Ajmer Alam Wani

THE Jammu and Kashmir Government may have initiated viable steps (on papers only and in meetings) to eradicate menace of timber smuggling and also for preservation of environment in the State but the ground reality is far away and the slogans and claims of the concerned Minister and officials seems hollow.

No doubt in a meeting held at Srinagar recently, Minister for Forest, Ecology and Environment, Mian Altaf Ahmad had said that the government will do everything possible to prevent forest fires in future and safeguard the forest wealth as the survival of mankind hinges on its protection. But in reality, the Green Gold of the state at present is under severe threat and the government seems least interested in saving and protecting it.

Let us start with the condition of green forests and negligigence of forest officials in Doda district. To begin with our focus today will be on Compartment No-1 in Chiralla belt of villages which falls in Bhaderwah constituency. Young green trees have been shortened to ground and the land has been converted into agriculture land by the land encroachers’ mafia which is operative since decades.

Though the land encroachers’ mafia operative in the area is not so powerful but the fact is that forest officials deputed in the area are incompetent and do not make an effort to visit the area thus leave the forest at the mercy of enemies of Green Gold who enjoy cutting green trees at their tender age.

It is not so that the lower rung forest officials do not visit the area. They visit, but seldom and collect the money from Green Gold enemies for the distraction of forests wealth and inform their officers that everything is going in right direction all over without mentioning a bit about the encroachments.
During the last several years the forest land encroachments and cutting of trees has gone rampage but unfortunately no one is there to check it. The state government and the Minister concerned make tall claims before the media and in meetings assuring to do wonders but if one visits the area and have a glance of the condition of forest area, it becomes clear that the JK Govt, Forest Minister and the officials concerned at the higher level are in deep slumber which is not only zeroing our forests but also threatening the very existence of wildlife.

As the wildlife has been disturbed due to the forest cutting, the wild animals are posing great threat to the inhabitation near to forests as their stay places get disturbed or damaged.

Sources said that the land encroachers since decades are working on a systematic strategy.

They either put the forest under fire or cut out the skin around trunk of the trees which results in drying the tree. Later these partially dried up trees are cut down and used for domestic fuel and the land is cleared of trunks and left out tree roots. Than after the land is converted into agriculture land. This all goes in a well organized manner and the land encroachers have no fear in doing so as they know no one is going to visit the area to check them.

Ironically forest officials deputed in the areas who were directed by the higher authorities on few occasions, that too, after receiving some strong complaints and stand against these land encroachments are not in a position to identify their departmental land ( Forest Land ), which is not only unfortunate but a matter of great concern.

The officials should have been updated with their records but such attitude and working style of the officials speaks otherwise and indicates that forest land has no caretakers.

It has been since decades the forest land has not been demarcated by the department yet the Ministers claim of protecting and preserving the Green Gold. How is it possible? If the officials of a department are so much ignorant about the area they are supposed to protect, than how comes it possible, that the initiatives of the government claiming to eradicate menace of timber smuggling and preserving environment would guarantee results.

The Forest Minister has to wake-up to the situation and make the first move at earliest ensuring speedy results. The need of the hour is to go for fresh demarcation of the Forest Land area and set Forest Protection Posts in such areas so the forest land could be evacuated from the encroachers and further encroachments could be checked. Otherwise the day is not far behind when the entire forest area would be converted into a desert. No doubt such move by encroachers will also threaten their own survival.

Despites spending crores of rupees to create an armed force in the state under the name Forest Protection Force (FPF) with a sole motive to protect the forest wealth yet the Green Gold cover has been declining at an alarming pace in the higher reaches of erstwhile district Doda. The reasons is the field staff and armed protectors (FPF) both supposed to protect the green beauty and wealth of the Doda district are mute spectator to the felling of green forests as well as timber smuggling and do not visit the higher reaches thus have turned mute spectators to the felling to green gold and are negligent towards their duties.

Reports said that the illegal deforestation in the dense green patch of district Doda is Jammu and Kashmir , is going on at an alarming pace as the Forest Protection Force is not active enough in the higher reaches which is unconnected and have no road connectivity.

With the deforestation going on rampage in the higher reaches of Bhaderwah Forest range many eyebrows are being raised about the working of Forest Protection Force (FPF) in the entire erstwhile Doda district. Another reason for the deforestation in the higher reaches of Bhaderwah Forest range is that these areas lack FPF posts so the trees are being cut down fearlessly. Due to the lack of healthy planning and opening the FPF posts in the required areas Green Gold is vanishing fast.

Though the tropical forests cover only 7 % of the earth’s land surface, they contain more than half of all living species. Estimates of the number of living species on earth vary from five million to 80 million of which only 1.4 million have been described. Wild species and the genetics variations within them make substantial contributions to the development of agriculture, medicine and industry.

According to an estimate, between 1990 and 2020, species extinction caused primarily by deforestation may eliminate between 5 and 15 per cent of the world’s species, a potential loss of 15,000 to 50,000 species a year. The forest area is considerably decreasing day by day. The satellite imageries study of National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA) revealed that forest area in 1972-75 was 55.5 mha only, which reduced to just 46.3 mha in 1980-82, indicating an average rate of depletion of forest area of about 1.3 mha per year. As per India’s National Forest Policy, the present ratio is not up to the mark. The degraded forest land is approximately around 30 mha out of total 67 mha.

In order to overcome this problem, Government of India formulated National Development Wastelands Boards in 1985 and its objective was to launch intensive plantation programmes by involving local people to bring more and more degraded land under plantation cover. In order to check rapid rate of extinction of bio-diversity concerted efforts are being made by various agencies.

They are on the job to protect areas in the form of biospheres, national parks, sanctuaries and tiger reserves in terrestrial eco-system, mangroves and coral reefs in marine eco-system and wetlands in fresh water ecosystem. Sources further added that a network of 14 bio-spheres, 83 national parks and 447 sanctuaries cover about 18 mha area in the country. The situation is worsening and more and more agencies are being involved for the task in coming days.

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