Col Satish Singh Lalotra
‘When in doubt look to the pines for wisdom and strength.’—Anonymous..
In recent years, there seems to be a renewed interest in pine trees and the quintessential pine needles that seems to have been kicked in not only the thinking radars of inhabitants of the Himalayan region but also the economists, environmentalists as also the medical fraternity of the world who suddenly have put this natural resource under the prism of rigors of necessity. Well this necessity has now broadened its boundaries well into the realm of sustainable living intertwined as it is this natural resource into the everyday lives of people living around these pine trees. Though pine trees are not the exclusive domain of Himalayas, but are omnipresent in almost all the continents of the world barring the two extremes of Antarctica and far north of the Arctic Circle. Himalayas the quint essential abode of Hindu Gods have within its recesses hundreds and thousands of pine trees that stand tall and erect as a testimony to the association of its usage in the various rituals in the Hindu mythology from ages that still is being carried forward with the same zeal and single mindedness. This zeal off course is now tinged with a hue of survivability, sustainability of environment, and powering of the local economy in the area. This article of mine primarily deals with a unique subject which has been propelled into motion by the locals of Jammu & Kashmir that has pine needles and pine trees as its mainstay.
In J&K, subtropical pine forests have its foot prints that extend on both sides of the Pir Panchal Mountains in thick abundance. With a fair amount of 16.40% of the total forest cover having a preponderance of these pine trees, the Shivaliks in particular take the cake in Jammu and Kashmir as the feeder location of this variety of tree. The best part of the spread of these pine trees in Jammu and Kashmir is the fact that the erstwhile state has an approximately coverage of 158,813 hectares with an altitude ranging from 500 to 1500 meters and even beyond. The pine forests extend from Basholi in the east to Poonch in the west, and goes up to Chenab valley. These pine trees occur in Bhaderwah, Doda, Ramban, Reasi, Udhampur, Samba, Kathua, Poonch, Rajouri, Nowshera, Billawar, and Jammu forest division too. In Kashmir division it extends even across the Razdan pass into the Gurez valley. In the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir a rough estimate shows that about 2 lakh tonnes of pine trees are shed every year. During the months of summers, the shedding of dry needles form a thick cluster mat on the ground which not only affects the growth of regeneration but also due to the slow rate of decomposition , the needles act as combustible material during the peak summer season ( April to June). The resin content in the needles also enhances fast combustion of dry litter during the summers, making forests vulnerable to fire. While posted in the Gurez valley way back in 2003 I have come across numerous such fires on crossing the Razdan pass / Tragbal while driving down to Bandipur when these pine trees due to the wind velocity and a dry atmosphere used to ignite like tinder boxes.
Same is the case with the Jammu forests that form a combustible mat for the entire environment. To add to the fuel to the fire, the yearly migration of the ‘Gaddi and Bakerwals towards the higher reaches too are not far behind to ignite these forests for a better layer of grass as a means of fodder for their cattle. Forest fires are a bane of Himalayas that extend right up till the confines of Arunachal Pradesh with smaller states like the Uttrakhand, Himachal Pradesh etc thrown in between. Over the past one decade, the Jammu and Kashmir region has witnessed thousands of forest fires. From 2002 to 2018, a total of 4392 forest fires were reported across various blocks. The divisions of Jammu, Nowshera and Samba are particularly vulnerable, and they witnessed the highest number of fires in the forests. Meanwhile as I mentioned above the area of Bandipur in the Kashmir region witnessed the highest incidents of fire. Many of these fires near the wular lake particularly Watlab and Warpora villages on way to Bandipur were triggered by even the security forces consequent to the militant activities in the early 2000s. I myself having survived a massive IED blast in March 2004 near Warpora village on way to Bandipur have seen how the dense forest cover is misused by these renegade elements, only for the security forces to go all out against these forests to clear the field of view. But that is only a small part of the inevitable. A recent report published, claimed that in the year 2022 alone the area of Bandipur witnessed over 1000 forest fires. Forest fires damage the vegetation cover, and effect wildlife habitats. They cause change in microclimate, loss of biodiversity, and invasion of weeds. These forest fires can also adversely affect the local livelihood, besides releasing carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas responsible for global warming. All the above has resulted into the forest department of Jammu and Kashmir initiating a project in 2021, aimed at utilizing these pine needles through sustainable development and management and new interventions.
