Van Mahotsav Bankhandi (Dharamsala), July 26 The state government has planned a major investment in forestry-related activities. Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, while presiding over the 61st state-level Van Mahotsav function organised at Bankhandi, 40 km from here, said Rs 123 crore would be invested by the state government in forestry-related activities in the current financial year. Data collected by The Tribune regarding the status of forests in the state has some concerns for the policy makers and environmentalists. In the recent past, the Government of India announced green bonus for the Himalayan states. The state got about Rs 100 crore as green bonus under the scheme, which was the lowest amount among all Himalayan states of the country. Even states like Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand received more green bonus than the state. Jammu and Kashmir got Rs 160 crore under the scheme while Uttarakhand got about Rs 205 crore. The eastern Himalayan states got much more funds due to larger percentage of forest cover. According to sources, the state received least green bonus due to lesser percentage of dense forest cover. The power projects have adversely affected the dense forest cover in the state. In the past two decades 9,000 hectares forest area has been diverted to power projects. The forest cover in the state increased from 26 per cent to 44 per cent after above the snowline areas were removed from the formula used by the Forest Survey of India (FSI) to calculate the amount of forest cover in respective states. However, even this increase in forest cover was the lowest in case of the state. Dhumal also said this year thrust would be on growing medicinal trees and herbs as they have been over exploited in the state by unplanned commercial use.