Forests Department, Haryana is a department of the Government of Haryana, a state in India, that runs and maintains many protected nature areas in the state of Haryana. It has two administrative divisions: Forest and Wildlife. The department is responsible for maintaining National Parks, Wildlife Sanctuaries and Conservation Reserves in Haryana. It also provides a special emphasis on Soil and Moisture Conservation works in the hills to conserve water and deliver it to adjacent farmlands. Two National Parks, eight Wildlife Sanctuaries, two Conservation Reserves, four Animal & Bird Breeding Centres, one Deer park, and 49 herbal parks. Kanwar Pal Gujjar has been the cabinet minister responsible for this department since October 2019. constitute the Protected Area network of the department, covering 0.75% of the state. It also maintains a list of Protected Areas in Haryana.
Administrative divisions
Principal Chief Conservator of Forests heads the Haryana Forests Department. There are two divisions: Wildlife Zones for wildlife and Forests Zones for forests.
Forests zones There are two Forests Protection zones and 4 Forests circles/divisions, i.e., 2 circles per zone. Each Forests Protection Zone is headed by the Chief Conservator of Forests assisted by his subordinate Divisional Forest Officer (DFO), who heads the respective circles.Haryana Forests Manual
Forests Protection Zone-1: Based at Panchkula, covers the geographical northern half of Haryana. North Forests Circle/Division: Covers northeast geographical quadrant of Haryana including Shivalik Hills and down to Sonipat. West Forests Circle/Division: Covers northwest geographical quadrant of Haryana including Sirsa, Hisar, Jind.Haryana diverted most forest land, now wants money for afforestation, Business Standard, 18 January 2018. Forests Protection Zone-2: Based at Gurugram, covers geographical southern half of Haryana. Central Forests Circle/Division: Covers central geographical quadrant of Haryana including Rohtak, Jhajjar, Charkhi Dadri, Bhiwani, Mahendragarh etc. South Forests Circle/Division: Covers geographical South Haryana including Faridabad, Nuh, Palwal, etc.
Wildlife zones There are two sub zones, each one headed by the Chief Conservator of Wildlife. Wildlife North zone: Based at Panchkula, covers the geographical northern half of Haryana including Shivalik Hills to Sirsa, to Hisar to Rohtak. Wildlife South zone: Based at Gurugram, covers the geographical southern half of Haryana including Charkhi Dadri, Bhiwani, Mahendragarh, Nuh, palwal, Gurugram, Faridabad, etc.
Flora of Haryana
Forests of Haryana include 3.52% area of Haryana as reserved forests, and additionally, nearly 3.62% of Haryana is under tree cover. Thus a total of 7.14% of Haryana is under tree cover against the national target of 30%, and state target of 20% land under forest cover. India's forest policy mandates bringing 20% land under forest cover with the view to having a total of 30% area under forest cover, and Haryana only has 3.9% (1,584 km2) land under forest cover, which was further reduced by 79.44 km2 between 2014–15 and 2016-17 due to diversion of forest land to other uses. The main forest cover lies in Sivalik Hills Range in the northeast and Aravalli Hills Range in the south of Haryana. Mangar Bani is a sacred grove in Haryana Aravallis, which is also the largest and one of the oldest Neolithic sites in India with stone tools and rock paintings. Yamuna and Sarasvati (Ghaggar) rivers are sacred rivers that flow through Haryana. Dhosi Hills is one of the sacred mountains of Haryana.
By 2021, the Haryana government provides INR50 per tree per student every six months for classes 6 to 12 for planting and caring for trees for at least three years. The government is considering making it mandatory to plant and care for at least ten trees to obtain the graduation certificate from year 12. Higher degrees and students will be given ten marks for planting trees.
Forests Department, Haryana has initiated a state-wide program to plant panchavati groves in each village, along the temples, ponds, and common land. From 2021, the village identified the land for planting these groves, which will be looked after by the villagers. Within each grove, the peepal will be planted in the east, Banyan in the north, bel in the centre, amla in the west and ashoka tree in the south. Panchavati, are groves of five trees sacred to Indian-origin religions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. Panchvati has five types of sacred trees, however, there are more than five types of trees that are considered sacred and form the part of Panchayati. Sacred trees used in panchavati are the Vata (ficus benghalensis, Banyan), Ashvattha (ficus religiosa, Peepal), Bilva (aegle marmelos, Bengal Quince), Amalaki (phyllanthus emblica, Indian Gooseberry, Amla), Ashoka (Saraca asoca, Ashok), Udumbara (ficus racemosa, Cluster Fig, Gular), Nimba (Azadirachta indica, Neem) and Shami (prosopis spicigera, Indian Mesquite). In Hindu belief, the Kalpavriksha is a wish-granting tree. In addition to the Panchvati trees described below, the other sacred trees include the Akshayavat -a sacred fig tree, Banana leaf, Kadamba, Parijaat, Sandalwood, etc. Bodhi Tree(Banyan) is specially revered, and there are numerous large banyan trees in India. The sacred fruits and plants include the Bael, Kusha grass, Tulsi (see Tulasi chaura and Tulsi Vivah), flowers such as Lotus, Champaka, coconut, paan (betal leaf), banana leaf, etc. are also sacred. Tulsi in India is cultivated for religious and traditional medicine purposes and also for its essential oil. It is widely used as a herbal tea, commonly used in Ayurveda. It has a place within the Vaishnava tradition of Hinduism, in which devotees perform worship involving holy basil plants or leaves. The sacred flowers include the Lotus, Champaka and Marigold.
