Now Reading: J&K gets Rs 11.08 lakh forest fire aid after four years without funds
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J&K gets Rs 11.08 lakh forest fire aid after four years without funds
Jammu and Kashmir received Rs 11.08 lakh in central assistance for forest fire prevention in 2025-26, the only funding released to the Union Territory under the scheme in the past five years.…
The Story in Brief
Jammu and Kashmir received Rs 11.08 lakh in central assistance for forest fire prevention in 2025-26, the only funding released to the Union Territory under the scheme in the past five years. The Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change told the Rajya Sabha on Thursday that no funds were released to J&K under the Forest Fire Prevention and Management scheme in 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24, or 2024-25.
The Centre also said J&K and Ladakh are not covered under the Mitigation Scheme for Forest Fire Risk Management, a separate programme funded through the National Disaster Mitigation Fund that covers 144 high-priority districts across 19 states with an outlay of Rs 818.92 crore. Nationally, the ministry released Rs 164.90 crore under the FFPM scheme over the same period. The Forest Survey of India operates the FAST 3.0 satellite system for early fire detection.
The Indian Opinion
The claim that the Centre is neglecting forest fire prevention in J&K gets some backing from these numbers: four consecutive years of zero funding under a named scheme, followed by a token Rs 11 lakh. But the larger picture shows Rs 165 crore flowing to other states. The real test is whether J&K's forest department files a robust annual plan, as Himachal did, to draw more funds. Without that, blaming Delhi alone misses half the story.
Source: greaterkashmir.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
