Greening through participation

The India Status of Forest Report 2021, released in the second week of January, has evoked a mixed response. This biennial report published by the Forest survey of India provides insight into the status of the forests and green cover in the country. Started way back in 1987, the 17th ISFR Report, 2021 will provide a base for policy framing, planning and implementation.

As per the report, 8,09,537 sq km, which is 24.6 per cent of the total geographical area of the country, is under the forest and tree cover. This includes 7,13,789 sq km of forest area comprising 21.71 per cent of the total geographical area. The remaining is the tree cover. Forest cover has increased by 1,540 sq km and the tree cover also registered an increase of 721 sq km over ISFR 2019 findings.

Detractors of the report are quick to find faults in the intent and methodology by highlighting that the increased forest and tree cover are solely based on satellite imagery and are devoid of ground realities. They believe the ISFR 2021 does not represent the complexity and diversity of Indian forests. Critics also don't find any merit in the claim that 10 major metropolitan cities, which are ever-growing in size and infrastructure, have shown marked improvement in forest and tree cover.

It is worrisome that over the last two decades, dense forests have reduced from 4,16,809 sq km to 4,06,669 sq km. At the same time, there is a significant increase in the degraded open forests. Forest cover and growing stock of government-controlled recorded forest areas have been dwindling over the past two decades.

National Capital Region (NCR) comprises the whole of Delhi, two districts of Rajasthan, eight districts of Uttar Pradesh and 14 districts of Haryana. Notably, the Aravalis falling in this region are under maximum pressure on account of urbanization.

Haryana, which remains in news regarding the Aravalis, has just about 3.63 per cent of its geographical area under forest cover. According to ISFR 2021, its moderately dense forest cover has declined by 6 sq km. The degraded or the open forest cover has been assessed to have an increase of 7 sq km as compared to ISFR 2019.

Haryana faces a major challenge in conserving the Aravalis' ecosystem. Most of the news one hears about the Aravalis is of unauthorized construction, encroachment and denudation to develop upscale farmhouses, marriage palaces and the like. The districts falling in the National Capital Region have been witnessing exponential urbanization, leading to some instances of builder mafia encroaching the forestland. Plethora of cases pending in various courts including the National Green Tribunal and the Supreme Court of India are seeking judicial intervention in preserving the status of the Aravalis.

The problem with the state and its forest department is that they treat themselves as the sole owners and regulators of all forest activity. On the contrary, large tracts of land in the Aravalis are either privately owned or belong to the community. There is hardly any synergy between the state and the private owners. There also appears to be historical distrust and lack of imagination in onboarding private owners towards greening the Aravalis. The global experience shows that millions of hectares of forests, which are managed by the communities jointly with the forest departments, have yielded rich dividends. The Haryana forest department needs to emulate some of these good practices to involve the communities in increasing the forest and tree cover in the Aravalis.

The Aravalis are heavily infested with a useless invasive variety of a tree called Vilayati Kikar or Mesquite, prosopis juliflora. Introduction of this exotic Mexican species has suppressed the growth of natural biodiversity of the region. This kind of monoculture also goes against the concept of multi-cultural forest.

There is an urgent need to create a healthy ecosystem by planting different local species in the Aravalis.

Centre's Green India Mission (GIM), under the National Action Plan for Climate Change (NAPCC), provides a unique and pioneering opportunity to Haryana and its forest department in leveraging the individual resources besides the Central government's funding in greening the eight south Haryana districts including Gurugram and Faridabad besides Nuh, Rewari, Palwal, Mahendragarh and Dadri over a period of five years. The state government has sent a proposal of Rs 989 crores to the Centre to implement the project with the objective of restoration and afforestation of degraded open forests, grasslands and abandoned mining areas.

There is a need to shift the narrative from the farmlands to forestlands in the Aravalis by clearly defining and handholding the individuals and communities who want to come forward in raising native fruits and flowering trees on their privately owned open forest spaces. Unfortunately, at present, there is no set of separate guidelines for the private owners of forestland. The provisions of the Forest Conservation Act, 1980 for conservation, development and management of forests should be clearly extended to private forestlands as well by framing a policy.

Forest officials have expressed their inability in investing their meager resources in privately owned forests. Their allocated resources — financial and human — scarcely meet their own needs to effectively manage and develop the government-owned forests. Private forestland owners are wary of engaging in planting trees on their patches of land for fear of retributive action from the forest department in the absence of a clear-cut policy for private forestland. Ignorance on both sides is counterproductive to the cause of afforestation in the Aravalis. This Catch 22 situation begs resolution through codifying dos and don'ts for private forestland owners in the spirit of the FC Act, 1980 and the Natural Conservation Zone (NCZ) provisions.

Enrolling the owners in this humongous task of increasing the green cover will ensure that plantations are carried out by the individuals and communities themselves. Also, caretakers or protectors of these plantations will be deployed at the owners' costs. This will create huge job opportunities among the forest-dependent communities. Increased environment-friendly activity in such degraded areas will provide a deterrent to illegal mining activity, felling of the existing trees and sporadic hunting of wildlife.

The Forest department, in consultation with local communities, can decide on the density and species of trees per hectare. All native species should be mandatorily sourced from the nurseries of the forest department and plantations should be well regulated and supervised by department personnel. Water and soil conservation must be made an integral part of the scheme. Other finer details of the implementation of the project can be worked out through mutual consultation. It must be clearly spelt out to the individuals and communities that no commercial activity will be allowed in the developed forestlands.

The state government's proposal under GIM has already invited criticism from some retired forest officers and environmentalists. They want all areas to be declared "forest" before initiating the project for its success. They would like the colonial approach of owner, protector and regulator for the forest department than it being a facilitator trusting the communities in conservation and afforestation initiatives. The Aravalis have long suffered from the absence of a targeted, result-oriented and participatory approach to its greening. Public and private participation ought to be given a fair chance without prejudice. The results of such a path-breaking and out-of-the-box initiative can be assessed on yearly basis for course correction. Haryana has the opportunity to set an example for all the neighboring states in greening the forests.

The writer is a retired IPS officer. Views expressed are personal