Meghalaya frames guidelines 18 years after Supreme Court ban on timber felling
SHILLONG: 18 years after the ban on tree felling by the Supreme Court, the Meghalaya Forest department has framed a working scheme for judicious harvesting of timber and subsequent tree plantations.
The working scheme for the non-Government forests was prepared in assistance with the North East Space Application Centre (NESAC), a senior Forest official said.
The working scheme is mainly to assist the district councils and the private land owners for the effective use of forest produces especially timber and also to improve their livelihood.
The department has also framed another working plan for the Government reserve forests which is around 6 per cent of the State’s forest cover.
The two main points of the working scheme is to see that how much timber can be harvested and at the same time how many trees should be planted in replacement of the timber harvested.
The ban on timber felling by the Supreme Court in 1996 had affected the economy of the people of the State. The Court, however, had asked the State Government to prepare a working scheme to have effective management of the trees in the forest managed by the district councils and private individuals.
It took almost 18 years for the State to prepare the scheme as the matter needed examinations at various levels.
The first stage of the scheme has been approved by the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) and the remaining stages will be approved within 15 to 20 days after incorporating suggestions from the MoEF, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Sunil Kumar said. A monitoring committee has already been constituted and the conservator of forest in each district will monitor the implementation of the working scheme on a periodic basis.
As per the scheme, the beneficiaries who cut the trees will have to contribute for plantation by way of 2 per cent green cess which will bring accountability as far as managing the forest is concerned. Moreover this will also ensure restoration of trees thereby preventing any depletion of the forest cover.
Kumar said that going by the spirit of the working scheme, the department has already initiated several steps to ensure a balanced forest management by reducing the consumption of woods by the licensed saw mills.
Earlier, the saw mills were using timber worth nine cubic meters per unit per day which was reduced to 5.4 cubic meters. “There was uproar after the decision, but we had to initiate this in line with the working scheme as the total availability of timber does not commensurate with the needs of saw mills to sustain them,” Kumar said. There are as many as 45 licensed saw mills in the State.
The official also said that the forest department has also taken steps to book people who engage in illegal charcoal trade and in this regards 57 cases were framed in the last two years.
Special features of forest working scheme
lHarvesting of timber for judicious use
lPlantation of trees after harvesting timber
lGreen cess of 2 per cent for forest restoration
lRestriction on consumption of woods by saw mills
lCrack down on illegal charcoal trade