Letters

Biased opinion

Referring to the editorial "Pampered paper industry cries wolf" (Down To Earth, April 30, 1993), we were distressed to see the biased manner in which the problems faced by the paper industry were projected.

The editorial accuses the paper industry of destroying forests. It should be noted, however, that paper mills are supplied only non-commercial hard woods, after the forest departments concerned have extracted and marketed the timber and fuelwood. Paper mills are never allocated forest areas for hard wood extraction. The mills utilise surplus non-commercial bamboo, and that too after the needs of the local people are met.

The far-fetched suggestion that the paper industry should raise plantations on farmers' fields is fraught with several problems, most of which stem from the long gestation period of the forest crops. Furthermore, land fit for such plantations is widely scattered, which makes it unviable for the industry.

The only alternatives that can meet the needs of the industry is to lease the land to them or to involve them in afforesting the degraded government forest lands. The paper industry does not look for any subsidy except that costs be reasonable. When the industry is being encouraged to expand, it is hardly fair to ignore their basic raw material requirements.

The degradation of forest areas is not due to over-exploitation by the industry, as alleged by the editorial, but due to encroachments for agriculture, cattle pasturing and excessive pressure on the forests because of population explosion. Wood-based industries utilise only renewable resources and they are highly eco-friendly.

M SITARAM RAO
Ex-principal chief conservator of forests
T C KESAVA RAO
Ex-conservator of forests, Secunderabad ...

JFM and the World Bank

Apropos the special report on the World Bank's forestry review (Down To Earth, June 15, 1993), I would like to clarify a few points on joint forestry management (JFM).

Firstly, JFM is not a World Bank baby; it is a concept evolved over the years after extensive grassroots research. The pioneering initiatives originated out of the recognition that local villagers were dependent on forest resources. Researchers looked for locally relevant mechanisms that would give villagers a stake in joining hands with the forest departments to improve forest management. JFM is the outcome of that research and the extent to which it is successful will depend on local empowerment, which is a slow process.

The JFM orders passed by different state forest departments are highly variable. In some states, where the process of learning has been going on for some time, there is a greater commitment towards developing autonomous village institutions empowered with planning and management responsibilities. In other states, where no dialogue at the grassroots level has yet been initiated, orders are more insensitive to local needs.

The worry that the World Bank is jumping on the JFM bandwagon is because of the sheer magnitude of targets and funds involved and the need to specify predetermined partnership frameworks for large projects. The danger then is the concept getting discredited due to nonperformance, which still does not justify throwing out the baby with the bath water.

MADHU SARIN
Chandigarh ...

Controversial railway

The All Goa Citizen's Committee for Social Justice and Action (AGCCSJA) strongly condemns S P Deshpande, former chief town planner of Goa, for his reported statement that the Konkan railway route, as shown in the Regional Plan for Goa 2001 AD, is just "a symbolic one and was approved without conducting any socio-economic survey".

The plan, setting an inland route for the Konkan railway, was prepared while Deshpande was in office, approved by the Town and Country Planning Board in June 1985 and gazetted in December 1986. The government, however, subsequently issued a letter accepting the coastal route for the railway -- an illegal act because clauses in the regional plan forbid alterations to it for five years.

We maintain that if at all the government found it necessary to implement the railway's coastal route plan, it should have initiated a process where the proposed alterations would have been first submitted to the people for their comments. This was never done and so the government's action is illegal and the Konkan Railway Corp's exploitation of it, criminal.

ALBERT LUIS
All Goa Citizen's Committee for Social Justice and Action
Goa ...

Save paper

The International Association of Students in Economics and Management (AIESEC) is conducting a project called a 'paper drive'. Most companies use paper only on one side. This paper is then collected by AIESEC members, bound into notebooks and distributed to needy students. The project is supported by eminent companies such as Modi Xerox, Cable Corporation of India and Inca Telecombine.

If your readers would like to contribute to the project personally or through a company, we will be only too happy to respond.

YOGYATA KHULLAR
Indian Institute of Technology
New Delhi ...

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