Fauna of Haryana
Biodiversity of wild animal species
Gurugram and Faridabad have a high concentration of wild animals with 27 species from 14 families, including leopards, hyena, jackal, wolf, fox, jungle cat, mongoose, civet, porcupine, hare, wild pig, rhesus macaque, nilgai, grey francolin and chinkara in the rapidly degrading ecosensitive areas of Raisina, Manesar, Nuh, Mohamadpur Ahir, Bhondsi, Damdama, Mangarbani and Mandawar.There may be an increase in leopard population in Gurugram, Millennium Post, 7 August 2019. Northern Aravalli leopard and wildlife corridor between from Sariska Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan to Delhi Ridge is a 200 km long important biodiversity and wildlife corridor which is a habitat for the Indian leopards and jackals of Aravalli, who often migrate between Delhi and Sariska, but the urban development, in particular the highways and railways bisecting the Aravalli range and wildlife corridor in several place pose a great risk. According to a 2019 study by Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) at the Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary the number of golden jackal has doubled from 8 to 19 in 8 km tract where rodents and hares are their prey base along with the staple diet of zizipus jujube (jhad ber), ruddy mongoose and jungle cats are often sighted too, though striped hyena have been vanishing.Golden jackal numbers double in Asola, Times of India, 16 February 2019.
In 2021, to provide bird habitats in rapidly urbanising areas the Haryana Wildlife Department distributed 6000 bird nest boxes, 1000 each in 6 districts of South Haryana, bird houses to be given to panchayats, government offices, NGOs, etc. To cater for birds of small and medium sizes, the boxes are of two types - 9x9 inch and 1 ft. x 1 ft. Boxes need to be placed in a way that the opening faces away from the strong winds so that hatchlings are protected. Wildlife activists demanded that the government need to take more conservation action than just distributing bird boxes.To give homes to sparrows and mynahs Haryana plans 6000 nest boxes in 6-districts, Times of India, 19 July 201. In 2019, Haryana established a Sparrow Rescue and Research Centre (SRRCP) in Jodhpur village near Bhondsi Nature Camp in Aravalli mountain range in the south Haryana and earlier it had established the SJatayu Conservation and Breeding Centre at Pinjore in Shivalik mountain range in the north Haryana with the help of Bombay Natural History Society. Though International Union for Conservation of Nature has classified the sparrow as least-concerned species globally but its numbers have been declining, specially in Punjab and Haryana. Centres will be focused on conducting research on the causes of decline and to formulate action plans to reverse that.
Leopards
The Leopards of Haryana, the largest predatory mammal of the state, are found in two distinct biospheres, in the Shivalik hill range in the north especially in and around Kalesar National Park and the Morni hills forest, and also in South Haryana in the forests of Northern Aravalli leopard and wildlife corridor. Haryana has nearly 100 leopards in Shivalik and Aravalli,Radio collars to be put on leopards in Haryana, 24 December 2019. including 24 in Kalesar National park alone, and 40 to 45 leopards in Gurugram-Faridabad Aravali of which 35 in Gurugram alone. Large parts of Aravalli are legally and physically unprotected, with no wildlife crossings and little or no wildlife conservation work resulting in deaths of over 11 leopards in 4 years between January 2015 to January 2019.Death, proof of leopard life in Asola sanctuary, Hindustan Times, 31 January 2019.10-month-old leopard found dead on Gurugram-Faridabad Expressway, India Today, 31 January 2019.Leopard killed in accident on Gurugram-Faridabad road, Times of India, 30 January 2019. In January 2019, Wildlife Institute of India (WII) announced that they will undertake the survey of leopard and wildlife, using pugmarks and trap cameras, subsequently leopards and jackals will be tracked via the radio tracking collars. In 2019, the government of Haryana decided to fit all the leopards with radio tracking collars so that their hunting patterns can be studied and the human animal conflicts can be avoided by rescuing leopards straying in human habitations.
Increasing number of leopards
According to the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) study in 2017, the number of leopards increased in the forested areas of Aravali in Gurugram and Faridabad, from virtually none in the 1980s to 40 to 45 leopards. Leopards pugmarks have often been sighted at "Asola Bhatti wildlife sanctuary" and the contiguous forested areas of Gurugram-Faridabad Aravalli hills such as Mangar Bani, Badkhal Lake wildlife area, Mohbtabad, Roj ka Meo.
High leopard death rate caused by humans
According to a study by WII, Wildlife Conservation Society and the National Centre for Biological Sciences the number of leopard has decreased by 80% in last 100 years in India.Protect the spots Leopards in crisis, Millennium Post, 3 February 2018. According to Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI) 500 leopards died in India in 2018. In first four months of 2019, 218 leopards were killed which is 40% more than previous year, thus according to the WPSI assessment this puts leopards at higher risk of extinction than tigers due to very high mortality rate. Leopards adopt to living peacefully near the human habitats, but this also puts them at greater risk of being killed by humans due to poaching, electrocution, being hit by vehicles, etc.Trapped, beaten or shot to death: India loses 218 leopards in 2019, Business Standard, 8 June 2019.