How green is the effort?

KOCHI: ‘The Progress of this Storm: Nature and Society in a Warming World’ the latest book by Andreas Malm is a timely reminder of the likely impact of climate change on what is known as human civilisation.  The author of ‘Fossil Capital: The rise of Steam Power and Global Warming’ makes it very clear that the business-as-usual model will in no way help in understanding (let alone taking remedial measures), the threat posed by climate change to the universe. The sickening spectacle of political leaders and a slew other worthies planting saplings and seedlings on June 5, marking the World Environment Day, in the state is a clear manifestation of the complete lack of understanding of the threat posed by climate change to a tropical habitat such as Kerala. 

The changes witnessed in the pattern of rainfall, recurring incidents of storms, erosion of seashores, drying up of wells and many other symptoms point towards the reality that ecology of this narrow strip of the tropical landmass is fast reaching a tipping point.  The patronising rhetoric of political leaders planting sapling will not help in mitigating the situation in any manner.  The exercise, in fact, has become yet another example of precious public resources being channelled for private profiteering. N.S. Alexander, a former deputy drug controller and RTI activist, says the entire project of planting saplings over the years has been fraud committed on the people. 

“The government had planted record one crore saplings in 2017 with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan leading the campaign. It is high time that an honest inspection is held on how many of these saplings survived,” he said.  According to the information gathered through the RTI the state had spent  Rs 60.65 crore during 2010-11 to 2016-17 for the distribution and planting of saplings by the social forestry department.  The average spending per year amounted to Rs 8.66 crore.

According to Mr Alexander, a careful analysis of the data on the planting sapling will reveal the callous manner in which the authorities implemented the scheme over the years.  The state had begun observing the World Environment Day from 1985.  According to the information gathered from social forestry and agriculture departments, on an average 65 lakh saplings were planted in a year totalling nearly 20.50 crore saplings over a period of 30 years.  “The maximum number of saplings possible in an acre of land is estimated to be 150. That means the requirement of planting 20.50 crore saplings will be around 13.66 lakh hectares," he said. "A journey through the state will show that either the data of the agencies are completely cooked up, or the scheme has been nothing but hogwash for the past 30 years.”

A forest official having genuine concerns over the fate of the state’s ecology feels that the much-publicised sapling planting every year on June 5 is a prime example of a government wasting precious resources, time and energy in an entirely unimaginative manner. “Many of the government office premises in the state would have become full-grown forests by now if the planting had any impact,” he said.  The premises of government offices, schools, colleges, public sector undertakings and public utilities were the catchment areas of the planting every year.  Apart from the symbolic value of June 5, the date is not suitable for making new plantings as the state will be at the beginning of the south-west monsoon, says Alexander. 

The experience in the past 30 years would reveal that most of the plantings will be destroyed soon after the planting. The ministers and other higher-ups must inspect the premise of the secretariat building in Thiruvananthapuram, a venue for planting on every June 5, to find out how many of them have survived, he said.  “The green activists in the state should make an audit of the survival rate of the saplings at least in secretariat premise, the symbol of the executive authority in the state”, he added.  The calculations made by Mr Alexander show that agriculture and forest departments together have spent nearly Rs 304.80 crore on this.  Although the two departments have no qualms about spending money every year, they don’t have a system to monitor whether the agencies  and people entrusted with the task undertake the  job properly.

KAU to take up afforestation activities

Kerala Agricultural University ( KAU) here will be observe World Environment Day on June 5 by extensive planting operations, popularising urban greenery, declaration of all campuses as plastic free zones and enforcing green protocol in all activities. The main programmes chalked out by the Kerala   Planting Operations in the University will be inaugurated by vice-chancellor Dr. R. Chandrababu at the main campus in the morning.  

Afforestation activities will be undertaken in all KAU institutions spread across the state simultaneously. The vice-chancellor will also inaugurate Mazhamela, a campaign to enhance greenery in urban and peri-urban settings by planting appropriate tree species, at Agricultural Technology Information Centre (ATIC), Mannuthy. The three-day programme envisages awareness creation and promotion of planting environmentally important tree varieties during the monsoon. Executing an agreement with Ollukkara Block Panchayat for disposal of plastic waste, installation of bins for waste collection and collection and disposal of plastics from all institutions are other programmes to be launched in view of World Environment Day.