PANAJI
Taking up plantations commercially? Enter details on a Goa government portal and you will save yourself the hassles of red-tape and graft hindered processes of the Forest Department when you wish to cut them down for commercial exploitation years later.
The portal was launched on Friday and officials claimed it will ease commercial plantation of trees and facilitate their felling.
The portal is meant for a select species of trees and only those specifically grown on a commercial scale.
After launching the online portal, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said: "A person who wants to start commercial plantation of viable species of trees, can apply in advance at the time of planting the tree and after five years or so when he wants to cut it he can produce the permission he had already applied for."
Terming it a 'crucial reform' the Chief Minister opined that tree plantation should also be economically viable.
Sawant also claimed that his government has begun planting fruit-bearing trees and also started water harvesting in forests as a measure to reduce man-animal conflict.
