Forests are a natural resource crucial to feeding and regulating rainfall cycles. They also provide essential biodiversity – being home to millions of species of plants and animals –for the coupled existence of humankind and nature. As the bells toll louder on climate change, forests are the first line of defense. They act as a carbon sink, absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and storing it in their wood, and soil.
On the other hand, deforestation and degradation of forests releases carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere, driving up temperatures and triggering climate catastrophe. Between 2001 and 2020, global forests lost 10% of their area coverage, releasing 165 gigatons of carbon dioxide.
It was music to the ears when the India State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2023, released by the Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Bhupender Yadav, announced India’s forest and tree cover had increased to just over a quarter – or 25.17% – of the country’s geographical area. The minister said there had been an increase of 1,445 square kilometers of forest and tree cover over the last count in 2021.
After all the back-thumping, much of the data has been met with a degree of skepticism. The high numbers have been drummed up by including commercial bamboo plantations, coconut groves and orchards, Kerala’s former principal chief conservator of forests, Prakriti Srivastava, conservationist researcher Krithika Sampath and former National Board for Wildlife member Prerna Singh Bindra, told PTI. Calling it “another faulty report with inflated data”, they claimed 1,488 sq km of ‘unclassed forests’ or non-notified forests under government ownership had vanished between 2021 and 2023. A former principal chief conservator of Forests of Karnataka, BK Singh, told the environmental magazine Mongabay, while plantations are increasing 18,000 sq. km. annually, forest and tree cover was shown to have gone up by a meagre 1,400 sq. km in two years. Either the forests are being cut and plantations are partly supplementing the deficit; or a major chunk of plantations are failing. An inquiry would be in order, Mr B.K. Singh said.
The Forest Survey does admit the decline in forest cover in eco-sensitive zones like the Western Ghats, and the lower Himalayas. The report concedes, for example, the Western Ghats Eco-Sensitive Areas (WGESA) have lost 58.22 sq km of forest cover, while the north-east lost 327 sq km. The impact of the deforestation was seen less than 6 months ago in Kerala’s Wayanad region. Incessant rains brought down denuded sections of the hills on the villages below killing over 250 persons.
While anecdotal evidence points to the retreat of core forests falling to mining and road building activity, ‘flexible’ interpretations of what constitutes ‘trees’ and ‘forest cover’ ensures the picture remains rosy and green. The earlier 2021 ‘State of Forest Report’ released in January 2022 claimed the country’s forest and tree cover had gone up by 2,261 sq km since the last assessment in 2019. Contrary to this, in April this year, Global Forest Watch (GFW) released a report based on satellite imagery on the losses of forest cover on a world scale. GFW said India had lost 23,300 sq km of tree cover between 2000 and 2023, an area slightly larger than the state of Meghalaya. As much as 18% of this denudation was of humid, primary forests that are the most efficient carbon sinks to stem climate change.
The shocking revelations by Global Forest Watch (GSW) of the state of forests prompted the National Green Tribunal to take up the matter sou motu. It issued notices on May 20 to central ministries for breach of provisions of the Forest Conservation Act, 1980, the Air (Prevention and Control of Po lution) Act, 1981 and the Environment Protection Act, 1986. The Survey of India, which conducts biennial forest cover survey, was made a party to explain its claims that forest cover had been rising. In view of the conflicting data and methodologies, legal closure on the controversy is nowhere in sight. But why is the government dressing up the data on forest cover brazenly? Besides acclaim, is it to earn carbon credits? Forest cover is linked with the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) commitments countries have made towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions. If they reach the set targets, they earn handsomely in carbon credits.
The government release on the 2023 forest survey gives the game away. It claims in respect of the “target under NDC related to carbon sequestration, the current assessment shows India’s carbon stock has reached 30.43 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent; which indicates that as against the base year of 2005, India has reached 2.29 billion tonnes of additional carbon sink, as against the target of 2.5 to 3.0 billion tonne by 2030.”
In actual fact, our natural forests are dying; and the annual weather cycle of rainfall and the charging of our rivers and streams crucial to the agricultural economy are in extreme danger. But to reverse the denudation of our forests one has to first accept that a problem exists.