Expressing concern over environmental imbalance that is leading to natural disasters, including landslips, Dinesh Gooli Gowda, Congress MLC, has appealed to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to encourage farmers to take up for agroforestry.
In a letter to the Chief Minister, Mr. Gowda has pointed out that Karnataka’s forest cover is just around 2% as against the required level of 3%. He has suggested various measures, including strict enforcement of norms related to planting alternative saplings whenever tree cover is lost due to infrastructure projects.
Blaming natural disasters such as landslips, which have become common of late during monsoon, on the ecological imbalance due to unmindful destruction of nature, he has suggested stringent action against those destroying forest cover and posing a threat to nature by taking up commercial activities in ecologically sensitive areas.
Pointing out that natural disasters are affecting human lives and ruining the economy, he has argued that the government should invest more in developing forest cover through various means, including encouraging farmers to take up agroforestry as that would help check landslips.
