EDITORIAL2: The Panchgaon way
Context
The Green India Mission relies on outdated and distorted data from the Forest Survey of India and is implemented by the Forest Department, which lacks a science- and nature-based approach. A new, people-oriented, science-driven strategy is needed to truly green the Western Ghats.
Western Ghats: The green gold of India
- The Western Ghats is one of the eight hotspots of biological diversity in the world and is spread across six states—Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
- The forests in the Western Ghats are the water towers of peninsular India. As many as 58 major rivers originate here, including the sacred Godavari, the Cauvery and the Krishna.
- In the last six decades, the forest cover in the Western Ghats has been severely fragmented due to human activities.
- People started clearing the forest for growing tea and coffee and for teak plantations. With an increase in human activity and urbanisation, a whopping 40 percent of the original forests is lost in Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
- The ghats not only sustain 50 million people, but they are also home to about 4000 species of flowering plants, 645 species of evergreen trees, about 120 species of mammals, 500 species of birds and many reptiles, butterflies and fishes.
A new, people-oriented, science-driven strategy
- Pachgaon in Maharashtra’s Chandrapur district shows the way. Pachgaon was assigned Community Forest Rights (CFR) under the Forest Rights Act of 2006 over 1,000 ha of land. It is exercising this right to good effect.
- Through bamboo sales, Pachgaon earns a good income. So its people have stopped setting fire to tendu leaves to stimulate fresh growth.
- This is despite the fact that tendu leaves, too, were a good source of income. Additionally, they have voluntarily set aside 30 hectares as a sacred grove.
- With this, the forest is registering healthy growth and sequestering large quantities of carbon.
- This has also meant security of livelihoods and greater self-respect for the people. Earlier, many villagers used to migrate all the way to Gujarat to earn a living. Now, very few people leave the village.
Way forward
- This is clearly the way forward for effectively greening the Western Ghats. The entire region is crying out for an honest implementation of the Forest Rights Act and assignment of Community Forest Rights to a substantial proportion of the population that has been living inside forests or on their fringes for over three generations.
- At the same time, we should take forward the process of democratic decentralisation and involve people in the decision-making process.
- This is exactly what the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel recommended, and it remains the way forward.