Daijiworld Media Network – Bengaluru

Bengaluru, Oct 17: There is a drastic decline of forest cover in Karnataka. While development seems to be the need of the hour, loss of green cover seems inevitable.

In Karnataka, over 15,860 hectares of forest land has been diverted for different projects, while only 1,270 hectares of non-forest Compensatory Allotment land has been notified under Section 4 of the Karnataka Forest Act.

Former Principal Chief Conservator of Forest, Karnataka, B.K. Singh stresses one cannot just consider loss of trees in non-forest areas as forest loss. There is a loss of forest even when Forest (Conservation) Act 1980, has not been properly implemented in the forest areas, he says.

He speaks on the failure of Compensatory afforestation (CA). When trees are grown in non-forest areas as part of CA, the lands do not get notified under Protected Forests. As these lands are located far from forests clusters, maintaining trees planted on this land becomes an issue.

He also adds that compensatory forestation cannot restore the rich biodiversity lost. One cannot compensate the loss of forests in Western Ghats with CA programme. Also the species of trees chosen for compensatory forestation are limited.

Singh attributed the landslides in Kodagu, Wayanad and Idukki to ‘soil piping’ which happens when trees are cut, their roots decompose over the years creating hollow pipes causing earth in these areas to sink.

Singh said the state government’s decision to notify green cover under the control of the Revenue Department as compensatory forests to make up for forest land diverted is not a positive move. “It does add additional area under vegetation. It can impact climate,” he told media.