New Delhi/Itanagar, Dec 20 (IANS): A day ahead of a national workshop on oil palm cultivation in the northeast, Arunachal Pradesh said that it will recommend taking up its cultivation in the state while preserving its environment.

The Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, in collaboration with the Arunachal Pradesh government, has planned a the national workshop on oil palm at Itanagar on Tuesday.

"It has been made categorically clear that the plantation work will not be done by damaging the standing forests as are being done in Southeast Asian countries. The proposed workshop will recommend taking up of oil palm cultivation in the northeast, including Arunachal Pradesh, by preserving its environment," state Agriculture Secretary, Bidol Tayeng, said

In Arunachal Pradesh, an area of 1.33 lakh Ha is available for taking up oil palm cultivation. The areas are mostly located in the foot-hill districts of Tirap, Changlang, Namsai, Lohit, Lower Dibang Valley, East Siang, Lower Siang, Papum Pare, Pakke Kessang and Kamle. About 4,000 Ha of land are already under oil palm cultivation in the state.

While the state Agriculture Department, which is the nodal department for oil palm, is actively involved in the planning and implementation of the new oil palm policy, it has also made it very clear that the plantation will be taken up only in the huge unused land available in the foothills areas of the state, Tayeng said in a statement.

Environmentalists have been up in arms against the government announcement of expansion of oil palms in to the NE states as the monoculture plantation is damaging for the rich biodiversity of the area.

Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar had announced that the northeastern states would turn into an oil palm hub of the country, prior to which the Union Cabinet had approved Rs 11,040 crore outlay for over five years for the National Mission on Edible Oil-Oil Palm for reducing India's import of edible oil.

While oil palms are widely grown in states such as Telangana, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu etc., the country is still importing huge quantity of palm oil annually, mostly from southeast Asian countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia.

During his Independence Day speech, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced a scheme to boost palm oil production in the northeast and Andaman and Nicobar Islands, both regions having high rainfall.