Government of Jammu and Kashmir Department of Forests, Environment & Ecology Civil Secretariat, Srinagar. www.jkforestadm.nic.in Subject : Sanction of Draft Working Plan of Ramban Forest Division. Reference : Pr.Chief Conservator of Forests, PCCF/WPR&T/F-144/23-25 dated 20-02-2018. Government Order No : 113 – FST of 2018 D a t e d : 27 - 03 - 2018 Sanction is hereby, accorded to the operation of the Working Plans of Ramban Forest Divisions as recommended by the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, (HoFF) J&K, Jammu after being approved by the Working Plan Committee constituted vide G.O. No. 67-FST of 2016 dated 03-03-2016. Existing Working Plan Revised Working Plan S. Division Name of the Working Period Name of the Period No. Plan Officer originally Working Plan approved approved Officer 1. Ramban Shri. Pritam Chand, IFS 1985-86 to Shri. Sat Paul, IFS 2018-19 to 1994-95 2027-2028 extended till 2017-18 The above revised Working Plan is subject to the following conditions : 1. That in the event of ban on the felling of green trees in the forests of J&K being lifted, extraction of green trees will not be allowed during the extended period unless the table of felling for each working circle is approved by the Working Plan Committee; and 2. That the Divisional Forest Officers shall compile the extraction data according to the relevant control forms for the corresponding working plan periods, and the period that has elapsed thereafter, so that the same is taken into account during the extended period. 3. That no activity is permitted to be taken up in the forest area in violation of the provisions of the J&K Forest (Conservation) Act. i 4. That it shall be ensured that the provisions of the J&K Forest (Conservation) Act and guidelines issued there under are strictly followed while implementing working plan prescriptions. 5. That the standing instructions issued by the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India from time to time in Writ Petition 202/95 as well as in similar Writ Petitions shall meticulously be followed. 6. That this approval does not ipso facto imply approval of any proposed non forestry activities requiring separate clearance under Jammu and Kashmir Forest (Conservation) Act. Such activities shall not be undertaken until separate Forest / wildlife / Environmental clearances, as the case may be are obtained under the Act. By order of the Government of Jammu and Kashmir. Sd/- (Saurabh Bhagat) IAS Commissioner / Secretary to Government Department of Forest, Environment & Ecology No : FST/Land /21/2018 Dated : 27-03-2018 Copy to the : 1. Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, (HoFF) J&K Jammu. 2. Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, (Working Plan) J&K Jammu. 3. Chief Conservator of Forests, Jammu. 4. Conservator of Forests, Working Plan, J&K Jammu. 5. Shri. Sat Paul, IFS,DCF, Divisional Forest Officer, Working Plan Division-III, Doda. 6. Director, Archieves, Archaelogy & Museums J&K Jammu. 7. Officer on Special Duty with the Hon’ble Minister for Forests, Environment & Ecology. 8. Special Assistant to Hon’ble Minister of State for Forests, Environment & Ecology. 9. Pvt. Secretary to Commisioner/Secretary to Government, Department of Forests, Environment & Ecology. 10. Government Order file/stock file. (Riaz-Ul-Haq) Under Secretary to Government Forest, Environment & Ecology Deptt. ii INTRODUCTION This Working Plan is the revision of seventh Plan for period of 1985-86 to 1994-95 for Ramban Forest Division prepared by Sh.Pritam Chand, IFS for area of present Ramban Forest Division. This is the second revision of the plan after reorganisation of Ramban Forest Division in January 1982 and covers the area under Ramban and Banihal Range. Due to unavoidable circumstances in the state there was no revision of plan from year 1994-95 to 2016-17 so plan prepared by Sh.Pritam Chand was considered as extended till 2017-18. It was further exacerbated by the rulings of Hon’ble Supreme Court the concerns of environment protection and conservation of forests were taken in to consideration and moratorium was issued on working of forests particularly in the State of Jammu and Kashmir. Due to ban on green felling and in the absence of working plan there was impact on the stand characteristics of forests and its extent. The same has also resulted in progressive degradation of forests due to cessation of important management interventions in the forests. The situation is accentuated by the increasing population and its dependence on forests. Moreover increase in development activities like construction of roads, railways, buildings etc in or across forest land too exerted extra pressure on the forest land and caused fragmentation of habitat. The stoppage of working and flow of associated benefits to the local people together with strict policing by forest department resulted in indifferent attitude of local people toward forests and its protection. It is in this background that