As a consequence to the above, in Nowshera forest division which covers around 65,000 hectares of area and about 9,565 hectares of very dense pine forest which is prone to forest fires, the initial foray was made for the project to take its roots. In the initial phase, the project involved educating the forest staff on effective interaction with local communities, a strategy commonly referred to as ‘Joint forest management’. This so called ‘joint forest management’ involved training on how to make small artifacts that graduated finally to making larger and more attractive artifacts. As an example there are many SHG (Self-help groups) in the area which collect these pine needles from the forest floor, tie them in bundles, clean them with washing powder to remove any dirt or unwanted material. Thereafter these bundles are thrown in boiling water with Neem leaves and glycerine drops. These Neem leaves protect the pine needles from fungus and the glycrine adds a sheen to them. These pine needles are then kept in water overnight, after which they are shade dried and ready to braid. Mostly there are women who are at the forefront of these activities who make things like tiffin boxes, trays with and without bases, dining mats , purses and more priced at Rs 300 or more. These products are generally eco-friendly and organic in nature where no chemicals are involved in the entire process. Initially there was a huge problem of marketability for these items which was sorted out by the forest officials acting as an interface who went out of their way by placing them at the various village melas and fairs as also displayed them at an international fair in Delhi. This exposure at the international fair was a major breakthrough that led to handsome dividends to the women involved in these activities earning even 1 lakh rupees in a single day. This acted as an impetus to the other local women folks too who were compelled to think in similar terms to better their lot and came forward to attend workshops organized by the forest department of Jammu and Kashmir.
Under the aegis of NRLM (National rural livelihood mission) hundreds of such enthusiastic women have scripted success for themselves. Few years’ back a similar effort was started by the ex-DC of Riasi when ‘Duggardhani’ a concept of taking Dogra cuisine to the tourists and general public was started in that district which has now become a roaring success. Although creating handicrafts from the bio- waste offered a source of income for local women, the quantity of pine needles in this case remained a prime concern that galvanized the forest department to initiate another novel concept -that involved conversion of pine needles into ‘Briquettes’. The department took help from IIT-Roorke to develop portable manual hydraulic machines for manufacturing bio-briquettes from pine needles. Making bio-briquettes involved ‘CONTROLLED BURNING’ of pine needles which was not feasible in the vastness of the forests of Jammu and Kashmir. Hence the need to rope in IIT-Roorke and its expertise in doing the same. Bio-briquettes are a bio-fuel substitute for coal and charcoal, mostly made of green waste. The briquettes require no binding material and are hand driven. Around 100 grams of crushed pine needles make 80 grams of briquettes. The whole process is of about 80 seconds with these hydraulic machines. These briquettes can be used for cooking , and heating purposes and available at Rs 12-15 per kg. There are even aromatic briquettes that are made of using eucalyptus leaves and Vitex negundo. At present there are about 15 portable hydraulic machines and 05 SHGs in the Nowshera forest division presently taking on the role of making briquettes. Mostly these briquettes are sold to the road side dhabawalas as also to few hotels as a start point who will be acting as pathfinders for the rest of the rural and urban society to follow suit in using this wonderful bio-briquettes. Many of these SHGs earn about 12 to 13 thousand rupees per month by these activities.
According to the forest officials these establishments previously used the expensive firewood and charcoal and later on switched to the briquettes under sustained marketability undertaken by the concerned forest officials and the SHGs. With just 2 kilograms of briquettes, these small vendors can sustain their operations for the whole day. The concept of working of NLRM /National rural livelihood mission was seen by me and wife when we both went to Uttrakhand way back in 2019 and visited Berinag where we chanced upon to see the wonderful concept of ‘Avani’ started by the duo of Rashmi jain and Rajnish jain the husband and wife team. The concept of Avani too revolved around the ‘Gassification of pine needles’ as a means of bio- mass fuel. Activities of such nature that show cross-linkages between various departments have great potential to provide sustainable livelihood opportunities to the deprived sections of the society. In places like Gurez, Tangdhar, Uri and Sonamarg where there is shortage of fuel such a novel idea is worth its weight in gold. Particularly Gurez valley that remains cut off for 6 months from rest of the world during the winters has much to lean from such NLRM missions and should go all out to adopt the concept of briquettes. During my stay in Gurez valley in 2003/04 it was primarily the army which was the main source of providing alternative means of fuel to the locals when Razdan pass used to be buried deep under snow. But no longer , since I believe the NLRM has put its boots on ground in the ‘Land of Shina’ too in order to alleviate the causes of these hapless locals. Need is to replicate this concept in the entire UT of Jammu and Kashmir. As has been rightly said—‘When in doubt look to the pines for wisdom and strength’.
(The writer is a retired army officer)
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