IN THE WOODS: Forest dept faces a near impossible task of geo-tagging nearly 15 lakh trees per day

SHWETA KAMAT

shweta@herald-goa.com

PANJIM: The State Forest Department has found itself ‘in the woods’ as it faces a near impossible task of geo-tagging nearly 15 lakh trees per day (14,92,285 lakh approximate) in just 211 days to meet the High Court’s July 30 deadline for filing a compliance report on tree census.

What is shocking to note is that a mere one per cent of the total 3.17 crore trees – spread over in around 2,482 square km area- have been covered under the geo-enabled tree census data as on December, last year. 

On an average, 40,225 trees have been mapped monthly since April 2022.

In all 3,62,046 trees have been geo-tagged till December 31, 2022, of these, 2,24,632 are in South Goa and 1,37,414 in North.

As per an exercise undertaken by the Forest Department since April, last year, tree census in the whole of Goa will include approximately 3.17 crore trees spread over in about 2,482 square km area, and is likely to entail expenditure of Rs 89 crore. Total 130 teams across North and South Goa have been given the task.

After being repeatedly slammed by the Court for its lackadaisical attitude to its order dated July 2021, the State Forest Department had commenced the tree census exercise as mandated under the Goa, Daman, and Diu Preservation of Trees Act, 1984 (Trees Act).

According to the Forest Department, each tree has been tagged with a unique ID along with attributes like latitude, longitude, botanical name, common name, local name, height, girth, condition, ownership and location.

“It is impossible to conduct a tree census for the whole of Goa within one or two years, because it requires a lot of time. It’s a mind boggling exercise. There is also a shortage of staff, despite all hurdles, we are putting in all efforts,” a senior forest official said adding ‘The High Court has granted us one year extension till July 30, to complete the exercise, which might not be possible’.

Official said, “With limited manpower, we have to identify each tree as per its species, varieties, stem diameter and other features of trees.”

As per the Forest Survey of India (FSI), there is no record of tree census worldwide as complete enumeration of all the trees is neither possible nor feasible due to large non-sampling error.

Since 1987, the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) FSI has prepared a forest cover report every three years, which includes everything- tree cover and extent of green cover outside forest areas and hence there is no need for a separate State-based census.