Over 1K deodars gone, HP not seeing wood for urban spread

Pratibha Chauhan

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Shimla, August 18

Even as the Forest Department proposes to get a study done by experts to ascertain the cause for over 1,000 deodar trees falling here during the recent rains, the focus has shifted on the issue of Shimla forests being degraded and the need to weed out the aged trees.

The collapse of hundreds of deodars, mostly green, in and around the state capital has evoked serious concern among foresters as well as locals over the urgent need to take remedial measures to save these conifers amid the rapid race for urbanisation.

As the majority of the trees in the town are either middle-aged or mature with most being between 120 and 150 years old, the state government will have to take a call on the contentious issue of felling aged green trees in case they are unsafe or hamper regeneration. As of now, rules permit the felling of only dry and unsafe trees.

Several factors like reckless construction activity, road widening, exposing roots of trees, disposal of debris, garbage and poor drainage have sounded the death knell for these century-old trees of the British time. Foresters point out that kitchen waste, garbage and debris flowing into forests as well as roots getting trapped in concrete walls are some of the reasons behind the drying up of trees. “Based on the outcome of the study, we will look at the issue of removing trees which have lost vigour to make way for regeneration, which is currently extremely poor in the absence of enough open area and sunlight in some of the forests in the town,” says Rajiv Kumar, Principal Chief Conservator Forest (PCCF).

As part of forest management practices for having vibrant and healthy forests, the dead trees which have lost their vitality need to be removed, or else they will eventually fall and hamper further regeneration.

The Forest Department is also looking at planting other conifer species like fir and spruce as well as oak, besides shrubs so as to have a dynamic forest which can endure harsh weather. “Artificial regeneration of deodar trees has not yielded results because of tremendous biotic pressure and dumping of waste. Deodar trees should be protected by avoiding slope cutting very close to the root systems, especially in the notified 17 green belts,” opined VP Mohan, a retired IFoS officer.