Prof. (Dr) R.D. Gupta
The deforestation of the Himalayas through commercial trees felling have created serious problems for the country. The floods of northern India have crippled country’s national economy in direct and indirect losses. Agricultural fields are devastated annually. Road and railway communications are damaged badly vis-à-vis many other public properties. The floods of Kashmir valley and Jammu of September 4-5, 2014 are the glaring examples in this regard where thousands people were rendered homeless, a number of lives lost and hundreds of livestock and wild animals perished and lakhs of rupees had to be spent on their relief and then rehabilitation.
As a result of deforestation of J&K Himalayas, our waterfall, springs, a number of streams have already been dried up and some are drying fast. Many rural areas are in distress for scarcity of drinking water. Hardly any forest in J&K state has escaped degradation under biotic pressure. Soil erosion is widespread and desert like conditions are appearing everywhere. Kashmir valley is the worst affected. Soil erosion from the bare hills is silting the rivers stream beds, the floods are increasing in fury and frequency. Floods also cause pollution. Forest law provides for closing 25% of the forest area at a time for purposes of rehabilitation and regeneration. This rule worked well till 1947 when the conditions started deteriorating. Now our forests are not regenerating and it is a matter of grave concern for all of us.
On when hand, when the plunder of green gold in Kashmir valley is going on unabatedly and on the other hand, the coming up of numerous stone quarries with in the forest covers is posing yet another threat to their surrival. Most of the quarries have come up indiscriminately throughout the length and breadth of Kashmir Division at the foot hills bearing rich coniferous vegetation. Three stone quarries have come up within mountainous range on the right side of Trehgam Shimnag road of Kupwara district having a dense forest of conifers extending to an area of 5 Km. Similarly stone quarries have come into sight in Kichthama of Baramula district endangering thousands of forest trees.
Oak forest of Kandi Budal, Rajouri district have been destructed by the people for agriculture. Khair, a traditional tree of Jammu region, is going to extinct under exploitation of modern Katha manufacturing units. Khair trees are searched from all over the subtropical belt to feed these units. Bamboo forests of Jasrota and Kathua forest ranges have been exterminated practically since last several decades. Forests of Jammu region, especially of Siwaliks are burnt mercilessly every year causing grievous losses to natural environment. The process of desertification of Siwalik forests and those of Jammu Kandi, is highly accelerated. Chir pine continues under heavy tapping for resin in utter disregard of the condition of the chir forests. Under the garb of extraction of dry and fallen trees are being extracted without any interference. Hardly 3-4 decades back, one may recollect the position of Bahu and Mahamaya Rakhs (forest) around Jammu, which were quite dense and full of Acacia nilotica (Kikar), Acacia catechu (Khair) and Acacia modesta (Phullai) as well as Dalbergia sisso (Shisham), Monosperma domestica (Pala) Cassia fistula (Amaltas) Syzygium cumini (Jaman), Mangifera indica (Aam) etc. All these tree species were responsible for producing cool breeze locally called Tadu early in the morning at about 4.0 AM up to early nineteen hundred sixty which has now totally stopped. Several compartments in Dudu and Billawer forest ranges have been badly damaged. It has been mentioned in a report that during 1996-2001, about 40,000 green trees were illegally cut in these ranges and at sever all places the left over lower potions of trees have been burnt (Sharma, 2003). Similar were the situations in Doda and Bhadarwah forest divisions. The residents of some villages in Kupwara district have demanded to take stern action against timber smugglers involved in vandalisation of forests (Masoodi, 2013).
It emerges from the foregoing facts that vast forests of hilly state of J&K spread over subtropical, intermediate, temperate and cold arid zone (Ladakh) have been reduced to 16.04% of the total geographical area due to ever increasing population pressure (Gupta, 2006).
Scientific Strategies for Managing Forests: Admittedly and beyond any shadow of doubts forests were rich in the past but were not efficiently managed on the scientific lines as the demands were less due to scanty human population. But now due to looming human and livestock population, the forests at present are required to be well managed and conserved for the posterity. In this regard, the following strategies are required to be fully adopted.
Improvement in the quality of Planting stock: In a major initiative to ameliorate the quality of the planting stock the Forest Department is required to decide to setup vermi-composting units in all the nurseries of the Jammu and Kashmir State in a phased manner. Apart from this, the saplings should be kept longer in the nurseries to help for developing better roots to increase the survival rate in the plantations.
Improvement in the management of nurseries: The forest department should take necessary steps to improve the management of the nurseries for ensuring proper monitoring of the stock being raised. The number of nurseries is required to be reduced by winding up the uneconomical smaller units which raised only a few thousand saplings.
Proper infrastructure arrangements: Only those nurseries which have proper infrastructure and are accessible for effective monitoring should be retained. The increase in the nursery output, will reduce the cost of saplings.
Proper arrangement for irrigation: Proper arrangements should be made for irrigation. Further, arrangements are required to be made for constructing gardeners huts as well as proper stores and poly houses at each nursery in a phased manner.
Clean and green environment: Generally, environment equally shared by all, is the responsibility of every individual to maintain it. But how many of us dare to take this. Clean and green environment is the need of the hour. It becomes the duty of every citizen to protect it by way of conserving the forests and preventing the illicit cutting or felling of the trees.
Ban on illicit cutting, lopping and fire: Illicit cutting or felling of trees, thefts of forests produce and smuggle of timber have depleted forests growing stock. Medicinal plants growing belts have shrunk and fallen in low density. Lopping of broad leaved trees for fodder has threatened out of their existence. Fires promote soil erosion and make the unfertile and dry in the long run. In the light of these facts illicit cutting lopping of the forest trees and forest fires are required to be banned.
Encroachments: Encroachments have ushered the second phase of forest losses, in the forest phase we lost forest trees and in the second phase we are losing the forest land as well. Encroachments are posing serious sociopolitical and socio economic problem for the Govt. The Govt. must take serious action against the defaulters.
(The author is former Associate Dean-cum-cum Chief Scientist KVK, SKUAST-J)
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