The debate over captive plantations for the paper industry rages like a prairie fire
Planters devils?
JULY 31 came and went, without the first meeting of the special
committee of ministers, set up to decide upon the fate of the
environment and forest ministry's (MEF) controversial captive
plantations proposal, taking place. The issue still hangs fire.
The committee of 7 Cabinet ministers was formed on July
3 by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs. It was the
fallout of the heated debate over the controversial proposal
that the MEF will lease out degraded forest lands to the paper
industry to set up captive plantations to meet its raw material
needs. Nath's senior colleagues, Pranab Mukherjee, V C
Shukla, Jagannath Mishra et at had not taken kindly to it.
The proposal is to lease out 2.5 million hectares (mha) of
degraded forest, initially for 30 years, and renewable thereafter. Nath says the scheme will counter forest encroachments by the rural poor, and help
regeneration. The ministry contends that the
scheme will meet the fuel and fodder needs of the
local people from 20 per cent of the leased plot,
which the forest department will retain. The
industry had been thirsting for just such a measure as the easiest way out of it's raw materials crunch. But environmentalists will hear nothing of this.
Harishankar Singhania, chairperson of the
Development Council for Pulp Paper and Allied Industries,
estimates the gap between demand and supply for pulpwood
to reach 46.56 lakh tonnes by AD 2015. Singhania argues that
captive plantation is the only real solution. The industry is
demanding at least 2.97 mha of forest land to begin with,
which should be subsequently raised to 22.01 mha by AD 2015.
Environmentalists find the argument fallacious. They contend that with the progress made in farm forestry in the past
15-20 years, it is possible to produce raw materials for the
industry. To them, the demand seems "farcical", because there
are 141 mha of cultivated land, and 35 mha farmer-owned
uncultivable land available in the country for farming.
Environmentalists insist that industry should
:)t be subsidised so heavily, NGOs are cynical
)out the MEF'S qlaims that the proposed scheme
ill meet the local people's needs, citing past
:amples of such experiments as proof. Critics
so assert that the scheme's off?tial raison d'etre,
at it will counter encroachment, is blatantly
sensitive to the,fact that these tracts provide
illions of poor kople their fuel, fodder, and
riall timber. Common lands legally available for
azing of domestic animals are so marginal that
e poor and landless have no option but to use
forests and revenue lands. The scheme, they
aver, will further pauperise the rural poor. NGOS
urge that immedidte steps be taken up to regenerate these degraded forests through participatory management systems.
While industry argues that farm forestry
cannot be a reliable source of raw materials,
researchers from the Centre for Science and
Environment, New Delhi, argue that the paper
industry is downplaying the potential of the
farm forestry- industry interface in meeting the
raw materials crisis. The mid-'80s had seen farm
forestry booming. However, it suffered a major
blow when the Rajiv Gandhi government
allowed cheap imports of wood, effectively
destroying the domestic wood market. Indian
will tree farmers paid through their noses.
degra- The debacle of the '80s has made the farmers wary of planting pulpwood species on their lands. But, environmentalists claim, the debacle
supply grew out of lopsided governmental policies, and
the paper industry's subverting the wood market, depriving the farmers of their rightful share.
And It is, therefore, only right that government and
of industry should restore the faimers' confidence
in pulpwood plantations. This can only be
done by assuring the farmers of pulpwood
sales at fair prices.
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