Telangana green drive harms forests

Hyderabad: The number of saplings planted across the state has crossed the 50 per cent mark with the annual target of 40 crore since the Telangana ku Haritha Haaram sapling plantation drive started on July 8 this year.

Around 21.1 crore saplings were planted till August 5. However, of this only around 2.69 crore were planted inside forests making the target of the state government to plant 100 crore saplings in forests till 2018 seem a far-fetched dream.

The drive being conducted inside forests by Telangana forest department staff has come under criticism from wildlife activists. One activist from the city said,

“The target set by the state government is impractical. Due to the pressure to plant as many saplings as possible, the entire forest staff, including beat officers in base camps and forest range officers whose chief duty is to guard flora and fauna of the forests are busy planting saplings. This leaves the forests unprotected. The entire forest department machinery is busy in achieving haritha haaram targets.”

Recently when a leopard carcass was found in Khammam, the Divisional Forest Officer could not be reached because he was busy till late the previous night in a meeting on haritha haaram. Similarly, when 25 carcasses were discovered in Mahbubnagar, the concerned Divisional Forest Officer could not visit the spot.

The reason was, he was busy in haritha haaram work. When contacted, in charge Principal Chief Conservator of Forests of Telangana, P.K. Jha said that the target is not far-fetched and countered allegation by wildlife activists.

He said, “The 100 crore target has two components. One is artificial regeneration of planting saplings and raising plantations and the other is raissing the number of trees by rehabilitation works in degraded forests. Apart from guarding forests the forest staff is also responsible for regeneration and rehabilitation works. Moreover, the intensity of this work changes from one division to another. In high divisions prone to high deforestation like Medak, Mahbubnagar, Nizamabad and Khammam more intensive work is required while in places like Adilabad and Warangal, less attention is required. It cannot be said that the entire staff is working on haritha haaram ignoring protection duty.”

The most number of saplings were planted in Adilabad division — close to one crore — followed by Khammam, Nizamabad and Warangal.