Students march in valley
SRINAGAR, Oct 6 — Thousands of school children from different areas of the valley here today participated in a "green march" procession from the central Lal Chowk to Tourist Reception Centre to "generate mass awareness" to mark World Habitat Week celebrations.The students carried banners and placards as they marched over a distance of about 1 km from Lal Chowk to TRC.

J&K bans felling of trees
SRINAGAR, Oct 6 —The Jammu and Kashmir Government has imposed a blanket ban on the felling of green trees and the export of timber and its unfinished and semi-finished products from the state, Forest Minister Choudhary Ramzan said yesterday.

Pilgrims stranded
JAMMU, Oct 6 — At least 34,000 pilgrims were stranded at Katra, the base camp of the holy cave shrine of Mata Vaishno Devi, even as the rush of devotees continued to increase for the sixth day today.

Students march in valley
Tribune News Service

SRINAGAR, Oct 6 — Thousands of school children from different areas of the valley here today participated in a "green march" procession from the central Lal Chowk to Tourist Reception Centre (TRC) to "generate mass awareness" to mark World Habitat Week celebrations.

Clad in colourful school uniforms, the students carried banners and placards as they marched over a distance of about 1 km from Lal Chowk to TRC via Residency Road. The march started at about 10.30 a.m. and it was flagged off by the Forest and Environment Minister Choudhary Mohammad Ramzan at Clock Tower in Lal Chowk.

The march was organised by the Department of Environment and Remote Sensing in association with the Jammu and Kashmir Police.

It is for the first time during the past many years that such a march was conducted in the central Lal Chowk attended by about 15,000 students drawn from different government and private educational institutions. A colourful cultural programme was also presented at the Jammu and Kashmir Police Sports Field at the Tourist Reception Centre.

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah, who was the chief guest at the function, stressed the need for a pollution-free environment and asked the participants to contribute towards a clean atmosphere.

Dr Abdullah regretted that the agencies concerned with cleanliness of the city and other water bodies did not attend to the jobs assigned to them properly. In this connection he referred to the functioning of Srinagar municipality, responsible for cleanliness in the city. He said in spite of the number of workers in the municipality and the pressure for job it had failed to do the needful.

Speaking on the occasion, Choudhary Ramzan said the state was faced with a serious environmental problems and the need of the hour was to create mass awareness. Earlier, Mr R.D. Tewari, Director, Environment and Remote Sensing gave a brief on the activities of the department and of other related agencies in the field.

Traffic on Residency Road had been stopped since early morning till the function was over in the afternoon. The vehicles coming to Lal Chowk were diverted via Abdullah Bridge and Indira Gandhi Road culminating at Budshah Chowk after passing through the Exhibition Crossing. There was a traffic chaos throughout the central areas of the city due to traffic restrictions.

Tight security arrangements were made on the occasion.

J&K bans felling of trees
Tribune News Service

SRINAGAR, Oct 6 —The Jammu and Kashmir Government has imposed a blanket ban on the felling of green trees and the export of timber and its unfinished and semi-finished products from the state, Forest Minister Choudhary Ramzan said yesterday. Commercial felling, use of timber in bridges and wooden electric poles had also been banned and the resin quota system had been abolished.

Several steps have been taken to check illicit felling and smuggling of forest wealth, removal of encroachment on forest land and amended the Forest Act giving more teeth and powers to the forest officials, besides dismantling 526 saw mills operating illegally. As much as 1.65 lakh cft of timber was seized during a drive against timber smugglers during the past two years.

Under the new Forest Act, a timber smuggler would be jailed up to 12 years and fined Rs 12,000.

The minister said forest in Jammu and Kashmir suffered on account of the lack of financial support from the State and the Centre. Forests covered 19 per cent of the 2,22,236 sq km of the total land of the State out of which at least 5 lakh hectares had been degraded and awaited sufficient financial assistance.

Even as the state government had increased the fiscal allocation from 2.5 per cent to 5 per cent during the past two financial years, the forests sector required an increase to 8 per cent. This was due to the damage caused to forest cover during the past eight years of militancy where security was the priority sector with the state in the absence of a popular government.

In the absence of a forest conservation policy, various projects were undertaken by the Centre. Various such projects were undertaken at the cost of forest wealth in the state. The minister stated that in order to seek Central assistance, 41 projects were formulated and submitted to Centre for funding out of which 26 projects received approval. The Rs 1800-crore Jhelum basin project in the Kashmir valley and the Rs 100 crores Shivalik project in Jammu is awaiting the centre's approval.

Pilgrims stranded

JAMMU, Oct 6 (PTI) — At least 34,000 pilgrims were stranded at Katra, the base camp of the holy cave shrine of Mata Vaishno Devi, even as the rush of devotees continued to increase for the sixth day today.

The daily inflow of pilgrims at Katra is 18,000 and 34,000 pilgrims are awaiting their turn for "darshan" at the shrine, according to superintendent of police (Katra) Yog Raj Sharma.

At least 4,000 pilgrims had been held up at Vaishno Devi Bhavan and 30,000 were stranded at Katra for the third day, Mr Sharma said.