The Goa government will plant fruit bearing trees in forest areas to prevent wild animals from invading human settlements in search of food, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar told the Legislative Assembly today.
"As far as the Forest department is concerned, there are some problems that need to be resolved. One of them is wild animals entering human habitation. We have the issue of wild monkeys, wild boar and wild bison entering farms and destroying them," he told the House.
"We are planning to plant fruit bearing trees in the jungle so that they dont stray into human settlement. Perhaps, because we have encroached on their land, so they are encroaching on our land," Parrikar said.
He said that the state's forest policy would be redrafted once the national forest policy is in place.
The CM informed the House that the state's forest cover had increased by 19 square kilometres as per latest reports.
"We have a forest cover of 2,229 square kilometres which is 61 per cent of the total area of the state," he said.
Parrikar said that five lakh people visited wildlife areas in the state of which three lakh visited Dudhsagar waterfalls in South Goa.
"About 1.5 lakh people visited Bondla Wildlife Sanctuary in North Goa, 18,000 went to Chorao Bird Sanctuary near Panaji and 21,200 went to Netravali Wildlife Sanctuary," he told the Assembly.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
