Money to grow on trees in Kerala

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Chase the passion for growing trees on your compound and collect cash incentives from the forest department.

The department has decided to offer incentives to homesteads planting trees on their private land. A household will have to plant at least 50 trees to claim the incentive. And any tree will not suffice.

Trees selected should be from 10 species identified by the department: teak, sandalwood, mahogony, anjily, plavu, rosewood, kambakam, kumbil, kunnivaka, thembavu.

The social forestry wing of the forest department will distribute saplings at government-approved rates. The department reckons that an acre (100 cents) can hold 250 trees.

There are three incentive slabs: 50-200 plants incentive Rs 50 per plant, 201 to 400 plants, Rs 40 per plant and 401 to 625 plants, ‘ Rs 30 per plant.

Fifty per cent of the incentive will be released at the end of the first year and the remaining half at the end of the third year, after the department ascertains the growth of the plant.

Saplings should reach a height of not less than 1.5 m for teak and mahogony and 50 cm for the other species at the time of the first-year assessment.

To sustain the care, officials will revisit areas at the fifth and tenth year and special cash awards will be given to top performers in all the three slabs.

Applications for the incentive should be submitted to forest range officers. The scheme, ‘Incentivisation of Private Forestry’, will be carried out through Kudumbashree units, NGOs and farmers’ cooperatives.