SHILLONG, Aug 24: Raising environmental concerns, Chairman of the State Programme Implementation and Monitoring Committee, Saleng Sangma, has asked the National Green Tribunal (NGT) as well as the state government to take note of the rampant cutting of trees and smuggling of timber in Meghalaya.
Speaking to media persons here on Tuesday, Saleng Sangma stressed that in the wake of increasing pollution level and other environmental hazards, the government and other authorities must take a serious note of the matter. “Not only illegal cutting of trees but rampant smuggling is going on and if you go to areas like Nongstoin and Mawsynram, the entire areas are becoming barren, and in future, we may even have deserts there,” said Sangma.
He said that apart from coal, the NGT should also pay heed to this issue. “I will urge the Chief Minister and Forest Minister to take the matter seriously and we as MDA should act on it,” Sangma said.
Stating that Dubai is planting trees on deserts and attempting to create artificial rainfall, Saleng, who is an NCP legislator, said that Sohra and Mawsynram are not the places from yesteryears as the regions are now seeing a decreasing trend in rainfall. It may be recalled that the MDA Government is already under fire over the mushrooming of illegal coke factories in East Jaintia Hills and has also been heavily criticised. It would now be interesting to see if the government acts on the allegations of illegal timber smuggling in the state.
Meghalaya’s ecology is under constant threat due to rampant felling of trees and smuggling of timber.
According to the Forest Survey of India’s 2017 report, the forest cover of the state is 17,146 sq. km (74 per cent of the geographical area) and the tree cover is 657 sq. km (2.92 per cent of the geographical area).
The forest and tree cover in the state works out to 79.37 per cent across 17,803 sq. km, accounting for 2.26 per cent of India’s forest and tree cover against the national goal of maintaining two-third of the land area in hills and mountainous regions of the country.
Meghalaya ranks 4th in terms of percentage of forest cover in the country.
