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WORLDWIDE
FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
India:
Eroding the Gains from Forest Protection
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Forest Networking a Project of Forests.org
http://forests.org/ -- Forest
Conservation Archives
http://forests.org/web/ -- Discuss Forest
Conservation
1/30/00
OVERVIEW
& COMMENTARY
India
possesses globally significant forests and biodiversity that
are
important to meeting the needs, ecologically and materially, of
its
exploding population. Deforestation in
the Himalayas is widely
recognized
as one of India's most pressing environmental problems.
Unfortunately,
protections for some forests are being weakened;
including
those conserved because of the actions of the anti-logging
'Chipko'
movement. Village women organized, and
using tactics
including
tree hugging, successfully stopped loggers in several
forests. "From the Himalayan forests to the
Western Ghats, the gains
made
earlier to protect the forests are being eroded." Again, the
transitory
nature of forest protection in the face of poverty is
illustrated. Large, functional forests that are
ubiquitous across
landscapes
are the only type of protection that amounts to much--
guaranteeing
regional ecological sustainability, protecting most
biodiversity
and providing development opportunities--by virtue of
containing
core ecological areas that are connected.
g.b.
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Title: ENVIRONMENT-INDIA: Eroding the Gains from
Forest Protection
Source: InterPress Service
Status: Copyright 2000, contact source for
permission to reprint
Date: January 25, 2000
Byline: Bharat Dogra
NEW
DELHI, Jan 25 (IPS) - Himalayan forests which have been protected
from
loggers by village communities and government restrictions have
now
been opened to commercial logging in one northern Indian state.
Last
month the state government of Himachal Pradesh took the
controversial
decision to lift a nearly two-decade ban on the
felling
of green trees imposed to protect the forests from reckless
stripping
which could cause ecological havoc.
The ban
has enabled some of the greenery to return to the Himalayas
although
allegations of illegal felling have been heard from time to
time,
but nothing on the scale before the ban.
With
the government lifting the moratorium in Himachal Pradesh,
environmentalists
worry that it may be impossible to stop the loggers.
Himalyan
deforestation is widely recognised as India's most pressing
environmental
problem.
For the
last 15-odd years, only fallen and damaged trees could be
legally
taken out by the forest department. According to official
estimates,
the total volume of wood available was not more than about
200,000
cubic metres.
Officials
calculate this is likely to suddenly increase by around 50
percent.
The actual increase is likely to be even higher, besides
being
in the form of green trees and hence, ecologically more harmful.
The
seventies saw increasing awareness of the need to protect the
Himalayan
forests. The anti-logging 'Chipko' movement which was led by
village
women spread in the Uttarakhand region, in Garhwal and Kumaon
districts
of Uttar Pradesh state.
The
resistance movement was non-violent with women hugging the trees
to
successfully stop the loggers in several forests, such as Reni,
Advani
and Badiyargad. Ultimately the government had to stop green
felling
over 1,000 metres in the Uttarakhand region.
Sudesha
Devi, a woman activist recalls, ''We were not used to speaking
to
outsiders even. But as a part of the movement we even went to jail.
We
succeeded in saving the forests.''
A visit
to the forest of Advani a decade later, during a severe
drought
in the Himalayas, showed that it was the only source of fuel
and
fodder for villagers within a 10 km radius.
''Without
this forest it would have been so difficult to survive the
severe
drought,'' said Dhum Singh Negi, a Chipko activist who had
played
a leading role in caring for the forest.
Sunderlal
Bahuguna, a leader of the movement organised a march across
the
Himalayas, from Kashmir in the north, to Kohima, in the northeast,
to
spread the Chipko message.
Soon
there was news of villagers' efforts to save forests in Himachal
Pradesh,
north-west of Uttarakhand, led by activists like Kulbhushan
Upmanyu.
In 1983 green felling was halted in the state.
The
loggers' lobby attempted to reverse the order many times, but the
decision
of the Himachal Pradesh government, last year, was made with
an eye
on solving a part of its growing financial problems. Government
earnings
from tree felling are likely to double as a result.
India's
forest wealth has been shrinking. The total geographic area
under
green cover is only 23.36 percent against the recommended 33
percent
under the National Forest Policy of 1988.
The per
capita availability of forests is 0.08 hectare acres which is
much
lower than the world average of 0.8 hectare acres.
In 1993
the government calculated that even if no further net
deforestation
takes place, merely on the basis of the increase in
population,
the forest area could be reduced to 0.07 hectare acre per
capita
by 2000.
Forests
of the Western Ghats, in south India, have also been plundered
for
their timber forcing the people of Uttarkannada district in the
southern
state of Karnataka to launch the biggest movement seen in
India
to protect forest wealth from 1983-86.
Several
forests such as Kalase and Husri were saved by the direct
action
of the villagers. Finally the government announced a ban on
green
fellings in 1987.
Yet
recently activists there reported illegal felling by the forest
department
in the catchment area of some of the biggest southern
rivers.
Further forests have been cut for expanding the rail network,
electricity
transmission and dams.
In
Uttarakhand there are growing complaints that in the guise of
removing
fallen and dead trees, a lot of green trees are being
removed,
often with the collusion of local authorities and
politicians.
Activists
said the disturbed political climate in the early nineties
at the
height of an agitation for a separate Uttarakhand state had
been
used by local timber smugglers to fell a large number of trees in
the
protected forests in the region.
Forests
are also being submerged by a mammoth dam project at Tehri, in
the
Garhwal Himalayas, which is racing to completion after more than
three
decades of delays. The project has been dogged by controversy --
critics
say a high dam in the quake- prone Himalayas could be an
invitation
to disaster.
From
the Himalayan forests to the Western Ghats, the gains made
earlier
to protect the forests are being eroded.
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