Govt working to increase green cover in Drass

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, August 19

The state government is planning to initiate a massive plantation drive in remote Drass sub-district, the main theatre of the 1999 Kargil war, an official spokesman said.

Minister of Forest Choudhary Lal Singh has asked officers in the sub-district to ensure requisite steps were taken to increase the green cover in the region, the spokesman said.

The minister, who inspected the forest plantation farm at Matayan in Drass on Friday, was informed about the various initiatives taken by the department during the past one year.

Lal Singh said the present dispensation was committed to increase the green cover in the region for which massive plantation drives would soon be started.

He directed the officials to put in concerted efforts and mobilise the available resources for taking up plantation drive in the region and also asked them to initiate an early plantation drive in degraded forest areas.

Drass is one of the remote parts of the Kashmir division and is located in Kargil district. It is one of the coldest inhabited place in the world and was also the main theatre of action during the 1999 Kargil war.