Goa has no degraded land to reforest and hence after obtaining permission from the Centre to plant trees in Karnataka to compensate for the loss of trees for the power project at Mollem, the State has now sought permission to reforest 300 hecatres of land in Madhya Pradesh as part of its compulsory afforestation project to compensate for tree loss. Goa has been forced to look for land elsewhere, because under the provisions of the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, whenever a piece of forest land is diverted for non-forestry purpose, be it mining or infrastructure, an equal area of revenue land/non-forest land or double the area of degraded forest land has to be used for compensatory reforestation. Now, Goa, by its own admission, does not have such a large amount of degraded land to reforest, so it is using funds that have been released to it under the Compulsory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority to create forests in other States.
This attempt by Goa appears to be an effort to claim that it is serious about reforestation and that it is even ready to finance forests elsewhere to meet its targets. There are, however, too many variables in the proposal to use funds meant for afforestation in Goa to create a forest elsewhere. Goa is to transfer funds to Madhya Pradesh for taking up plantation of the forest. Merely planting the saplings does not make a forest. How does Goa guarantee that the right species of sapligns are planted and that these are nurtured and allowed to grow? If one of the aims of growing trees or reforesting land is to mitigate climate change, then the tree species is also important and the tree must be allowed to grow to maturity. The Centre may permit Goa to plant trees elsewhere, but how does Goa ensure that the tress grow in another State?
Delving deeper into the issue, the State Forest Department in its document ‘Vision of Forest Department 2020-25’ has proposed to take up reforestation of 2500 hectares, including 1800 hectares of backlog compensatory afforestation, and complete it by 2025. So the State has to create a forest in 1800 hectares of land, which is the backlog amount. If the State can’t at the current time find 300 hectares of land in Goa for reforestation, where will it find the balance 1500 hecares of land for the compulsory afforestation that is has to take up? At first it went and found land in Karnataka, now it is Madhya Pradesh that Goa has turned to for land to undertake this compulsory afforestation programme. Will it keep seeking out the help pf other State governments to compelete its target of mandatory compensator afforestation? With this latest proposal, Goa appears to be going further away from the State every time it needs to find land for this programme, for which it has already received Rs 238 crore under CAMPA from the Centre.
What this effectively means is that, the forests that Goa is losing to mining or the development projects are being lost forever with no possibility of replanting trees in compensation. This raises the question: Should Goa consider projects that involve deforestation if the State does not have the land for reforestation and has to use its funds to grow trees elsewhere?
After Herald reported on the proposal for afforestation in Madhya Pradesh, there were posts on social media questioning the ‘absurd logic’ of this and the fear that this could set a ‘dangerous precedent or future deforestation and land grab in Goa’. Another post claimed, ‘why can’t Goa’s Forest Department identify the millons of spaces for planting trees in degraded land and along highways and roads in Goa itself?’ Another very relevant post said, ‘How can one State compensate for the other? Then we will be prone to flooding like the Periyar area.’ The last was referring to the August 2018 floods in Kerala that led to rising water levels and killed over 480 persons. The relevant question here: Will creating a new forest elsewhere spare Goa from nature’s wrath? It may increase the number of trees in the country, but will it help Goa?
This has been a recurring problem. In earlier years, with Goa not being able to identify vacant or unused land to reforest, funds received under CAMPA had not been utilised and the Centre had even stopped releasing funds to the State. It now has Rs 238 crore from the Centre and has to utilise it, so it seeks land in other States. Under the circumstances, what is baffling is why the land that was used for mining and later left barren after extraction of ore is not being utilised for the compulsory afforestation programme? While not all of the land used for mining was forest land, a part of it definitely was and so diverted for mining. This would be the best manner to recover the loss of the forest cover within Goa itself. The land is lying unutilised and there cannot be mining taking place here again as there are no ore reserves remaining in some of the leases. This is an option for the government to consider, rather than scouring for land in other State for afforestation programmes.
Goa needs to develop a policy for reforestation in the State. There have to be guideline which determine how and whether a particular area of a forest can be cleared for a development project and how and where will the compensatory afforestation take place. It is clear from the government’s moves to seek land in other States that no such thought process has been put into when permitting projects and clearing forests for them. This has to change. We have just observed World Environment Day, where the theme was ‘Ecosystem Restoration’. Goa needs to restore its ecosystem within the State, it cannot escape this by citing nonavailability of land. Can surgery on a different body part restore the part that actually required the procedure or treatment? It is as simple logic as this, and it really can’t be confused. Grow the trees in the State and not elsewhere.
Alexandre Moniz Barbosa is Editor, Herald. He tweets at @monizbarbosa