From Our Spl Correspondent
NEW DELHI: Now it is official. All the seven states of the Northeast including Meghalaya have lost forest cover in the past two years on record due to shifting cultivation but actually because of massive tree felling and unabated insurgency in some districts.
The region which has one fourth of total forest cover of the country with as many as 18 biodiversity hot spots comprising national parks and sanctuaries has lost over 500 sq km of forest area including its dense forest and semi-dense forest, the latest biennial “ India State of Forest Report 2011” of the Forest Survey of India , released by Environment and Forest Secretary Dr T Chatterjee on Tuesday said.
In case of Meghalaya the total forest cover has decreased by 46 sq km mostly in moderately dense forest areas, the report said. There is a marginal increase in dense forest area and some increase in open forest however, it added.
Almost all the districts of the state barring Ri Bhoi and West Garo Hills have lost forest cover, the report added. The main reason for the loss in Meghalaya was due to shifting cultivation, Dr Chatterjee said but remained silent on massive tree felling and insurgency-hit forest areas.
The report is based on interpretation of satellite data recorded during October 2008-March 2009 on the basis of satellite imageries is backed by rigorous ground truthing carried out by the staff of FSI. The change matrices recorded in the present report refer to changes with respect to the satellite data recorded for the previous India State of Forest Report two years earlier.
Special coverage is provided to forest cover in hill districts, tribal districts and the Northeast keeping in mind the special symbiotic relationship of communities with forests in these regions. Most of the tribal and hill districts of the country like that of the NE have lost forest cover, the Secretary said.
As per the present assessment, the Forest and Tree cover of the country is 78.29 million , which is 23.81% of the geographical area of the country. In comparison to the 2009 assessment, after taking into account the interpretational changes, there is a decrease of 367 square km in country’s forest cover.
The India State of Forest Report 2011 contains the regular features like forest cover, tree cover, mangroves and growing stock both in forests and areas outside forests. However, it adds three new chapters that are of crucial importance in the present national and global worldview about forests.These are: a detailed assessment of bamboo resources, a production-consumption assessment of wood based on data stock in India’s forests reported under the NATCOM project. Due to its significant impact on rural/tribal economy and their livelihood the study highlights the importance of trees outside forests is meeting the requirements of industrial wood, small timber and firewood.
Incidentally, even this recorded forest cover is also under question since the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) appointed by the Supreme Court had already directed the Meghalaya forest department to submit details of timber seized in the state between 2002 and 2009 to the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). This was done following reports that roughly 12 million cubic feet of timber worth thousands of crores was taken out of reserved forests in Garo hills.
It was also alleged that the previous SFR of 2009 did not match with what he had seen on the ground. It said that the SFR did not record that two reserved forests were greatly ravaged.
