Events & Issues

New Delhi, 14 March 2011

Mission Green India

RAMESH MEANS BUSINESS

By Suraj Saraf

The Union Government is all set to launch a “Green India” Mission under which a massive afforestation programme is proposed to increase the forest cover and quality of forests in over ten million hectares of land.

Inaugurating the Southern Forest Ministers Conference recently at Thiruvananthapuram, the Union Environment and Forest Minister Jairam Ramesh said that the Mission would aim at improving the quality of five million hectares of degraded forests and bringing another five million hectares of non-forest areas under forest cover through social and farm forestry.

Significantly, to fulfil this massive afforestation programme Ramesh envisages involving the people including Gram Sabhas, women self-help groups and community organizations. Especially, as the proportion of open degraded forests in South India is as high as forty per cent presently. This hold true in other States as well.

Thus, as regeneration of these forests could not be attempted through traditional ways of protecting the forests from biotic interference as no Government could keep men and cattle out of the forests, Ramesh underscored the need to devise ways for regenerating forests, recognizing the biotic pressures. Along with that, de-greening of India had to be stopped if afforestation efforts were to be fruitful. “We cannot promote programs that cause large scale deforestation,” he emphasized.

This is not all. The Forest Minister made plain the Government’s proposal “to bring out a package for the Eastern Ghats, recognizing the need for economic development of the local communities.” Identifying the grave threat and ecological fragility of the Western and Eastern Ghats areas, Ramesh announced the setting up of a panel chaired by Madhav Gadgil to draw up a strategy for development of the fragile areas of the Western Ghats.

The Minister also envisaged “areas where developmental activity should be permitted in a regulated manner and areas which should be fully protected on the Ghats. While coal-based power projects were a great threat to Western Ghats, the Eastern Ghats faced pressure to open up for mining,” he added.

In addition, Ramesh highlighted fears that mangroves and wetlands were disappearing in all States, particularly in the South where mangroves had shrunk to a mere eight per cent over the past 25 years. Therefore, there was a need for renewed focus on regenerating mangroves in the South.

In fact, mangroves should not be used for purposes other than intended, he asserted. A classic example of this was Kochi’s cricket stadium which was in area with mangroves, he pointed out. Given that the question of mangroves was important in the long run, Ramesh stressed.

Further, he described how wetlands in Tamil Nadu were being cornered by the real estate business and apiculture was destroying wetlands in Andhra Pradesh. Contrary to thinking, wetlands are not waste lands as they perform a very important function ecologically and cater to the security of the local communities.

Towards that end, the Forest Minister wanted the States to share the control of forest resources with the local communities, as the single biggest threat to forest resources came from the push for development and growth. He cited Nobel laureate and American economist Elinor Ostrom’s recent speech on the “Challenge of self-organising to govern common in India” calling for a community-led approach to forest conservation, at a seminar in New Delhi recently.

Agreeing with the Nobel laureate, Ramesh said, “We are now trying to get away from State control of forests, as enshrined in the Forest Act, 2006, to give to the local community a stake in forest control. Under the community-led model of forest control, the Government would have to take the responsibility of building the capacities of the local communities,” he stressed.

Besides, the Minister also expressed confidence about the Government’s ability to manage the threat of local encroachment by cattle and villagers.  At the same time he voiced his concerns over emphasis on economic growth. “But what can’t be managed is this growth dynamic and I think area after area of forests is becoming a critical choice. The drive for nine per cent economic growth has spurred industry and development projects to make demands on country’s forest resources,” he stated.

Needless to say, Ramesh is busy receiving brick-bats and is being criticized for stopping several high profile projects due to ecological considerations. Questioning the idea that one third of India must be under forest cover, the Minister urged that quality of the forest cover be given more importance, as increasing the forest quantity might not be feasible given the demographic development pressures.

Asserted he, “India today has about 70 million hectares under forest cover. Roughly about 21 per cent of the country’s geographical area is under forest cover. The theology since 1952 has been that one third of India should be under forest cover. After 19 months in this job, I still have to discover what the source of this theology has been.

“That is why I am trying to change the debate from the quantity of forests to the quality of forests. Because if you look at the 70 million hectares of forests that we have, 40 per cent of this is the open degraded forests,” he revealed.

Therefore, in order to maintain the forest wealth of the country, Ramesh recently announced in the Lok Sabha, that State Governments would get Rs 5000 crore over the next five years for not cutting trees and maintaining the ecological balance. Additionally, the 13^th Finance Commission had also provided a grants-in-aid of Rs 5000 crore for a period of five years from 2010-11 to 2014-15 towards compensating the loss of revenue to various States and Union Territories.

Clearly, Ramesh means business. Already, during the current fiscal Rs.625 crore has been provided under this scheme, followed by the same amount next year. Good news for Arunachal Pradesh as it emerges as the biggest beneficiary with Rs.727.24 crores. ---INFA

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