The demand for “green bonus” — a special economic package, to Himalayan states to help manage its financial burden to preserve national resources — is gaining traction.
D.T. Lepcha, the Rajya Sabha member from Sikkim, is the latest to raise the issuein Parliament.
Leaders and environmentalists from the 11 Himalayan states in the country believe that despite the region’s ecosystem services benefitting the nation and the world, the states are bearing the burden of land-use curbs for conservation and should be compensated for it.
Requesting for a special package for Sikkim, Lepcha while speaking during the ongoing Parliament’s winter session, told the House that the Himalayan state had borne the financial burden of last year’s glacial lake outburst flood.
“The state sometimes feels it is disproportionately shouldering the cost of maintaining its natural treasures,”he added.
Sikkim has 84 glaciers and 34 lakes, apart from riversand mountains.
“Sikkim is a green state with 82 per cent forest land over 47 per cent forest cover despite over 30 per cent area under snow and rocks, which is among the highest in the country,” Lepcha said in the Rajya Sabha.
Development activities are restricted on forest land.
“As a world’s mega-biodiversity hotspot, Sikkim harbours 26 per cent of India’s biodiversity within 0.2 per cent of its area,” added Lepcha.
Recently, Himachal Pradesh chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu had urged the NITI Aayog to consider “a different deal for hilly states” because their needs were different.
Sukhu said his state acted as lungs for north India and must get “green bonus”.
Representatives from at least 10 Himalayan states had asked Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman for a “green bonus” during a conclave at Mussoorie.
Even though the Centre has not come up with any “green bonus” scheme, the UPA government had in 2011 accepted the recommendation of the 13th finance commission for grants to states with exceptional forest areas.
Environmentalists believe the fragile Himalayas need more attention. “At the Parvat Mathan meet in Delhi held on December 3 and 4, delegates from India, Bhutan and Nepal focused on the growing challenges of water security in the Himalayan belt,” said an environmentalist who attended the event.