Sal plantations stare at man-made crisis

Sal plantations in Koraput district have shown a bizarre under-growth over the last two decades leaving the greens puzzled.
Sal plantations stare at man-made crisis

JEYPORE:  Sal plantations in Koraput district have shown a bizarre under-growth over the last two decades leaving the greens puzzled. The undulating landscape of the district is dotted with Sal forests but the rare and valuable trees are growing at an extremely slow pace. Girth of trees planted two decades was found to be barely a fifth of what it should be during a recent survey. Currently, the Sal cover stands at 15,000 hectares (ha) in the district. According to reports of Forest Department, there are around 75 lakh Sal trees of different length and girth under Jeypore and Koraput forest divisions.

Forest Department had grown Sal plantations in Ramgiri, Nuaguda, Chandili, Chitra, Kusumi, Ambaguda, Narayanpatna, Haldighat, Laxmipur and Tangniguda forests two decades back but Cyclone Hudhud wiped out a substantial chunk in 2014. Now Forest officials have found that growth of 90 per cent of the trees is much lower compared to other species in the forest, including teak.

Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Aswin Kar acknowledges that trees have grown at a slow pace. Girth of trees planted 20 years back should have been 7 to 8 ft by now but were measured at 1 to 1.5 ft recently. Environmentalists say the problem is man-made and fear that it may lead to ecological imbalance.

As per tradition, local tribals and hunters go on a forest-burning spree during summer. This practice is carried out to chase wild animals to the traps set up by tribals and results in damage to Sal and teak trees. While the practice is old in tribal areas, Forest Department has turned a blind eye to it. The fire spreads fast from one forest to another, leaving a devastating effect on the green cover of the district. With demand of timber high, locals also fell the trees for commercial purpose, said Uma Mahesh, a plant researcher of Koraput.Forest burning and lack of thinning exercises are said to be the main reasons behind inadequate growth of Sal trees, pointed out environmentalists.

Thinning of Sal forests is not being carried out by the Forest Department at regular intervals. Thinning is selective removal of trees, primarily undertaken to improve the growth rate or health of a particular variety of tree. Although the Forest Department should carry out thinning of Sal plantations every year, it has not been doing so, alleged Susant Panda, another environmentalist.DFO Kar said the department is working on a plan to improve condition of Sal forests. “We have submitted a proposal to the Working Plan wing of Forest Department to look into the issue,” Kar added.

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