Lifting of ban earns UP government brickbats
CONFUSION reigns in the hills of Uttar Pradesh (UP) where a decade-old ban on the felling of trees growing above 1,000 metres in the Garhwal Himalaya has been lifted by the state government. However, in the face of protests by environmentalists and the displeasure of the Union ministry of environment and forests (MEF), the UP government has retracted partially and declared "trees will be cut very selectively".
Defending the move to lift the ban, which was imposed by the Centre in 1983, B K Goswami, adviser to the UP governor, said senior officials of the state's forest department had recommended selective felling of only pine trees for silviculture needs. This will be carried out in some 7,000 ha of forest, part of which falls above 1,000 metres, and R S Bhadoria, the state's chief conservator of forests (hill region), explains, "This is just 0.38 per cent of the total 18 lakh ha of forests in the hills."
State forest secretary Mohinder Singh says, "There has been total regeneration of forest cover since the ban was imposed. Old trees are suppressing the younger ones. Forest management calls for felling of these old trees." But Shamsher Singh Bisht of the Uttarkhand Sangharsha Vahini counters, "To remove surplus trees, they do not have to lift the ban. The forest working plan allows them to cut trees for scientific management of forests."
Disastrous move Environmentalists claim the move is a cover for large-scale commercial felling in an area where most other tree species have already been destroyed. Moreover, as the only tree now left growing above 1,000 metres is the pine, the government's claim that only pine trees will be cut is disastrous.
Says Nalini Jayal of Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage, "The forests haven't regenerated enough in just 10 years to allow lifting of the ban." She warns that cutting of even old trees would loosen the soil and cause landslides.
Environmentalists such as Sunderlal Bahuguna envisage a difficult fight against the government's decision because "in the last 15 years, local leaders such as the pradhans, who command considerable local support, have become forest contractors".
According to Bhadoria, "The decision to fell trees was taken as part of the normal working of the department, so there was no question of taking the MEF into confidence." But Union environment minister Kamal Nath does not intend to take the move lightly, and with UP currently under Central rule, the state will have to justify its arbitrary action to the ministry.
The UP government's peremptory move, which appears to have been dictated by the Uttarakhand timber lobby and the approaching elections in the state, is expected to have far-reaching implications because it could bring pressure on governments of other Himlayan states to dilute forest protection laws.