<span style="color: #222222;">In the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha today called for bringing in new avenues like Ecotourism, promotion of Wood-Based Industries and Non-Timber Forest Products under the ambit of J&K Forest Department.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The initiative is aimed to further enhance the contribution of forest sector in the economic growth of Jammu and Kashmir.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The Lietenant Governor was speaking during the commemoration of Foundation day of J&K Forest Department "130 Years of Dedicated Service" programme held at Raj Bhavan in Srinagar.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Stressing upon maintaining a perfect balance between nature and development, the Lt Governor termed the role of Forest Department as vital and asked the concerned functionaries to explore methods for minimizing the adverse impacts of development.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">He said that Jammu and Kashmir is on the path of rapid development and taking Governance to the doorstep of people is the top-most priority of the Union Territory Government.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">He maintained that to achieve the desired results, there is a need to put special focus on Jan-Bhagidhari and active involvement of grass root level institutions like Village Panchayats in Natural Resource Management.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The Lt Governor stressed on the importance of implementing Forest Rights Act in letter and spirit in a time-bound manner and directed the concerned officials to take stringent action against those encroaching prime forest lands.</span>