Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s intent in announcing Rs 1,500crore for the next five years, including Rs 269crore for 2026-27, to mitigate problems relating to human-wildlife conflict, and also committing to afforestation of 75,000 hectares of degraded forest land, where tree density is less than 10 per cent in Kalyan Karnataka region, is a welcome step.
Yet, such proposals can mitigate climatic degradation on a very limited scale. In a warming world, the state needs to focus on its natural treasure of forests in the Western Ghats region, and the budget must provide direction on how to conserve forests and wildlife in natural habitats.
Climatically, it is advantageous to conserve naturally growing trees in the Western Ghats than taking up afforestation in the State’s arid zone like Kalyan Karnataka.
The average growing stock of forests in the Western Ghats is 100 cubic metre per ha per year, while that in the arid zone is hardly 10 cubic metre per ha per year. Thus true compensation for the loss of forests in the Western Ghats would be at least planting tree species over ten times the area in an arid zone.
Successive governments have been diverting very good quality dense forests for projects relating to linear infrastructure, development, mining and industries leading to large scale degradation and fragmentation of forests, especially in the Western Ghats. We have already incurred huge environmental costs for such destruction.
The state is facing drought, rainfall shortage, flooding, landslides, etc. due to warming of planet Earth. Forests are the best and cheapest method of absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which can help halt further warming.
In such an emergent situation, should the plundering of forests not be stopped? The State has floated several projects to sacrifice forests in the Western Ghats, the most damaging being the Sharavathi Pumped Storage Project and Hubbali-Ankola rail project. Blacktopping of interior roads and widening of major roads through the Western Ghats have been fragmenting and degrading forests considerably, we need to put a stop to this. We are to sacrifice 200ha best quality forests (a unique habitat for lion-tailed macaques) for the pumped storage and 700ha of equally good quality forests in Uttara Kannada district for the rail project.
These forests are close to the coast and transport moisture laden air from the Arabian Sea to interior peninsular India through convection. If another 10lakh trees are sacrificed, the rainfall pattern in the arid zone, including Kalyana Karnataka, would be adversely impacted, making such proposals only eyewash and would be unrealistic in addressing climatic degradation and mitigating the impact of catastrophes.
The State is reported to have spent Rs 1044 crore over the past three years to address human-wildlife conflict, and utilized it for paying wages for 358 newly created posts for elephant task forces and providing rail barricades to prevent wild elephants straying out of reserves.
The amount has also been used to pay compensation for crop losses, human deaths and injuries. Despite all this, data suggests that conflict is on the rise. The main reason for this is degradation and fragmentation of forests. The budget should aim at restoring habitats and corridors for wild animals, especially tigers and elephants in the Western Ghats. The budget is only focusing on short-term solutions and conveniently ignoring long-term solutions.
Development of Greater Hesarghatta grasslands extending over 5,676 acres and announcing habitat conservation is another welcome step. It has tremendous potential for soil and water conservation as well as carbon capture, and provide habitats for birds, reptiles and amphibians. There are wetlands and grasslands in Kalyana Karnataka region too, which are habitats for critical faunal species. Farmers of Koppal, Raichur, Bidar and Kalaburagi suffer from crop raids by blackbucks. The last few critically endangered Great Indian Bustard (GIB) are in Sirguppa, and their conservation also needed focus in the state budget.
Let me analyze the programme for afforestation of 75,000ha in Kalyana Karnataka region. Forest land in the region, where merely 10 per cent of trees survive, is severely stressed with harsh edaphic and climatic factors. While some private lands have better aeration and soil nutrients, lands in the control of government as well as forest lands are completely devoid of nutrients and moisture retention capacity in this region.
The patches where private lands are acquired and native tree species are grown may have some success; there too, the rate of growth would remain poor. Afforestation in hilly tracts under the control of Revenue and Forest departments would neither result in any significant growth nor will have satisfactory survival percentage.
The district administration, CEO ZP and DC are generally reluctant to hand over revenue and Panchayat areas to Forest Department, fearing that the land cannot be diverted for any essential non-forestry activities in future, if Forest department takes over.
However, it must be noted that trees provide ecological services and sequester carbon. It is essential to grow trees for climate resilient agriculture. Moreover, if the forest laws are not made applicable, any act of tree cutting in the region will not be justiciable. The state should aggressively promote agro-forestry, which will have a better success on farmlands in Kalyan Karnataka region.
Finally let me end this article by complimenting CM Karnataka for having announced 100 Miyawaki Parks near urban centres. It will be respite for the people from the soaring summer temperatures. The state should endeavour to take up more and more such parks, as we go along.