indian forests in terminal crisis

Ever since the mid 1990’s when the Narsimha rao government amended the conservation act and threw India’s forests open for commercial purposes including mining, the forest cover has be rapidly dwindling. On the face of it a one time loss due to the tsunami and gains in some states seem to point to an environment balance. There is still a sizable loss of 728 sq kilometers of forests and degradation of another 630 square kilometers throughout India. Thus when one looks at the latest state of the forest report the devil is found in the details.

A lot of the blame lies with corporate India whether it is setting up a bauxite mine over a tiger forest in orrissa or a power plant in Madhya Pradesh. So much so that a supreme court appointed committee had recently ordered canceling of 49 projects on forest land that had seemingly got relevant clearance.
The most serious loss of forest cover is in states such as Andeman and Nicobar and Assam along with Manipur and Madhya Pradesh. These very states were previously thought to be green cover bastions and are the ones which have shown most forest loss. One can safely add Arunachal Pradesh to that list. That sate is India as it used to be, with 83 per cent forest cover. However the recently announced package by the Prime Minister that calls for 10,000 crore invested in roads and railways across the state is bound to degrade forest cover here.

The reason why forests matter even in this age of globalization is three folds. For on thing Indian forest is a source for more than 250 million tribal and non tribal persons across the country. Forest products by value constitute more then $45 billion annually to India’s economy including timber and non timber products and proactive large scale employment. Lastly India is home to one of the world most diverse fauna and flora which if not nurtured could be lost for ever.

The real story of the forest loss of India is in its imbalance. Over the last twenty years the continuing erosion of forests in Central and north India has meant that the north east of India that has only 7 per cent of India landmass has in more than 25 % of her forest cover. This imbalance has created vast swaths of India without significant forest cover. The related f\degradation of river and outer resources is most immediate here.

A new law to empower tribal to have right to forest produce and land has divided the conservation community. Some believe that this may be death knell of the forests as viable cover as well as the tiger. Past record however suggests that such a doomsday scenario is misplaced. If anything the Gandhian idea of self reliance is more relevant today then ever before in the context of tribal rights over the forests. The tribal, once having ownership, is likely to use the forest as resource not as something to plunder on the sly. The empowered tribal and sensible regulations can together save the last of India’s forest cover. India and the world will be worse off if the forest s is not saved through political will directed at arresting the current slide.

human rights under threat world wide

Human rights under global pressure
Indira Gandhi once famously said that Corruption is a global phenomenon. Going by the latest report of human rights watch the internationally respected NGO, the same seems to hold true for Human rights abuses.
The 2006 edition of human rights watch is a scathing indictment of the United States of America. The damage done to freedom of speech, expression and international guarantees by the Bush administration’s policies come in for special mention.
The US is by no means the only - or indeed the biggest - violator of such freedoms in the world. However, as one of the world largest democracies and a beacon of freedom it is especially troubling for the country to be in the spotlight for some of the worse abuses of human rights that include torture of prisoners and denial of freedoms guaranteed under international law.
The approach to give a state a license to maim, torture and to kill - an increasingly rampant tendency in today’s world has come under special criticism by the report. The executive director of the report Kenneth Roth has said that”… fighting terrorism is central to the human rights cause. But using illegal tactics against alleged terrorists is both wrong and counterproductive.”
India too has come for criticism. In particular, on account of India’s gender discrimination. The report says that in India, women continue to face discrimination and violence. The report also point to the fact the India has a bad record in respecting human right in those areas where it is fighting insurgencies. The report further points out that “militant groups and Indian security forces continued attacks on civilians. Caste-based violence continued, especially in rural areas, and tribal groups that had converted to Christianity were targeted for attack by extremist Hindu organizations.”
To be fair, India has a robust and open society where numerous human rights groups routinely point out the problems. However when an internationally respected group comes up with such findings it should act as a wake up call for our civil society.
Democracies have more influence in global order and a far greater responsibility to maintain human rights standards. From the latest report it would appear that democracies as prone as dictatorships when it comes to the option of shooting first and asking questions later.
This is worrying for the future of democracy as a system and the values that dictate the civil societies of these free countries.