In a first of its kind, Uttarakhand will assign a monetary value to its natural resources in the form of Gross Environment Product (GEP). It is along the lines of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

 A five-member committee has already been formed in this regard, headed by the principal secretary of forests, Uttarakhand. The committee will devise a method to measure the GEP in the same way as GDP, thereby framing policies that will allow sustainable development.

The announcement was made on the occasion of World Environment Day 2021 by the then Uttarakhand Chief Minister Tirath Singh Rawat and State Forest and Environment Minister Harak Singh Rawat.

 The demand to incorporate Gross Environment Product (GEP) in the states evaluation mechanism was pending for the past few decades and several academicians and environmentalists were pressing for it.

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