The Uttarakhand Government has decided that the State Cabinet will pass a proposal for green felling of pine trees in the mountainous regions of Uttarakhand and then approach the Supreme Court with this to get some relaxation in the ban on green felling above 1,000 metres altitude. State Forest and Wildlife Minister Dinesh Aggarwal said this while addressing the media on various Forest Department related decisions on Tuesday. Aggarwal said that other plants do not grow in areas covered by pine in addition to which the pine also abets forest fires. He said, “During the time of undivided Uttar Pradesh, the State Cabinet had decided to prohibit green felling in areas located above 1,000 metres altitude. To overcome the detrimental impact of pine, the Uttarakhand Cabinet will pass a proposal to enable regulated green felling of pine and then, the State will approach the Supreme Court on this issue. We have decided to allow people to collect pine needles with official permission without paying any charge to the forest department. We are also preparing a plan to be submitted to the Centre for allowing increased dredging of rivers in Uttarakhand,” said Aggarwal. The Minister further informed that Chief Minister Harish Rawat had recently announced that the State Government will pay the cost of bullet to anyone, who shoots a wild boar with the department’s permission to exterminate an animal declared pest. “Wild boars and monkeys are causing major problems for the people especially farmers in the State. Anyone permitted by the forest guard to shoot a wild boar declared pest will be reimbursed the cost of the bullet by the State. To mitigate the monkey menace, we are constructing one monkey sterilisation centre-cum-shelter at Chidiyapur in Haridwar and one at Haldwani. This project will cost about `5 crore out of which I have approved `2.32 crore under CAMPA for procuring sterilisation equipment. Department staff will be trained in monkey catching. I have also directed the department to form two teams which will penalise anyone caught feeding monkeys on the stretches from Dehradun to Dat Kali temple and from Dehradun to Lacchiwala,” said the minister. Aggarwal also said that a Van Panchayat conference will be held at Gairsain a day after conclusion of the assembly session while another such conference will be held in Haldwani.