Times of India:
Bangalore: Tuesday, June 11, 2013.
Ever wondered
why the country is fast losing its forest cover? The simple answer is that
large tracts of forest land are being handed over to public and private
agencies in the name of development projects.
Digest this:
According to recent data acquired through RTI from the ministry of environment
and forests by a group of environmentalists, the extent of forest land being
diverted across the country on an average stands at 135 hectares (around 333
acres) per day. Such diversions are done on various pretexts, say for coal
mines, thermal power plants, industrial or river valley projects.
Members of
the Environment Impact Assessment Resources and Response Centre (eRc),
instrumental in compiling the data, said the figure in reality is much higher
as their analysis pertains only to projects which have sought more than 40
hectares of area.
Ritwik Dutta,
an advocate with Legal Initiative for Forest and Environment (LIFE) and closely
associated with eRc, said Karnataka is one of the states that has been
diverting forest land. "Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh,
Arunachal Pradesh and Jharkhand are some of the other states which are into
largescale diversions. We are compiling state-specific data on the extent of
land being diverted," he added.
Ritwik said
more awareness is needed among the people to challenge such projects, and they should
appeal before the National Green Tribunal (NGT) against diversions.
Neeraj
Vagholikar of Kalpavriksh, an environmental action group, said despite the
country losing existing forest cover, the central government every year
releases figures on increase in green cover. "The trick is that the forest
department manages to add compensatory afforestation programmes to the total
forest cover. In reality, such forest cover is virtually non-existent; nobody
is sure whether such programmes will be implemented in future or not," he
added.
Challakere
case ;
Diversion of
forest land for other purposes has come to the fore in Challakere taluk,
Chitradurga district. Hundreds of hectares of Amrit Mahal kaval land,
categorized as forest land according to Rule 33 of the Karnataka Forest Rules
1969, have been allegedly diverted to IISc, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Isro
and DRDO, which are planning to build sensitive projects here. The matter is
currently in the court and also before the National Green Tribunal.
The Amrit
Mahal kaval land, which is actually grazing land reserved for a special cattle
breed, is treated as a forest in Challakere, a black buck sanctuary in
Chikmagalur and reserve forest in Hassan.
TIMES VIEW
;
The rapacious
encroachment of green cover, at 333 acres a day, to non-forest activity shows
the country is sitting on an ecological time bomb. That the figures have come
from the ministry of environment and forests brings to rest claims that the
depletion figures are exaggerated. It also shows the laws framed to protect our
green reserves lack teeth. The alarming deforestation rate should act as a
wakeup call to all concerned. Forests are carbon warehouses that offset
greenhouse emissions. Their depletion impacts the climate, biodiversity and
water resources , among others. Development at the cost of environment only
leads to greater pitfalls.
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