Forestry is a major government enterprise in India which faces the challenges of dwindling forest cover area due to overpopulation, farming and environmental factors.
[edit]History
Some 500,000 square kilometres, about 17 percent of India's land area, were regarded as Forest Area in the early 1990s. In FY 1987, however, actual forest cover was 640,000 square kilometres. However, because more than 50 percent of this land wasbarren or bushland, the area under productive forest was actually less than 350,000 square kilometres, or approximately 10 percent of the country's land area. The growing population's high demand for forest resources continued the destruction and degradation of forests through the 1980s, taking a heavy toll on the soil. An estimated 6 billion tons of topsoil were lost annually. However, India's 0.6 percent average annual rate of deforestation for agricultural and non-lumbering land uses in the decade beginning in 1981 was one of the lowest in the world and on a par with Brazil. Sir Dietrich Brandis was a German forester who worked in India. He is considered the Father of tropical forestry.
[edit]Distribution
Many forests in the mid-1990s are found in high-rainfall, high-altitude regions, areas to which access is difficult. About 20 percent of total forestland is in Madhya Pradesh; other states with significant forests are Orissa, Maharashtra, and Andhra Pradesh (each with about 9 percent of the national total); Arunachal Pradesh (7 percent); and Uttar Pradesh (6 percent). The variety of forest vegetation is large: there are 600 species of hardwoods, sal (Shorea robusta) and teak being the principal economic species.
[edit]Strategy to increase cover
India's long-term strategy for forestry development reflects three major objectives: to reduce soil erosion and flooding; to supply the growing needs of the domestic wood products industries; and to supply the needs of the rural population for fuelwood, fodder, small timber, and miscellaneous forest produce. To achieve these objectives, the National Commission on Agriculture in 1976 recommended the reorganization of state forestry departments and advocated the concept of social forestry. The commission itself worked on the first two objectives, emphasizing traditional forestry and wildlife activities; in pursuit of the third objective, the commission recommended the establishment of a new kind of unit to develop community forests. Following the leads of Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh, a number of other states also established community-based forestry agencies that emphasized programs on farm forestry, timber management, extension forestry, reforestation of degraded forests, and use of forests for recreational purposes.
Such socially responsible forestry was encouraged by state community forestry agencies. They emphasized such projects as planting wood lots on denuded communal cattle-grazing grounds to make villages self-sufficient in fuelwood, to supply timber needed for the construction of village houses, and to provide the wood needed for the repair of farm implements. Both individual farmers and tribal communities were also encouraged to grow trees for profit. For example, in Gujarat, one of the more aggressive states in developing programs of socioeconomic importance, the forestry department distributed 200 million tree seedlings in 1983. The fast-growing eucalyptus is the main species being planted nationwide, followed bypine and poplar.
[edit]Conservation
The role of forests in the national economy and in ecology was further emphasized in the 1988 National Forest Policy, which focused on ensuring environmental stability, restoring the ecological balance, and preserving the remaining forests. Other objectives of the policy were meeting the need for fuelwood, fodder, and small timber for rural and tribal people while recognizing the need to actively involve local people in the management of forest resources. Also in 1988, the Forest Conservation Act of 1980 was amended to facilitate stricter conservation measures. A new target was to increase the forest cover to 33 percent of India's land area from the then-official estimate of 23 percent. In June 1990, the central government adopted resolutions that combined forest science with social forestry, that is, taking the sociocultural traditions of the local people into. The cumulative area afforested during the 1951-91 period was nearly 179,000 square kilometres. However, despite large-scale tree planting programs, forestry is one arena in which India has actually regressed since independence. Annual fellings at about four times the growth rate are a major cause. Widespread pilfering by villagers for firewood and fodder also represents a major decrement. In addition, the forested area has been shrinking as a result of land cleared for farming, inundations for irrigation and hydroelectric power projects, and construction of new urban areas, industrial plants, roads, power lines, and schools.
[edit]Chipko Movement
Since the early 1970s, as they realized that deforestation threatened not only the ecology but their livelihood in a variety of ways, people have become more interested and involved in conservation. The best known popular activist movement is the Chipko Movement, in which local women under the leadership of Chandi Prasad Bhatt and Sunderlal Bahuguna, decided to fight the government and the vested interests to save trees. The women of Chamoli District, Uttar Pradesh, declared that they would embrace--literally "to stick to" (chipkna in Hindi)--trees if a sporting goods manufacturer attempted to cut down ash trees in their district. Since initial activism in 1973, the movement has spread and become an ecological movement leading to similar actions in other forest areas. The movement has slowed down the process of deforestation, exposed vested interests, increased ecological awareness, and demonstrated the viability of people power.
[edit]Timber mafia
Main article: Mafia raj
Protected forest areas in several parts of India, such as Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Jharkhand, are vulnerable to illegal logging by timber mafias that have coopted or intimidated forestry officials, local politicians, businesses and citizenry.[1][2] Clear-cutting is sometimes covered-up by conniving officials who report fictitious forest fires.[3]
[edit]Forest rights
In 2006 forestry in India underwent a major change with the passage of the Forest Rights Act, a new legislation that seeks to reverse the "historical injustice" to forest dwelling communities that resulted from the failure to record their rights over forest land and resources. It also sought to bring in new forms of community conservation.
[edit]See also
[edit]References
- ^ Marcus Colchester and Christian Erni, "Indigenous Peoples and Protected Areas in South and Southeast Asia: From Principles to Practice", IWGIA, 1999, ISBN 8790730186. Snippet: ... The Forest Department is perceived as corrupt, colluding with timber contractors (the timber mafia), and taking bribes from the communities in return for ...
- ^ Ajay Singh Rawat, "Forest Management in Kumaon Himalaya: Struggle of the Marginalised People", Indus Publishing, 1999, ISBN 8173871019. Snippet: ... within 5 years in the Western Circle, 13 forest officials have been murdered and 39 fatally wounded in their bid to prevent illicit timber trade ... Politicians are chary of getting on the wrong side of the timber mafia, which has proved to be extremely generous during election time ...
- ^ H.C. Upadhyay, "Status of Scheduled Tribes in India", Anmol Publications Private Limited, 2004, ISBN 8126103671. Snippet: ... The timber mafia in collusion with concerned forest officials are reported to resort to the so-called accidental forest fire to hide their illegal plundering ...
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