◊ By A C Govindan

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The plague of deforestation first appeared in the form of timber trade, especially Burma teak, for which global demand was huge and trade margins lucrative. Timber-harvesting led to motorable access to hill tops, colonies and commercial properties; and expansive monocropping – especially in tea and rubber estates.

Monocropping destroyed the natural balance. Honey harvesting and medicinal plants vanished. Barks, fruits, roots and leaves of medicinal plants are the natural enemies of pests, which native tribals thrived on.

Consequently, tribal medicine also receded along with the thinning forests. Roads became vulnerable to landslides during monsoons. The construction of dams for power generation and irrigation exacerbated these vulnerabilities.

Mercifully, there are a few progressive initiatives committed to reforestation and the upliftment of tribal and socially backward communities.

BACK TO FORESTRY-BASED ORGANIC FARMING

Sadhguru & Cauvery Calling: Sadhguru (Jaggi Vasudev) has been advocating planting 242 crore trees on either side of the river Cauvery. There are many takers for this proposal, both in private and government sectors.

Sadhguru recently initiated his Cauvery Calling tree plantation drive, not limited to the Cauvery and its tributaries, but extending to all river basins. In my view, the major concern here is taking care of the trees planted in the growth phase. Each tree should have an owner responsible for its survival and growth.

Another concern is that the tree species that will be planted should be a mix of fruit-bearing localised species for sustenance and income generation. Lastly, the limited income generation potential for those taking care of the planted trees in the absence of multiple revenue streams that a natural forest cover provides, is also something that needs to be worked out.

The diversity issue must be addressed through crop rotation with legumes and annual crops, diverse plant species, intercropping for perennial crops, avoiding crops belonging to the same family in crop rotation, bio-fencing with neem trees, and usage of organic manures. Chrysanthemum flower plants and garlic also serve as effective borders, besides serving as inputs for pest control.

Araku Coffee: Conceived by Manoj Kumar, a banker turned social entrepreneur, Araku has planted 19 different types of fruit trees along with coffee—all of it with mixed localised crops of spices, berries and shade-loving crops under the organic discipline. It has contracted with European buyers, ensuring market access.

Within about a decade of its establishment, 34,000 acres near Visakhapatnam are forested and over 100,000 tribals have received income and experienced improved quality of life.

Since tribals are managing the coffee estate, it is safe to assume that they also harvest other forestry-based products such as honey, barks, roots, berries, spices, etc, that abound in natural forests. Tribals do not resort to the wanton killing of wildlife and destruction of forests, unlike urban poachers.

Government of India’s Tree Plantation Drive: Government of India has unfurled a programme for tree-planting across the country, at a 5-km depth on both sides of all main rivers and at a 3-km depth on both sides of tributaries, for which funds and incentives are being awarded.

While this is laudable and close monitoring and fund availability will produce results, the major concerns are (a) indifferent state governments, with some of them wanting the initiative to fail so the NDA government can be discredited; (b) some state governments have a different set of development agenda as per patronage to their vote banks; (c) the last minute delivery by the trade union-protected bureaucracy is severely suspect and concerning.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

After 35 years of service at Rallis India, a subsidiary of Tata Group in the Farm Essentials vertical, the author retired as Deputy General Manager, Exports – Agro & Pharma. He has also served as agricultural consultant to Peirce Leslie India Ltd and Arjuna Natural Pvt Ltd for 9 years.