Planting the right ideas

ANYONE will tell you that India's forest cover is getting visibly thinner and in many areas, forests, with their wildlife and bio- diversity, have disappeared because of development projects like dams and mines. What is worse, there seems to be a lack of political will to check the erosion of our green gold.

The total area under forest cover is 63.3 million hectares. The National Forest Policy (NFP) prescribes that ideally, India should have 33 per cent forest cover - which means that 100 million hectares should have a green canopy. It is estimated that 15,000 hectares is lost annually to development projects. If it is any consolation before the Forest Conservation Act of 1980, 1.5 million hectares was being lost annually. Some five million hectares of forestland has been encroached upon and several thousand hectares more lost to forest fires that are caused deliberately to settle scores or to improve grazing and the collection of minor forest produce. Some 11 million hectares of forestland is under shifting cultivation, under an even greater threat as the cycle of shifting cultivation has come down from 20 years to four years.

Therefore, a great deal was expected from a recent seminar on "India's forests beyond 2000" organised by the Commonwealth Forestry Association (India) in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment and Forests, DFID - U.K., the Planning Commission and the Ford Foundation. The deliberations, in which foreign donors and experts participated, were expected to provide the direction towards which our forest policy could be steered.

As against the 33 per cent forest cover prescribed by the NFP, just 19.27 per cent has forest cover, according to the Forest Survey of India, 1997. Barely 10 to 12 per cent of this would be forests with a good crown density. This year's forest survey, which has yet to be released, shows a 2,300 sq. km. increase in forest cover. But this is nowhere near the over 30 million hectares that have to be greened to raise the forest cover to the ideal figure of 100 million hectares.

Instead of trying to achieve this laudable target, the Environment and Forest Minister, Mr. T. R. Baalu, is keen on reviewing the policy and wants a more realistic target. Even the International Commonwealth Forestry Association and other experts have not been able to change his opinion. The recommendations of the seminar were quite obviously drafted by officials of the Environment and Forest Ministry. An important point says that to achieve the objectives of the NFP, the Central Forestry Commission must be revived and strengthened. It says the feasibility of achieving 33 per cent forest cover should be examined and a strategy developed for allocating adequate resources for an "achievable" tree/forest cover.

However, the second recommendation - accounting of national forest resources so that their contribution to the GDP can be clearly out-spelt is a good one. Valmik Thapar has been harping on the need to give the same value to our forests (as a natural resource) as we give to our gold bullion and money in banks. Only when politicians and the people appreciate the true wealth of our forests will there be a concerted effort to save them.

Population and livestock pressure is a major threat to forests but this is again is another important issue that has been sidelined. It is estimated that 270 million cattle graze in forests and there is no political will to check this. However, there is a recommendation to harmonise the NFP with policies of other sectors for bio-diversity conservation and gender sensitive forest management. This means that forest conservation and people's livelihood will have to be addressed in tandem.

In fact if there is one area of forest development that the Government can be proud of it is joint forest management. With the support of forest communities and villages, since 1990, degraded forest areas are being re-greened and protected. In return, forest village committees get to share the usufruct. They collect fodder and the loppings of trees while not disturbing the forest stock. After seven or eight years of plantation when the trees have achieved the required girth and height, they can be cut and the money earned shared by villagers and the forest department. Some 36,000 village forest protection committees in 22 States are involved in the joint forest management of 10.24 million hectares.

In Andhra Pradesh, where some 1.6 million hectares is under joint forest management with World Bank support, excellent rural development linkages have been established. (Even the naxalite activities have been contained through such management). Good trends have also been recorded in Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Tripura and Orissa.

In an effort to involve women, this February, the Environment Ministry issued guidelines that half the general body of a committee hold a third of the posts in the executive and at least one post of office-bearer should be reserved for women.

In most States now 50 per cent of the usufruct of a project goes to villagers. In A.P., a hundred per cent of the usufruct goes to villagers but it is mandatory for them to plough back 50 per cent into the project. Some 1,500 more hectares of open forests where there is good rootstock has been identified to bring it under JFM.

So far this was restricted to degraded forest areas. But now, it was decided to extend it to good forest areas also. Extraction of non-forest timber products is being permitted in these areas.

But one needs to look beyond the joint forest management programme to get the requisite green cover for the country and restore at least the 26 million hectares of degraded forests in the country.

Though Rs. 1,600 crores is spent on afforestation every year, this is inadequate. Degraded forest areas alone need an investment of Rs. 1,900 crores for rejuvenation. Another Rs. 3,400 crores is needed for greening areas that are outside the forest purview. This money has to be found, if necessary from the World Bank and other donors and the money invested wisely. There has to be an army of people involved in tree plantation and regreening of the country. Just the symbolic van mahotsav will not do. The Government alone cannot take on this enormous responsibility. It could, however, ensure that no more forestland is diverted for mining and hydroelectric projects.

The rate of extraction from forests is so high that unless we grow more trees, we cannot meet the needs of our people. The total demand for fuel wood alone is 201 million tonnes - 98 million tonnes is provided from non-forest areas and 17 million tonnes from forest areas.

This is the legally permitted rate of extraction. The 86 million tonnes shortfall is also obtained from forests, but illegally.

This should give you some idea of the pressure on our forests. The demands for pulpwood and timber for other industries is not even being considered. In 2001, the demand for fuel wood is likely to increase to 243 million tonnes.

We cannot wish away our problems whether it is shrinking forests or a population growth that is spinning out of control and nullifying the little achievements of the country.

We cannot scale down targets that we cannot achieve. We need to tackle them head on.

USHA RAI

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