Hyderabad: Mankena Srinivas Reddy (MSR), who has rich experience in agriculture, social welfare, and micro-insurance sectors has been appointed as a member to the National Afforestation & Eco-Development Board (NAEB) under the Ministry of Environment, Forest, & Climate Change. MSR is the lone South Indian to be appointed to the Board, which is the apex level national body for promotion of afforestation, tree planting, ecological restoration, and eco-development activities in India.

A resident of Hyderabad, MSR has been in public life since 1983, and has worked on various committees and panels in the past. He is a member of the general body of CAPART under the Ministry of Rural Development, Govt. of India since 2016; along with being a member of Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education. Since 2016, MSR is also a member of the Zonal Railway Users Consultative Committee under the South-Central Railway.

The immediate challenging responsibility entrusted to the Board is to achieve increased forest and tree cover to the extent of 33% of the total geographical area of the country; a target envisaged in the National Forest Policy of 1988. The NAEB will also be dealing with schemes like ‘Nagar Van Yojana’, aimed at increasing green cover and biodiversity in urban areas, and thereby providing a wholesome healthy and pollution free environment to the city dwellers.

Other members appointed to NAEB include, Mr. Jagat Singh Janglee (Uttarakhand), Vikas Bharti Bishunpur (voluntary organization from Jharkhand), Diidum Ane Welfare Society (Arunachal Pradesh), Gramium (voluntary organization from Tamil Nadu), ISRN (a Delhi based NGO), and Mr. Popatrao Baguji Pawar, who has been appointed to the board as a “concerned person”.