SHILLONG, Jan 13: Reacting to the recent India State of Forest Report (ISFR) report of decreasing forest cover in Meghalaya and other Northeastern states, Congress Legislature Party (CLP) chief, Ampareen Lyngdoh, on Thursday expressed her rhetorical lack of surprise on the outcome, alleging that the current government is all up for development at the cost of deforestation.
“It is no surprise to hear that Meghalaya has shown a decrease of forest cover as this government has showed no hesitation in cutting down trees for the sake of ‘development’. We saw it in the loss of the beautiful trees lining Laimer in Upper Shillong, while the rest of us were in lockdown,” said Lyngdoh.
In her statement, Ampareen also highlighted the issue of timber smuggling in the state, as she said, “There is rampant timber smuggling across that state which has been unchecked. Stone quarries that line the outskirts of town have swallowed hills whole and add to the loss in tree cover.”
Bringing up the burning issue of climate change and its impacts in this discussion, Ampareen further went on to remind that the water resources in the state are depleting and abnormal weather conditions such as freak hail and sleet storms have been recurring. At this rate, she said, if timely actions are not taken, our “beautiful Meghalaya” might just diminish into a cold and barren town.
Notably, the biennial report by the Forest Survey of India (FSI), an assessment of the country’s forest resources, was released by Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav.
According to the report, the Northeastern states did not show positive results as the current assessment showed a decrease of forest cover to the extent of 1,020 sq km in the region. Arunachal Pradesh lost the maximum forest cover of 257 sq km, followed by Manipur which lost 249 sq km, Nagaland 235 sq km, Mizoram 186 sq km and Meghalaya 73 sq km.
The report further revealed that 17 states/UTs have above 33 per cent of geographical area under forest cover. Out of these, Lakshadweep, Mizoram, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya have more than 75 per cent forest cover, while 12 states/UTs (Manipur, Nagaland, Tripura, Goa, Kerala, Sikkim, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, Assam, Odisha) have forest cover between 33 per cent to 75 per cent.