RANCHI: Jharkhand forest department is finding itself in a fix after receiving a letter from Union ministry of environment, forests and climate change asking all the states to immediately ban the use of polythene for raising seedlings of saplings in their nurseries for afforestation or other purposes.The letter titled 'ban on polythene bags in nurseries', dated November 12, which was reached the forest department recently, read that the Union government has decided to make the country plastic free by 2022.It read, "It has been observed that nurseries under the state forest departments use polythene bags of various sizes for raising seedlings of plants for afforestation and other activities. In this context, you are requested to kindly ensure that use of polythene bags in the nurseries in your state is dispensed with and alternatives are explored for raising seedlings. This may be carried out with immediate effect so that all the nurseries of the state forest department are made plastic free by the next planting season."Notably, the state government had imposed a blanket ban on the use of plastic bags, irrespective of thickness and size, across Jharkhand following a cabinet decision in September 2017. But plastics used in nurseries (parks and gardens) and to package food products and milk were exempted from this ban.However, MOEF’s fresh directives will require a ban of polythene in nurseries too.There exist around 90 state-owned nurseries across Jharkhand which stock thousands of saplings in polythene bags, mainly of black hue. The orders have left officials puzzled on the alternatives.Talking to TOI on Wednesday, principal chief conservator of forests (PCCF), Jharkhand Sanjay Kumar said that they will now write to the Centre soon asking for other alternatives."Since the government of India has formally announced to ban the use of polythene in nurseries, we will have to abide by it. But at the same time, there must be some alternatives to raise seedlings. There are many government agencies which do research in this regards. So, we are going to ask the Centre for alternatives," remarked Kumar, adding that in some of the nurseries, they are also using root-shoot techniques, which doesn’t require the use of polythene. “So, this method can be expanded. Let’s see,” he opined.

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