Events
& Issues
New Delhi, 15 January 2020
Forestry Report
NEED TO VALUE GROUND REALITY
By Dhurjati Mukherjee
At a time when global
warming is critical to human survival, forests play a significant role. Thus
the much-hyped State of Forest Report, 2019 which has been blown out of
proportions, needs to be critically analysed, considering the heavily depleted
forest cover of the country. As the report reveals, the total forest and tree
cover stands at around 80.73 million hectares but it is only around 24.56 per
of the total geographical area of the country, while according to an
assessment, the minimum area needed under forest cover should be around 33 per
cent.
However, according to
the report, only 13 out of 28 States have 33 per cent forest cover. The
north-eastern States feature in this list. Six of these eight States top the
chart; Sikkim and Assam now lag behind with Goa, Kerala, Uttarakhand,
Chhattisgarh and Odisha entering the list. Recorded as ‘un-classed forests’,
these form a sizeable portion in most of the States except Sikkim that has no
such category. In fact, the North East shows a decrease of forest cover to the
extent of 765 sq. km. i.e. 0.45 per cent of its geographical area. It needs to
be mentioned here that dense forests are a feature only in tribal majority States.
Only 3.02 per cent of
the geographical area is under very dense forest, while the moderately dense
forest is 9.38 and open forests is 9.26 per cent. Obviously, the quality of
most of the forest area of the country is poor. Alternatively tree cover, the
contribution outside reserved forests, is 2.89 per cent made possible through
the initiatives of the community.
The report showed two
worrying aspects of the country’s greening programme in terms of quality of
forest. It showed a decrease of 330 sq. km. of forest in ‘Recorded Forest Area’
(RFA) and continued loss of forests in north-eastern States, which are known
for old forests having the capacity to sink more carbon as compared to newly
developed green cover. The old forests are also important for conserving
country’s rich biodiversity. Decrease of forest in RFA showed that the forest
department has not been able to improve or conserve the forest wealth of the
country under its jurisdiction.
More surprising is
the fact that areas outside the registered forests, registered an increase and
this indicates that forest officials in connivance with mafias are looting
these forests. It is indeed distressing to note that tribals have lost
ownership of the jungles and thereby their livelihoods which were traditionally
dependent on forest produce. While tribals are suffering, the forest
bureaucracy with political backing is looting the forest wealth.
According to a forest
expert, Ajay Kumar Saxena, and many others like him, the country, however,
recorded 4306 sq. km. of forest cover outside the RFA, including social
forestry, putting the total increase of forest cover at a mere 3976 sq.km.
Karnataka recorded the highest increase (1025 sq. km in forest cover in the
past two years followed by Andhra Pradesh (990 sq. km) and Kerala (823 sq. km).
As is well known,
forests can create local microclimates to help generate rainfall, decreased
evapotranspiration can intensify droughts when soil moisture decreases due to
warming or rainfall deficits. Plants exchange energy, carbon and water with the
atmosphere as a part of photosynthesis and respiration. Warm temperatures can
exacerbate soil moisture loss via evaporation and intensify droughts. Plants
also try to save water by modulating water that reaches the atmosphere through
a process evapotranspiration. Thus it goes without saying that afforestation
and reforestation efforts should provide pathways to balance the portfolio when
tradeoffs may be needed to manage food and fibre security and biodiversity with
urbanization and other economic development goals.
It has been estimated
that the existing canopy cover of 4.4 billion hectares could be expanded by an
additional 0.9 billion hectares, leading to total sequestration of over 200
giga tonnes of carbon. Though this is imperative for India to stay true to its
Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC) targets, the results are
not quite encouraging.
While ecological
balance is vital at such a juncture, what is happening at the ground level is
the increasing trend of forests being denuded for various projects, relating to
infrastructure development, expansion of roadways and highways. Added to this
is the trend towards urbanisation, all of which has resulted in actual
depletion of forest area.
The present data
presents many areas of serious concern, keeping in view the imbalance in the
environment, ecology and climate change that India is suffering from. More
pronounced adverse effects like uneven rainfall, drought, water crisis and devastating
floods reinforce the need for giving more emphasis to forestry.
Saving our forests is
vital for the country at such a juncture when climate change has been affecting
a large section of the population. It is doubtful whether the realisation of protecting
our forests and turning them as reserves of our ecosystem is understood by the
bureaucrats and politicians in the country, who are in charge of framing
policies, which most often tend to be anti-people.
It is difficult to
agree with observations that there has been an increase in forest and tree
cover and reduction in the diversion of forest land… despite…increasing
population, industrialisation and rapid economic growth. Deep forests have
remained more or less the same while diversion has been on the increase. One
may mention here that way back in 2013, an RTI application filed by
environmental lawyers, Ritwich Dutta and Rahul Choudhary revealed that the
country, on an average, loses 135 hectares of natural forest land per day to development
schemes. As of 2017.the government passed about 10,000 approvals related to
forest diversions.
Finally, while
support for industrial forestry within the country cannot be doubted, it is
best done by benefitting all stakeholders. A forest is after all not a mere
stand of over-mature timber but a home to forest-dwelling communities as also
wildlife. The ecosystem services from forests, both financially tangible and
otherwise, provide sustainability to the national economy and resilience to climate
change. Thus, what is required is actually an ecosystems approach with focus on
climate justice and the rights and role of local communities. It should also
address biodiversity and poverty effectively and challenge the underlying
causes of deforestation directly, resolving governance, poverty and land tenure
issues.---INFA
(Copyright, India
News & Feature Alliance)
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