working plan exercise has been carried out and prescriptions have been given for mitigations of problems and improvement of health of forests and improvement of livelihood opportunities for local people. A balance is desired to be achieved between commercial and conservation working of forests in this plan. Local people have been accepted as active stakeholders and flow of real and sizable benefits have been prescribed to ensure the cause of conservation. One highlight of the plan is classification and designation of plan in to conservation and production zones in order to arrive a deft balance between the countervailing demands to derive optimum output. Emphasis has been laid on the involvement of local people and benefit sharing with the fringe communities in a manner that adequate benefits are derived by the locals. The already existing institution of Village Forest Committee (VFC) is recommended to be strengthened by increasing its functionality and relevance so that locals have say in management of forests and benefit sharing. It is pertinent to mention that field exercise has been carried out before 2014 but attempt has been made to conform the prescription to the guidelines of National Working Plan Code 2014 for sustainable management of forests and biodiversity. In this working plan revision extensive use of technology especially Geographical Information System (GIS) based spatial outlay and analysis has been iii done. The compartment, Beat, Block, Range and Division boundaries have been properly digitised and forest area has been calculated accordingly. Forest areas have been classified on the basis of density in to classes as very dense forests, dense forests, open forests and blanks or un-cropped area. In the estimation of growing stock method of stratified random sampling based on crop density has been adopted and data was collected from sample plots. The application of technology and adopting stratified random sampling saved time and resource. The stock mapping was done from satellite imagery analysis and it was verified using Google earth image and confirmed by ground truthing. Satellite imagery of LISS-IV acquired from NRSC Hyderabad and Landset-V available free has employed to undertake this exercise. Forest area has been divided in to four Territorial Working Circles viz. Mix Conifer Selection Working Circle, Fir Working Circle, Reboisement Working Circle and Conservation Working Circle, different compartments have been allotted to these working circles. The Silviculture system adopted is Selection System as the forests of this division are not suitable for concentrated felling. The yield calculation has been done by both Brandis Diameter Class Method and Von Mantel’s formula and lower figures of the two were taken for final calculation. Mix Conifer Selection Working Circle and Fir Working Circle are the two commercial working circles constituted and exploitable diameter is prescribed as 70 CM d.b.h for Deodar and Kail and 80 CM d.b.h for Fir. The areas of commercial working circles that failed in obtaining adequate regeneration during the course of time but have potential to regenerate and support forest crop have been placed in Reboisement Working Circle. Intensive measures to protect and rehabilitate these forests through artificial sowing and planting have been prescribed. The areas which are inaccessible and require protection on account of their importance to perennial flow of water and from soil and water conservation have been grouped in conservation working circle. No felling of any kind has been prescribed in this working circle except for concessional marking of dead dry and fallen trees. Tapping of resin and felling of green Chir trees has been prescribed to remain suspended during the currency of this plan. Thin, degraded and malformed Chir forests of this divisions have suffered in past on account of resin tapping and have not recovered fully so resin tapping is not at all recommended in this plan. In this working plan separate overlapping working circles have been prepared for Forest Protection, Wildlife Management, Non-Timber Forest Produce Management, Eco-tourism, Grassland management, Joint Forest Management, Plantation etc. Keeping in view the huge dependence of local people on the forests of Ramban Forest Division the existing management practices have been discussed evaluated and fresh prescriptions have been given in each working circles to iv improve the overall management of these working circles to ensure active participation and free flow of benefits to the local communities. The field exercise for data collection and layout of this working plan was done by field staff of Ramban Forest Division under supervision of DFO Ramban in year 2011-12 and 2012-13 and thereafter the writing work remained unattended for few years. In January 2017 undersigned was posted in Working Plan division-III, Doda and field data and rough draft was taken over from DFO Ramban to continue the writing part.