Chandrapur: Dams have lost their significance for rural population as they mainly cater to big industries and pose a threat to environment, social activist Anna Hazare said on Saturday while stressing the need for conservation of environment.
"Dams are of little use for rural population as they often cater to large industries, urban population and pose a serious threat to environment", Hazare said while delivering the inaugural address at the two-day workshop of Joint Forest Management (JFM) committees under Chandrapur, Gadchiroli and Nagpur forest circles in Chandrapur.
While hailing the concept of JFM as "revolutionary", Hazare said, "dams have a fixed life span and the amount of silt displaced by them is nothing but the fertile top-soil which takes at least 100 years for formation".
JFM involves forging partnerships in forest management involving both the state forest departments and local communities. Hazare observed that initiatives undertaken by JFMs would help in realisation of Mahatma Gandhi's ideology of prosperity of villages which would in turn lead to prosperity of the country.
He accused government of centralisation of power which he said tantamount to oligarchy. Stressing the need to protect environment, Hazare said, "The best way to conserve it is by planting trees and saving forests. JFMs, if practically implemented, would prove to be the key to success to tackle various environmental issues".
Praveen Pardeshi, Chief Secretary (Forests), said that objective of JFMs was to spread awareness about various government policies among common people. "We also intend to create a better rapport between villagers and forest officials", he said. Hazare presented a cheque of Rs 55,000 to a JFM office bearer from Gilibili village as the share of revenue generated out of bamboo from the forest maintained by JFM.
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