Environment Special

New Delhi, 6 June 2016

Saving Our Forests

Large-Scale Afforestation Crucial

By Dhurjati Mukherjee

Undeniably, the recent forest fires in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh created a flutter across the country. According to reports, the total forest lost in the fire was around 2000 hectares out of 80 million hectares of forest land.

Understandably, Prime Minister Modi’s Government has been taking measures to douse such fires as soon as they are noticed and developing a pre-alert system which will sense places that are more likely to catch fire. 

Notably, India’s hills need a long-term strategy as its natural flora and fauna was tampered with as pine is an excellent source of wood and charcoal. In fact, a renowned environmentalist recently asserted that people need to be roped in to work for the environment in a collective manner wherein each family should be motivated to plant 100 trees. 

According to Union Environment and Forests Minister Prakash Javedkar the Rs 42,000 crores lying in banks and meant for afforestation has been given to States for carrying out afforestation measures.

Even as he lambasted the erstwhile Congress regime for diverting 36,000 hectares of forest land in the last two years, Javedkar averred this has been brought down to 17,000 hectares.

Importantly, the Government has also been encouraging growth of tree cover outside the forest areas to meet the target of having 33 per cent forest cover in the country.

Besides, the Prime Minister in his monthly radio programme ‘Mann ki Baat’ recently expressed concern over massive deforestation which has led to many environmental problems like heat wave and drought and urged people to save forests.

Referring to the recent fires, he said that accumulation of dry leaves and carelessness were the main reasons for which people need to take more responsibility. As pointed out by the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report among the hazards identified in temperature-related extreme events is the increased risk of wild fires.    

Consequently, the need for afforestation has to be carried out judiciously as afforested land is expected to take four to five decades to start delivering comparable goods and services. One cannot deny the fact that, the spread and intensity of forest cover can only save the human race.

However, developmental needs which include spread of roads and highways, power projects, mining ventures etc have resulted in the clearing and diversion of forests.

In such cases, the Forest (Conservation) Act of 1980 requires that non forest land equal to the size of the forest being ‘diverted’ is afforested. Alas, this is not happening due to lack of strict monitoring by forest officials and political pressures at various levels.

For example, the Forest Ministry issued an order in October 2014 allowing diversion of forest land for roads, laying of pipelines or optical fibre cables and transmission lines without seeking the Gram Sabha’s consent if plantations or any piece of land were notified as forests after 1930. No matter, this went against the Forests Rights Act and was vehemently opposed by the Union Tribal Affairs Ministry, social activists and environmentalists.         

Indeed, keeping all these factors in mind along-with considering the developmental needs of the country, the Government has taken a right decision to set up the Compensatory Afforestation Management & Planning Authority (CAMPA) to ensure that afforestation work is carried out properly.

Remember, this was the result of a 2006 Supreme Court order to set up an “ad hoc CAMPA”. Whereby, if any user agency wanted to divert forest land for non-forest purposes, it would have to deposit money for compensatory afforestation.

Since then over Rs 40,000 crores has accumulated from various sources and the fund is increasing at the rate of about Rs 6000 crores per annum. Hence, CAMPA should be mandated to use this money judiciously.     

Markedly while CAMPA has been passed by the Lok Sabha it is awaiting clearance in the Upper House. When that happens it means there would be a central CAMPA with State level units.

Similarly, a National Compensatory Afforestation Fund (CAF) would be created and alongside one in each State. The States would then deposit money collected from user agencies with the national CAF which would be eventually credited to the State units, as per their entitlement.  

Though the principle of compensatory afforestation is imperative at this juncture to save the human race from the vagaries of global warming and climate change, availability of land in the country has emerged a big problem.

While land contiguous to the forest is rarely available, it is also not possible to find land elsewhere, especially in smaller States and in heavily forested ones like Chhattisgarh.

In view of the above problem, the Bill before Parliament has rightly decided that money should not just be used for compensatory afforestation but general afforestation programme run through the Green India Mission, forest protection and management, forest and wildlife related infrastructure development, wildlife conservation and even facilitating the relocation of people from protected wildlife areas. This would obviously help in all aspects for forest development, directly or indirectly.   

There is no gainsaying, the country’s forest cover has increased by 3775 square kms since 2013, totalling 701,673 sq km or equivalent to 21.34 per cent of the country’s geographical area. But there has not been any significant increase in dense and moderately dense forest area, according to the latest Forest Survey of India report released last December.

Notably, the report showed that major States like Tamil Nadu, Kerala, J&K and Karnataka recorded gains. Further, compared to 2013, there has been a decrease of 490 sq kms in the moderately dense forest area though an increase of 30 sq kms in open forest.

As it stands, open forests which occupy a significant part of the country’s forests do not reap much ecological benefits in the long run.  Hence, the need of the hour is to extend and save forests though whatever means possible.

Side by side, rules and regulations need to be strictly enforced and no vested interests should be allowed to interfere in the functioning of our forests. No matter that apart from timber and fuel-wood, forests are of great value offering carbon sequestration, soil conservation, water recharge and seed dispersal. Their value is of a high order for which forests conservation is imperative.  ---- INFA  

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