GURGAON, November 15: The State Forest Department has made public the statistics on the afforestation project it had undertaken on the land belonging to the Bhondsi village. The move was in reaction to the allegations levelled against the department by the former prime minister, Chandra Shekhar, in which he (the former PM) had blamed the department for `ruining' the Aravallis by neglecting them and planting `unsuitable' varieties such as kabooli keekar (Propois Juliflora). The former PM had also alleged that there were irregularities in the much publicised Aravalli project and that the afforestation done by him was comparatively greater and much better than that done by the Department.The State Forest Minister, Jagdish Yadav, yesterday came out with a report on the project even as the confusion continued over Haryana Government's stand on the disputed 400 acres of land belonging to Bhondsi panchayat but under the `possession' of Bharat Yatra Centre, which happens to be a trust set up by the former PM.``I am not saying that Chandra Shekhar has not done afforestation on the land but I am giving figures of the plantation done by us in the past years,'' said Yadav. Giving a detail list of the figures, the Forest Minister informed that, in the year 1992-93 about 25 hectares of the village land was afforested, while in 1993-94 afforestation was done on 95 hectares.In 1994-95, the land brought under the green cover was 40 hectares, in 1996-97, 4 hectares, in 1997-98, 6 hectares and in 1998-99, 5.5 hectares land was afforested. ``In all, about 110.5 hectares out of 165.5 hectares of the Bhondsi village land was afforested by our department,'' Yadav added.The forest minister, while admitting that kabooli keekar had been planted on the land, said that the plantation was done because the particular variety was said to be ideal for this rocky mountainous region. He added that, now the department has decreased the keekar plantation by about 25 per cent in the area and plants like amaltas, gulmohar, kaner, kachnar, rain tree are being planted instead.
