It’s Time To Save Forests

By Ashaq Hussain Wani

It was December, 1996 when the Supreme Court of India passed its historic judgement on the 1995 civil writ petition filed by T.N Godavarman  Thirumulpad  against the Union of India and others with respect to the cutting of trees in Jammu & Kashmir and Tamil Nadu. Later, taking cognisance of the extensive deforestation in the region the case was extended to include the seven North–Eastern states also by Supreme Court. To conserve the declined forests the Supreme Court laced its judgement with an order and had put complete ban on the movement of cutting of trees and timber from the seven North-Eastern states to any other state of the country either by rail, road or water-ways. The state governments were accordingly directed to take all measures necessary to ensure strict compliance of these directions.  In this manner the directions regarding the ban on cutting of green trees in the state of Jammu and Kashmir put hold on green cutting and the forests in state got relief from cutting down more and more green standing trees which was active on large scale before mainly for economic development propose and the state government was directed that there will be no green felling of trees permitted in any forest public or private however the dry fallen/standing and uprooted trees in fores,t plantations comprising of trees planted by the private persons or the Social Forestry Department of the State of Jammu and Kashmir were kept away from this ban and movement of such trees was allowed strictly in accordance with law. It was further instructed that the state government may either departmentally or through State Forest Corporation remove and extract the diseased, fallen and dry standing timber and trees felled if any under natural calamity that only from the areas other than those notified under the Jammu and Kashmir Wild Life Protection Act, 1978 or any law banning such felling or removal of trees and thereof this timber obtained shall be utilized within the state, preferably to meet the timber and fuel wood requirements of the local people, the government and other local institutions. The order also directed all state governments to constitute within one month an expert committee to identify irrespective its class or ownership, all sawmills, veneer or plywood industries operating in the state and to assess the sustainability of the forests and the timber need. 

 This was the first major step in past some decades, when Supreme Court after long discussions with various legal and forest experts uphold this view and realised that such measures are necessary for the survival of green gold and sustainability of forests and stop the environment from further degradation and this judgement was looked a major victory by the environmentalists, forest experts and wild life lovers as the felling of green forests not only disturb the habitat of wild life but it also increase soil erosion ,water scarcity, rise in temperature  which in turn increase adverse effect both on environment and humanity.

That despite of the above  instructions of judiciary the cutting down of green trees in Jammu & Kashmir by timber smugglers to earn fast money on one hand and government largely on other hand for the development propose is continue  at an alarming  rates from last few decades without realizing its serious consequences on environment. The number of projects including those which were carried out in inner and densely forest covers and eco- sensitively areas has left the heavy impact on environment after they were approved and cleared by Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) along with allied departments through its various decisions in last few years and under these development projects the green trees were enumerated and cut down without feeling any concern as these trees were found obstacle in the way of this infrastructural development. The best example is Ujh multipurpose project in Jammu  for which about 4350 hectares of land has been utilized out of which Forest Department diverted over 680 hectares of forest land. In this project as per the experts about two lac trees were faced axe in order to pave way for this ambitious project and thereof laying transmission lines. This project as per experts not only created ecological imbalance but also micro-climate changes were also observed and due to loss of big forest cover it has left an impact on wild life and environment. The government  in order to compensate this environmental loss has proposed the afforestation in 15 patches on around  1300 hectares of land, double the size of the land diverted for Ujh project  but the sites identified were found on high altitudes as per resources and non accessible and therefore compensatory afforestation programme could not got completed so for. Similarly, the Pakal Dul,  Kishangaga Hydro electric power project, Alstang-Leh transmission line and Jallandhar-Samba-Amargrah  etc are some other examples were countless trees faced axe  for the construction of projects and  thereof laying of transmission lines for supply of generated electricity to other areas and  this has lead vast environmental degradation in Jammu and Kashmir.

The second major factor under which the trees were cut down is the construction of roads in forests premises to facilitate the road connectivity to various for flung villages under different programmes mainly PMGSY and other organizations. 

  That after 2019 a surge in this activity was observed and under series of decisions number of forest land was indentified both in Jammu and Kashmir division for infrastructural development by the authorities of Union Territory of J&K and for this propose as per sources in Jammu region 42000 acres of land and in Kashmir about 15000 acres has been identified for development of infrastructure proposes and accordingly the FAC has approved various projects in a short period coming under designated forest land. 

 Therefore it is time to provide long rest to forests in Jammu and Kashmir control fires, proper utilization of forest land and above all aforestation on mass scale be made necessary and also regulate and stop further cutting of trees so that forests can be saved from further degradation. 

By Ashaq Hussain Wani