States' comments on HLC views will be considered: Javadekar

CHENNAI: Many state governments have given their comments on the recommendations of the High-Level Committee that reviewed environmental laws and all such inputs will be considered together by the Centre, Union environment and forests minister Prakash Javadekar has said.

"These are recommendations...many state governments have also given their comments and now, by May we have received practically many recommendations and now we will consider all recommendations together," he told PTI in reply to a query.

A High-Level Committee (HLC) headed by former Cabinet secretary TSR Subramanian reviewed environmental laws and has given its recommendations to the Centre.

The Committee's Terms of Reference include assessment of the status of implementation of laws including Environment (Protection) Act, Indian Forests Act, Forest (Conservation) Act, Wildlife (Protection) Act vis-à-vis the objectives.

It has given 55 recommendations including those related to proposal to revamp project clearance and approval process.

"HLC is one major input, it is one input, it is not the accepted recommendations," he said yesterday when asked what were the major recommendations that have been accepted by the Centre.

Earlier, in a meeting with top Tamil Nadu forest officials he said the state could peruse concepts like "memorial garden" to encourage people's participation under the Centre's urban green campaign.

Javadekar outlined the priorities under the Urban green campaign by the Centre.

"People can be encouraged to adopt trees by paying Rs 1,000 or Rs 2,000 per tree in memory of their beloved ones, memorial gardens may be set as part of urban greenery efforts," he said.

He also shared some of the experiences in Maharashtra, his home state, in this regard.

Later, he was apprised on the forest cover of Tamil Nadu and other related aspects through a power point presentation.

As part of the urban green initiative, some of the proposed gardens may be sponsored by corporates as well, he added.