Manipur: Heibok Ching Hillock declared reserved forest
Imphal: The sacred Heibok Ching Hillock located near the Manipur University has been declared as a Reserved Forest in a bid to conserve the environment and biodiversity.
Apart from conservation, the declaration was made to increase the forest cover which is on the decrease from 17,475 sq km in 1987 to 16,598 sq km in 2021 in the state.
This was resolved in the state cabinet meeting held on Thursday with Chief Minister N Biren Singh in the chair.
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Manipur Information and Public Relations Minister, Sapam Ranjan Singh, after the cabinet meeting said that reservation is to be made under Section 4 of the Indian Forest Act, 1927.
He noted that Heibok Hillock was previously designated as a revenue village under the name “68-Heibok Ching” in a gazette notification issued on December 2, 2014, as per Section 2(w) of the Manipur Land Revenue and Land Reforms Act, 1960.
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Manipur has a total tree cover of 77.20 per cent of its total geographical area. Of this, 8.42 per cent is under reserved forests, 23.95 per cent is protected forests, and the rest is unclassified forests.
Recorded Forest Area (RFA) in the State is 17,418 sq km of which 1,467 sq km is Reserved Forest, 4,171 sq km is Protected Forest and 11,780 sq km is Unclassified Forest.