S Shyam Sunder
MY INITIAL response is on the tenor of the article, that foresters are responsible for the mismanagement and degradation of forests. I feel
that India continues to have forested areas
only because of the efforts of foresters, who,
during the last 125 years, have striven for conservation of
forests. But for their efforts, the reserved forests in India would
have gone the way of unreserved forests, which covered 45 per
cent of the land area in 1928.
Anil Agarwal's article says that forests with a crown density
of 10-40 per cent are considered open forests, which are
regarded as relatively degraded. This is not necessarily so as in
the low rainfall areas, even undisturbed forests would fall in
this category. It would be useful if the SFR can further classify
this category into open good forests (which have their own
biodiversity) and degraded forests.
Satellite imagery cannot tell us about the biodiversity,
species mix, regenerative power and biotic interference of a
forest. This requires specific ground studies over identified
areas, whose results are site-specific.
Agarwal's article states that forest managers are allowing
plantations to come up at the expense of natural forest cover.
It is true that in the past, certain categories of natural forests
were converted into plantations for meeting certain identified
needs, but since the early'80s, plantations have been limited to
degraded areas. Besides, plantations are necessary to meet the
deficit of firewood, to the order of 200 million cubic metres,
and prevent the degradation of forests.
The real reason for the continuing degradation of forests is
that between 1970 and 1990, human population in India has
increased by 250 million and the cattle population by 125 million, while investment in forestry has remained at less than
one per cent of India's budgetary outlay. Also, there is no correlation between the prescriptions of the WPs and the budget made available for the purpose.
In forests other than the conifers, logging implies felling of
only three or four trees per acre at intervals of 30-40 years. This
allows for the regeneration of the forest. Lapses on the part of
foresters may account for absence of regeneration in five per
cent of the forest area; in the remaining area it is because of
unregulated grazing, inadequate protection against fires and
indiscriminate firewood collection by the local people.
A constant refrain in the article is that the reserved forests
should first meet the biomass needs of the local people - the
very same people who have been responsible for the degradation of forests. It needs to be pointed out here that the right to
collect dry firewood and limited grazing was initially granted
in only a few reserved forests. In all other cases these activities
were to be restricted to forests that did not fall in the reserved
category. This was when the population of India was 200 million and there was twice as much forest land available in the
non-reserved category. Now the population is 920 million and
the forests where community rights existed are gone. There is
no government order restricting free removal of dry (and
green) wood and regulating grazing. Nor are environmental
groups willing to take up these issues, for obvious reasons.
Agarwal's article rightly comments that farm forestry, which has
yielded good results, has lost the support of the forest departments, as is apparent from the declining number of seedlings
supplied to farmers. Social forestry in most states was funded
by international aiding agencies. Its two major components
were raising plantations in community areas and supplying
seedlings to farmers. During the 1980s, when SF was at its height,
the aiding agencies came in for bitter criticism for subsidising
industries through farm forestry. It was not appreciated that the
need of the hour was production of wood, for use as firewood
and timber for meeting the people's needs. Now, there is no aid
agency willing to support farm forestry in India.
Farm forestry has tremendous scope and needs support in
a country in which unsustainable agricultural practices prevail
in more than 50 per cent of the cultivated area. Let us take the
case of the paper and pulp industry. India produces 0.8 per
cent of the world output, while Sweden, one-seventh the size
of India and with one-third the growth in India, produces 15
per cent. And the prosperity of Sweden is based on its forest
industries while the tragedy of India are its wastelands. Again,
30-40 per cent of the biomass that cannot be put to industrial
use is available as firewood.
The environmentalists' faith in regenerating degraded
forests through JFM is misplaced. JFM has succeeded in the sal (a
fantastic coppicer) forests because it is possible to secure
returns from sal trees within one or two years. In other forests,
the initial euphoria was because of the four to five times yield of
fodder, alongwith the protection offered. The share of timber
value, the motivating force, can be derived only after 20 or 30
years. Will the interest survive till then? As to firewood and
usufruct now offered to them, it has always been theirs for the
taking. The only factor that may help is that now those living in
the forest and on its fringes will help keep out the vaster population beyond which also depended on this same resource earlier. Again, what about the requirement of firewood and its
present deficit? Unless JFM considers planting fast-growing species,
its fate will be no different from
social forestry in 10 years.
The contention that forest
conservation will work if people
are allowed to take care of the
resources without interference,
was propounded by Madhav
Gadgil, professor of ecology at the
Indian Institute of Science,
Bangalore. He asserted that
forests in India were in good condition till the British reserved
some of them for commercial
interests. Citing a hypothetical
case, he said that if a village had a
forest covering 200 ha, which sufficed to meet its needs,
the forest would be in a good condition. If the reservation
took away 180 ha, the balance 20 ha got destroyed because
it could not be sustainably worked by the villagers. The 180 ha
reserved got destroyed in due course because of unscientific
forestry.
But reservation records in Karnataka show that, on an
average, more than twice the reserved area was left for local
use. Besides, reserved forests exist in almost all countries and
in some, as in Germany, they have existed for 150 years before
forests were reserved in India, In fact, India was the model for
forest reservation in USA. In the late '20s, reserve forests in five
districts of the then Madras Province were transferred to the
panchayats for management. In
about 15 years, these forests were
completely destroyed and district
collectors moved the government
to transfer these areas back to the
forest department.
I wish that those clamouring
for people's management of forest
resources would visit some of the
northeastern states where more
than 90 per cent of the forests are
with the people. These forests are
n a deplorable condition.
S Shyam Sunder is a retired senior
Indian Forest Service officer from Karnataka
Forests with a crown density of 10-40 per cent are
considered open forests, which are regarded as
relatively degraded. However, in low rainfall areas,
even undisturbed forests will fall in this category. It
would be useful if the SFR could classify open forests as
good and degraded forests
Certain categories of natural forests were earlier
converted into plantations to meet certain identified
needs, but since the early '80s, plantations have been
limited to degraded areas
The real reason for the continued forest degradation is
the tremendous increase in human and cattle
population in India, while investment in forestry has
remained at less than one per cent of the budgetary
outlay
Lapses on the part of foresters may account for absence
of regeneration in five per cent of the forest area; in
the remaining area it is because of unregulated grazing,
inadequate protection against fires and
indiscriminate firewood collection by the people
Farm forestry has lost the support of forest
departments as no aid agency is willing to support farm
forestry in India
The environmentalists' faith in regenerating degraded
forests through joint forest management (JFM) is
misplaced. JFM has succeeded in sal forests because of
quick returns from sal trees. In other forests, the share
of timber value can be derived only after 20-30 years.
Unless JFM considers planting fast growing species, its
fate will be no different from social forestry In 10 years
- S SHYAM SUNDER
12jav.net12jav.net
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