Show sincere will to save forests

Yet another World Forestry Day is upon us; a day which is supposed to remind us about the need to save our fast depleting forests.

Does this signify anything meaningful for saving forests? Or is it merely another symbolic occasion for indulging in lip service and posturing while pushing anti-forest policies for the remaining 364 days?

An insatiable thirst for land has shrunk India’s forest cover alarmingly. It is estimated that between 1950 and 1980, about 50 lakh hectares of forest land was diverted for various non-forestry activities.

Consequent to this, forest cover has shrunk to just about 19% of the country’s land area. With the enactment of the Forest Conservation Act in 1980, the rate of forest loss did slow down.

However, forests continue to be diverted for non-forestry purposes in an unscientific and ad-hoc manner.

This has resulted in fragmentation or honey combing of forests which has been scientifically recognised as the most serious threat to forest conservation. With over one billion people and an economy growing at over 8%, the twin impacts of fragmentation and loss of forests seriously threaten our remaining natural forests.

Mega dams, mines, highways and human settlements continue to push deeper into forests.

Faced with this grim scenario, it becomes necessary to revisit a very fundamental question on World Forestry Day: Why do we have to save our forests?

The utility of our forests is still very poorly understood. Our agrarian society is inextricably linked to the survival of forests. Loss of forests due to human encroachment has caused serious ecological damage to long-term viability of India’s rivers, soils, agriculture and biodiversity resources that form the basis for survival of human society itself.

We have reached a stage when mere lip service will not do. In the great Economy and Environment, debate many in the industry, bureaucracy and political establishment unfortunately subscribe to the naïve view that forest loss can be compensated by planting trees elsewhere.

Such ‘pit and plant’ strategies in the form of ‘afforestation’ projects have badly failed the nation. What we now require is sincere political will and knowledge-driven policies which have the potential to stop forest loss and deflect development and human pressures away from the last remaining forested landscapes.

The author is the managing trustee Wildlife First.