Environment

Rain-water harvesting ponds have been built in several community forests located near the East-West Highway in Nawalparasi (Bardaghat-Susta-East) area.

Budget for the construction of conservation ponds inside the forests along the road stretch was made available through the Narayangarh-Butwal road expansion project.

Financial arrangement was made for the community forests for preserving bio-diversity in compensation of the trees cut down during the course of the road expansion. Information Officer at the Division Forest Office, Nawalpur, Hari Prasad Gautam said that 27 community forests linked with the highway were asked to submit proposals for conserving bio-diversity.

The project itself had commissioned a study on the potential impacts in different areas while cutting down trees.

"The study revealed that the wildlife and environment would be affected due to tree being chopped-down. So, we invited plans from the community forests to address the impacts on bio-diversity. Most of the community forests submitted plans for constructing bio-diversity conservation ponds".

He said that 26 out of 27 community forests had submitted their plans for constructing ponds for preserving bio-diversity.

-With RSS inputs