Forests being encroached upon so gradually,it’s unnoticeable

This refers to “Forest panel bats for pvt plantations as compensation” published online on January 9, 2020. In most of the Himalayas, including the Shivalik Range, a lot of the so-called agricultural land would be better off under trees. In fact, most of this agricultural land was anyway earlier forestland but gradually became agricultural due to the insidious and relentless encroachments—something no politician or political party is willing to tackle.This illegal ”transfer” of forestland continues unabated. It is very difficult to grasp this encroachment because it is extremely gradual and incremental, and is done on a very widespread scale in forests that have no boundaries and whose areas were measured a 100 years ago with primitive instruments. Governments are not even willing to demarcate forest boundaries using Global Positioning System and making proper, verifiable Geographic Information System (GIS) maps. Compulsory afforestation done even on twice the area diverted in degraded forests is generally untraceable after five to six years because there is neither any GIS map nor record of survival with the forest departments. After a decade or so, compulsory afforestation can be done again on the same patch, like it happens in most forest department afforestation schemes. In this way we can keep going around in circles and patting ourselves on the back with the unverifiable “State of Forest” reports, even as our forests continue to thin out and disappear.

VINAY TANDON

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