Planting saplings here, there ‘not enough’ to raise green cover

Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 5

As ministers, leaders and corporates today went into overdrive on World Environment Day to plant saplings, environmentalists say these efforts are unlikely to generate the results required to fulfil India’s commitment to increasing forest cover by 2030.

On one hand, they (the government) say they are committed to increasing the forest cover and on the other, their projects (dams, coal mines) are destroying the natural carbon sequestration capacity, they say.

Soumitra Ghosh, an activist of the All India Forum of Forest Movement, says forests cannot be created artificially. Only small clusters and plantations can be achieved by planting saplings here and there.

According to the government data, 24 per cent of its area — around 7 lakh sq km — is under forests. The area under forest and tree cover grew by 5,081 sq km between 2013 and 2015—a reason to cheer about. But as per Ghosh, every year the government has been “diverting natural forests for mining, roads and dams and destroying them”.

“Planting trees here and there in the name of afforestation and claiming that the forest cover has increased is absurd, a pure stunt. Effectively, what they are growing is cluster of tress, small patches of plantations,” he says.

Among the commitments India made to the UNFCCC under the Paris Agreement include increasing share of non-fossil fuel-based energy from 30 per cent to about 40 per cent by 2030, reducing emissions intensity per unit GDP by 33 to 35 per cent by 2030 and creating an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide through an additional tree cover.

The major hurdle in achieving the target related to the forest cover is India’s own policies, claims environmentalist Soumya Dutta. “Most of the mega projects, be it a river valley or coal mining, are located in high-density forests areas where the carbon sequestration rate is high. Broadly, government policies are destroying most of its carbon sequestration capacity.”

“Just today, the government sanctioned cutting of 18,000 trees in the Narmada valley. Similarly in the Renuka Dam project located in Himachal Pradesh, more than 13 lakh trees will either be submerged or cut,” he says.