ENVIRONMENT-INDIA: Forests Go up In Smoke as Fuel Prices Soar

By Ranjit Devraj Reprint | | Print |

Ranjit Devraj

NEW DELHI, Jun 6 2000 (IPS) - India’s forests are going up in smoke with the rural poor once again using mainly firewood to cook meals in place of non-wood fuels that have become costly in recent years, says a new U.N. study.

According to ‘Population and Forests. A report on India’ released by the India office of the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) on World Environment Day Monday, even the urban poor are being forced to go back to cheap fuelwood for cooking.

Firewood is used in more than three-fourths of rural and nearly a third of urban household kitchens. But with prices of cooking gas and kerosene going up as a result of recently slashed government subsidies, the pressure on India’s forests is likely to increase, the study says.

A 1999 survey by the Ministry of Environment and Forests found forests covering less than a fifth of India’s land area. The 12- year-old National Forest Policy aims to put at least a third of the land under green cover.

According to the study, afforestation programmes have been successful in only a few of India’s 25 states. It points to a decline in the quality of green cover even though the area under forests may have increased in some parts.

In western Maharashtra state, although forest cover grew by five percent between 1989 and 1997, there was large-scale loss of high quality forests in that period.

“The consequences of a decline in forest cover are many: soil erosion, water scarcity and increasing marginalisation of population groups dependent on minor forest produce,” says UNFPA’ India Representative, Michael Vlassoff.

“The inhuman face of deforestation is characterised by increasing stress on the poorer sections of the society and on already over-burdened women who must gather fuelwood, fodder, minor forest produce and water in traditional village economies,” says the report.

Numerous studies show that rural women in several parts of India spend upto five hours searching for fuelwood. The shift back from cleaner cooking fuels to fuelwood also exposes women and young girls to health risks from increased indoor air pollution and particulate matter.

In a foreward to the study, Vlassof pleads for a “rational and humane management of forests along with population stabilisation for truly sustainable development.”

The report expresses concern over the fact that India, with 16 percent of the world’s human population and 15 percent of global livestock, has only 1.7 percent of the world’s forest stock.

The UNFPA study says the present annual firewood use of some 235 million cubic metres is a grave threat to forests as it is not possible for the green cover to replenish itself so fast. Calculations show that India’s forests can support a withdrawal of no more than 48 million cubic metres of fuelwood every year.

There are also threats from the growing demand for industrial wood and pressure from livestock grazing. The annual demand for industrial wood is about 28 million cubic metres against a production capacity of 12 million cubic metres.

India’s livestock numbers grew from 228 million half a century ago to 336 million in 1992. It is estimated that India’s forest cover can support grazing by just 31 million livestock.

“Growing population, changing lifestyle patterns as well as poverty threaten forests,” says S.C. Gulati of the Institute of Economic Growth, one of the main authors of the study.

While the rural poor are turning again to the forests for their fuelwood needs, changing urban food habits too are adding to the pressure. Growing consumption of livestock products in the cities translates into increased demand for fodder and grazing.

With India’s population recently crossing the one billion mark and forecasts predicting continued growth till the year 2050, the UNFPA study is pessimistic about future availability of essential forest products and tree cover.

According to UNFPA, the study is meant to draw public attention to India’s dwindling forest wealth by contrasting deforestation with its relationship to growing population.

“A redoubling of efforts on both fronts – population programmes and more holistic forest conservation schemes – is needed now more than ever,” the study concludes.

It squarely blames “overexploitation, overgrazing, illegal encroachments, unsustainable practices, forest fires and

indiscriminate siting of development projects in forest areas,” for the steady deforestation.

At least a third of forests in the eastern border state of West Bengal and 99 percent of the green cover in northeastern Manipur, are highly prone to forest fires.