area by protecting it from grazing and fire or by artificial regeneration where soil is good in open areas to support planted saplings. Rehabilitation is achieved by extending protection to areas with less than 40 percent forest cover and allowing previous root stock to take over. Annual areas allotted to these groups are picked up for formulating Action Plan for the Division. The extent of area treated annually under the Protection, Regeneration and Rehabilitation is 18,000; 1,20,000 and 1,80,000 hectare, respectively in the State. Annually the coupes, which are units of forest working, are marked under Regeneration group and harvested for the removal of silvicultural available timber. These areas are taken back during the next year and are treated for promoting the regeneration, a cycle which operates for every ten years.

Degraded land before rehabilitation

Regeneration through protection

Degraded land after rehabilitation

This scheme covers the Working Circles as prescribed in the Working Plans of specific forest divisions. These are classified as:

1. Bamboo Over Lapping

2. Biodiversity

3. Conversion to Uniform

4. Coppice with Reserve

5. Cottage Industries

6. Selection cum improvement

7. Eco-Tourism

8. Environment Conservation Protection

9. Forest Village

10. Grass & Fodder

11. Improvement

12. Kardhai Rehabilitation

13. Khair Improvement

14. Khair Over lapping

15. Kullu Taping Over Lapping

16. Miscellaneous

17. Miscellaneous Over Lapping

18. Plantation

19. Plantation Maintenance Over Lapping

20. Protection

21. Protection cum rehabilitation

22. RDF(Bamboo) Forest Over Lapping

23. Reclamation of Blank / Encroached Areas

24. Rehabilitation of Degraded Forests

25. Salai Selection

26. Salai Tapping Over Lapping

27. Soil Conservation

28. Tribal Development

29. Un-allotted

30. Watershed Management

31. Wildlife Over Lapping

32. Forest Fire Protection

33. Forest 1/5 th Demarcation

 Natural regeneration in Teak forest

Involvement of rural poor in rehabilitation of forests

Hi-Tech Plantations

The productivity of important species like Teak, Bamboo, Aonla and Ghamar are raised with high technological inputs of irrigation and fertilization. These plantations are raised on a small scale with 2-10 ha of area in Plantation Working Circles under the Working Plan. The planting stock for the plantation is obtained from known progeny with established productive potential. The theme is two pronged for raising such plantations. One, to establish the good stock progeny in forests and two, to demonstrate that the best growth requires best inputs (like agriculture) for sustaining high productivity.

          Hi-tech Teak plantation

   Teak plantation profile after six months

b.   Fire Protection

The forests are to be protected against induced fires. This is prevalent during the fall to winters when the litter is accumulated on the ground and catches fire caused by the people collecting Madhuca flowers and fruits and Bidi leaves mainly in predominantly deciduous forests. The fire lines are prescribed in Working Plan and fire schemes are prepared during December to undertake protection activities during the next three months. About two lac kilometers of fire lines are maintained in the State annually, apart from strengthening of communication infrastructure.

Forest Staff putting off fire with forest committee

c.  Demarcation

The forest boundaries are prone to encroachment by the people living in the vicinity offorest areas. The growing pressure on land for agriculture by fast multiplying population to meet the demand of food in the remote areas requires reinforcement of the forest boundaries. Five year demarcation schemes are drawn from the Working Plan and followed for cleaning of lines and repair of boundary pillars annually. Besides this,  Thereafter about 50,000 permanent pillars constructed every year .

  Permanent Boundary Pillars Constructed along Forest  border

Permanent Boundary Pillars Constructed along Forest  border