Government Plans to Cut Nepal's Lowland Forests
2/4/99
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Title: Government Plans to Cut Nepal's Lowland Forests
Source: Environment News Service
Status: Copyrighted, contact source to reprint
Date: 2/4/99
Byline: Deepak Gajurel
KATHMANDU, Nepal, February 4, 1999 (ENS) - The government
of Nepal is planning to log more of the country's
diminishing forest. Not satisfied with its recent decision
to allow the export of millions of cubic feet of decaying
timber, a new plan is under consideration that would
authorize the state-run Timber Corporation of Nepal to cut
green forests on the southern Terai plains.
Last November, the government decided to allow the export,
at a nominal customs duty, of an estimated 3.2 million
cubic feet of decaying timber lying around in different
parts of the country. The total timber sale is worth
millions of dollars to the government.
Despite the warnings of conservationists that the sale of
the down timber will promote illegal cutting of green
trees, the Timber Corporation of Nepal (TCN) is going
ahead to take out the trees at its disposal.
"Signs of cutting green trees illegally and marking the
fresh timber as 'decaying' has already begun," says an
official at Forest Department.
Although caretaker Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala
had claimed that the present government would refrain from
taking any major policy decisions, the Ministry of Forest
has already moved a file seeking to allow the felling of
standing trees in the Terai forests, a forest official
told ENS on condition that he not be identified.
"We do not understand the reason behind this decision to
allow cutting trees when millions of cubic feet of logs
are rotting in yards of TCN and forest offices in
different districts," he added.
The new logging proposal comes at a time when
environmentalists are demanding a halt of Nepal's timber
export to India. Reports of the government's preparation
to allow felling of the Terai forests has outraged Nepal's
forest conservationists.
"A big forest Mafia may be behind the move,"
environmentalist Madan Sharma speculated.
South of the foothills, the Terai, a subtropical,
fertile lowland, merges into part of the northern
plains of the Ganges River in northern India. April 1993.
(Satellite photo courtesy NASA)
About 34 percent of Nepal's total land area of 147,181
square kilometers, is covered by forests. More than 70
percent of these forests are owned by the state. The rest
are under community protection.
Unlike the northern part of the country that is known for
its highest peaks of the world, the southern plains of
Terai are less than 100 metres above sea level, mostly
covered with forests which are thinning out at an alarming
rate and fertile green agricultural fields that feed most
of the nation.
"If the green trees are allowed to be cut, the environment
of Nepal along with the neighboring Indian states of Uttar
Pradesh and northern Bihar will have to face far-reaching
consequences," warns Nabin Acharya, researcher at Nepal's
Department of Plants.
Due to the declining Terai forests in Nepal, these two
Indian states have experienced severe flooding and silting
problems.
Nepal's districts of Sarlahi, Mahottari, Siraha, Bara and
Parsa have been bearing the brunt of the ecological
disturbance in the Terai forests and the resulting in
floods and landslides.
"If proper steps are not taken, Nepal's remaining forest
will be extinct within a few years," warns Acharya. "As
there is a lack of proper forest management system, every
tree can be permitted to be cut for export."
Despite such possible disastrous consequences and pressure
from the media and experts, the government seems to be
determined to permit TCN to cut live trees.
This is not the first time Nepal's forest has encountered
such a threat. Whenever there is any political
uncertainty, the country's forest is placed at risk. Five
months ago a similar proposal was withdrawn following
vehement pressure from the media, forest scientists and
donor communities.
c Environment News Service (ENS) 1999.