JAMMU, JANUARY 07: The J&K Forest Department today interacted with the khair growing farmers at Mawa Brahmana village of Akhnoor Tehsil and listened to their grievances.
Chief Conservator of Forests, Jammu Dr. V.S. Senthil Kumar; Conservator of Forests-East Circle, Jammu, Pradeepchandra Wahule and Divisional Forest Officer Anurag Arya attended the meeting along with other departmental officers and staff of Kalidhar Range.
The farmers put forward several issues faced by them in the khair extraction approval process in the previous felling cycle.
Problems such as lack of information, pendency at various levels and schedule of the 10-year felling cycle were raised by the farmers.
The Chief Conservator of Forests and his team gave a patient hearing and assured the farmers that their issues would be looked into. “Suitable modifications will be adopted in the proposed new 10-year felling plan so that maximum farmers can reap benefits,” they assured.
The team outlined the current effort of the department to assess the Khair availability for the next plan. For this, the farmers were briefed about the field exercise that is going to be undertaken for the assessment wherein the farmers will self-report the number of trees and girth class wise growing on their private lands.
The farmers were also given training on the measurement methods to report accurate figures.
Dr. V.S. Senthil Kumar instructed the field staff to assist the farmers in the assessment of khair growing on their lands. Forms for self-reporting the khair trees growing on private lands were distributed among farmers. It was also assured that public notice and copies of forms would be made available in Panchayat Ghars across the khair growing regions of Jammu province to facilitate the farmers. The farmers were advised to adhere to the deadline for submission of these forms which is 31 March 2026.
The meeting saw participation of farmers from Mawa Brahmana, Sungal, Lohara, Bisala and other villages of Akhnoor Tehsil. The farmers appreciated that the Department is conducting local level meetings to address their issues and hear their demands.
The 10 year khair felling program that started in 2016-17 is scheduled to conclude on March 31, 2026. The next felling program is expected to commence from 2027-28. The J&K Forest Department has begun work on formulation of the new felling program and this public meeting is a step in the same direction. The Department aims to balance economic benefits with khair preservation by ensuring systematic and sustainable extraction of khair trees.