Agartala, Sept 5 (TIWN) Germany, which has provided a whopping Rs.1.4 billion financial aid to Tripura for empowering the tribals and people living in remote areas by utilising natural resources, may provide additional financial assistance to the northeastern state, forest Minister Jitendra Choudhury said here Thursday.

Returning from Germany after completing a 14-day tour to that country and UK, the minister said that the German government has indicated to give more financial assistance to the Indo-German Development Cooperation (IGDC) project for two more years beyond 2014.

“We would now approach to the German government through the Indian government’s economic affairs division of the finance ministry. The earlier aid was given by the KfW, now the additional help likely to be given by the German government,” Choudhury added.

An Indian delegation led by Mr Choudhury visited Germany from Aug 22 to study the successful livelihood project based on forests in that country.

KfW, a German government-owned development bank based in Frankfurt, has been providing financial assistance to various Indian-German forest-based projects in India.

Under the IGDC project, the KfW has been providing 15 million euros (Rs.1.4 billion) as grant to implement the five-year-long (2009-2014) project.

Over 50,000 families, mostly tribals and rural poor, would benefit under the project, to be implemented in 104 villages under Dhalai and north Tripura districts.

Germany is also providing technical assistance to utilise natural resources for sustainable development to make the people self-reliant.

“We have also sought financial assistance from the KfW under the under the climate change mitigation task. But the officials of the Indian government when sending the scheme to KfW, excluded Tripura, Manipur and Sikkim keeping other five northeastern states for the aid,” the minister said adding that now the Tripura government would submit the scheme afresh to get the support.

The Indian delegation besides visiting the German’s various forests and bio-diversity based project met renowned scientists, experts and environmentalists of prominent institutions in Germany and Britain and discussed projects on bio-diversity, climate change, protection of ecology, wild life, forest management and primate and vulture breeding.

The KfW-aided scheme, which would cover 343,100 hectares of forest land, would also reduce the activities of “Jhum” cultivation (slash and burn shifting cultivation) and increase bio-diversity.

Tribals in the hilly terrain of Tripura and other northeastern states have for generations been carrying out the traditional slash-and-burn method of cultivation, which has resulted in degradation of forest land and has badly affected the condition of soil.

Some 55,049 tribal families in Tripura are involved in this primitive form of cultivation, covering forest area of about 40,000 hectares.