The amendment to Goa Preservation of Trees Act, 1984, notified on August 19, comes almost four months after the Bombay High Court at Goa castigated the State Forest Department for not carrying out a tree census mandated to be as per the Tree Act. Interestingly, the amendment also comes at a time when the department itself has already commenced a year-long exercise of geo-tagging the trees across all 12 talukas.
It took Goa government almost a year to constitute as many as 130 teams to undertake tree census from April this year, after being repeatedly slammed by the Court for their lackadaisical behaviour towards its order dated back in July 2021.
NGO Living Heritage Foundation had filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking the revival of the Tree Authorities of the North Goa and the South Goa District. The Court had disposed off the petition in July 2021 by directing the State government to implement the various mandates prescribed under the Goa, Daman and Diu Preservation of Trees Act, 1984 (Trees Act). The Court further directed the State government to file their compliance reports from time to time.
While reviving the progress last week, the Court expressed satisfaction over the government’s action to conduct census and granted one year’s time extension to the State to complete the process. The Advocate General Devidas Pangam has assured the Court to upload the first data on tree census for public by September 15 this year.
The Court also called for a compliance report to be filed on the tree census by July 30, 2023. Sources at the Forest Department justify the amendment stating that since 1987, the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) Forest Survey of India (FSI) prepares 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.
Living Heritage Foundation head Mohan Kumar said, “Although I am not surprised, it’s bit frustrating to see the haphazard way in which the authorities are dealing with this issue. When the matter came up for hearing on August 17, the Court was kept in the dark about the proposed amendments that were notified two days after the hearing.”
Kumar said that they will wait and see how the Court reacts to this new turn of events, especially since the government had assured compliance of its order during the last hearing on August 17.
As per the Forest Survey of India (FSI) 2021 report, the State’s total forest and tree cover is around 50.96 per cent, which is 34.25 per cent of the total geographical area (3702 square km). Goa’s total forest cover of 1,271square km has gone up by 7 square km compared to 2019. The increase in forest cover by 7 square km was mainly due to increase in open forest areas recorded in Goa.
According to former Principal Chief Conservator of Forest Richard D’Souza, “It is impossible to conduct tree census for the whole of Goa because it requires a lot of time. It’s a mind boggling exercise. Instead Forest Department can undertake census of trees of urban or village area like the one carried out in suburban of Mumbai and Delhi.”
Seeking to know what purpose is going to serve by tree census, D’Souza said that the Forest Department has limited manpower (forest guards) to undertake this massive exercise. Also they will have to identify each tree as per its species, varieties, stem diametre and other features of trees. Above all the State government will also have to spend huge money.
D’Souza said that scientist Sanjay Naithani of Forest Research Institute, Dehradun had volunteered to undertake tree census of any city or village in Goa. But the Forest Department officials were not keen in entrusting this task to him. Nathani had done tree census in Bengaluru and wrote a book on it while he also had done lot of work on flora of Arunachal Pradesh, he informed.
Alex Carpenter, who has been working towards preservation of trees, said that Goa is losing its green cover and it is neither being effectively quantified nor compensated. Cutting trees from wet forests of Goa and replanting them in any region outside of the western slope of the Western Ghats is not compensation.
“From my understanding modern technology will allow for very comprehensive aerial surveying with the use of drones and satellite imagery. It should be in the best interests of everyone in this State to begin to have a comprehensive understanding of the tree cover ecology of the State in order to preserve it better and to promote development that provides long term solutions without irreparably damaging the environment and ecology of Goa. After all, this will only lead to a greater long term expense and a loss far greater than merely financial,” he said.
As for individual enumeration of trees, it would appear to be a mammoth task but not an impossible one. Considering that all sides should all be looking for a solution that is to the genuine benefit and betterment of Goa it would be better if a pragmatic discussion can be had by the government and petitioner as to how to make such an act and survey feasible and then draw up an act that addresses concerns whilst remaining robust and not watered down to the point of being irrelevant, he added.
Alex further said that Goa deserves prosperity and development, but it should not come at the cost of its environment nor at the cost of beauty.
Government justifies non-conduct of census
The Forest Survey of India (FSI) has been publishing biannual report on state of forest and tree cover in all States since 1987. Over a period of time, with technological and methodological improvements owing to better satellite data, higher scale mapping and improvements in method of interpretation, the successive reports of FSI present a continuous, comprehensive and comparative picture of extent and quality of forest and tree cover in all States including Goa. The report also provides necessary information for the purpose of management of trees outside forest areas.
As per the 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.
Moreover, the cost and manpower required for such enumeration will be huge. As per an exercise carried out by forest department, tree census in entire 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.
Moreover, the deliverables of the census ‘may not be of much significance for any specific implementation considering that Goa is one of the greenest states in country’.
As per the FSI latest assessment, by 2030, 671 sq kms of Goa’s forest and tree cover is expected to be adversely impacted by climate change. By 2050, the entire 2,237sq km of forest and tree cover of Goa, like for most states, is likely to face ‘high’ severity of climate change, according to the report. The High Court had in April castigated State for failing to undertake tree census.
The High Court had pulled up the government for not carrying out a tree census mandated to be carried out under the Trees Act. It had pointed out that in a small State like Goa, the felling of trees is a serious concern.
The High Court had also found that the State government hasn’t complied with section 7(e) of the Trees Act, which mandated that appropriate measures be taken for planting and transplanting of trees necessitated by construction of buildings, new roads or widening of existing roads, or replacement of trees that have failed to come up along roads or safeguarding danger to the life and property.
