Saving green wealth: Policies change, not ground reality

Sumit Hakhoo

Tribune News Service

Jammu, July 6

The recent announcement by Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed that the PDP-BJP coalition government would frame a new forest policy in Jammu and Kashmir has again brought to focus how laws for protecting green gold in the state were modified on political considerations.

Successive governments since 1977 have altered laws, which only ensured the unhindered loot and encroachment of forests rather than safeguarding the wealth endowed by nature.

Officials said in the backdrop of the recent controversy over the anti-encroachment drive, which created huge stir with some politicians and separatist leaders giving the entire campaign a communal twist, the government was considering bringing major changes in the forest rules and focus would be on a grazing policy for nomads, who are demanding greater rights.

The loot of forest wealth, which started in mid-1950’s when families of the ruling elite were allotted forest compartments for extraction of timber, reached the zenith after the eruption of insurgency in 1990.

Large swathes of jungles in the environmentally diverse state have been ravaged as so called stringent laws failed to prevent the destruction.

These norms have become a classical example of how laws are of no consequence to the enforcing agencies, corrupt forest officials and politicians, who continue to loot the green wealth with impunity.

Environmentalists have also questioned the proposed changes. “There is need for better implementation of plans. How many policies state needs. Every government, which rules the state, alters the forest protection laws, which has contributed to the loot of states green wealth with impunity,” said Bushan Parimoo, an environmentalist.

A senior official in the Forest Department was “amazed” by the Chief Minister’s recent announcement on framing a new forest policy to reverse the damage to biodiversity and focus on environmental conservation.

“It is not a new norm in J&K. The government changes rules looking everything through a narrow prism of politics. It’s confusing for officials also as it stalls their efforts,” said a senior bureaucrat in the Forest Department.

J&K has a total forest cover of 20,230 sq km (20.23 lakh hectare) accounting for 19.95 per cent of the total geographical area of 1,01,387 sq km on this side of the Line of Control (LoC).

Out of the total forest area, 12,066 sq km is in the Jammu region while 8,128 sq km is in the Kashmir region. Ladakh has only 36 sq km forest area.

Forest covers 40.17 per cent area in Kashmir, 59.64 per cent in Jammu and 0.17 per cent land area in Ladakh.

The government in the Legislative Assembly admitted that 14,345 hectare of forest land had so far been encroached upon in the state.

Out of the total land that has been encroached upon, 9,463.39 hectare lies in Jammu while 4,877.62 hectare is in Kashmir

Minister for Forest Bali Bhagat said the existing policy needed some changes keeping in view the changing situation. “There is no politics behind bringing changes in the existing policy. It will be examined by a high-level group on July 11. The Chief Minister had also talked about it,” said the minister.