Predators of wildlife get bolder

Prerna Singh Bindra

We all want the Indian economy to roar, but that roar will die out if its foundations are weak. Growth needs to be inclusive, and ecologically sustainable. These concerns should not be mere words but reflect in official policy and action therein

The times are not good for our wildlife. There are the obvious threats — the one that stirs emotions and inspires outrage. The humongous tragedy of elephants and other animals, slaughtered by the day by trains speeding through forests, is one such. There has been a rise in tiger poaching (we lost three in a row to poisoning in Orang, Assam). Other ‘hotspots’ where tiger deaths have peaked include Nagarahole, Bandhavgarh and the Rajaji-Corbett landscape. Two Great Indian Bustards were shot by poachers in broad daylight in their ‘best protected’ habitat. Leopards are being battered across their range. And pangolins, a species few people are even aware of, are in the news for massacre for their scales, used in traditional Chinese medicine.

There have been other assaults, the importance of which seems to have escaped public conscience, much less  have inspired an outcry, but whose long-term impacts are far graver as they weaken the policy framework that protects our wilds, pulling away, as it were, the forest ‘carpet’, beneath the tiger’s feet.

Many may recall the National Investment Board proposed by Union Minister for Finance P Chidambaram, envisaged to ensure that big projects — with investments exceeding Rs1,000 crore — sail through, dismantling our regulatory systems for green clearances. There was much opposition to its ‘superpowers’, which would brush aside environmental and social concerns, and even democratic tenets, in the quest for growth. This included a feisty letter to the Prime Minister by Union Minster for Environment & Forests Jayanthi Natarajan, who questioned the board’s hasty formation and purpose. She expressed grave concerns about its constitutional breach, the consequences to governance, responsibility to the legislature, and questioned the domain knowledge of such a board, as matters related to environment and forest require nuanced decision-making which has far reaching consequences.

Ms Natarajan had pointed out that the Cabinet note on the NIB gave industrialists the right to appeal against decisions of her Ministry, but that it “does not contemplate that ordinary citizens, NGOs may be aggrieved and should also have right of appeal”. She called this concept “unacceptable”. The NIB was given a quiet burial. But what we have instead is its equally dangerous, renamed, re-packaged avatar, the Cabinet Committee on Investments, which appears to have sailed through with little opposition or concern, even from the Ministries most impacted: Environment & Forests and Tribal Affairs.

A new Standing Committee, constituted under the CCI, is empowered to identify projects with investments of over Rs1,000 crore and other significant projects, to check and limit the regulatory process involved and ensure speedy approvals. The order, dated January 2, states that the CCI will have the power not only to prescribe time limits for approvals and monitor the progress of identified projects through the clearance process, but  also review the process followed by departments/Ministries; and take decisions regarding clearance of a specific project, if deemed necessary.

If one reads this correctly, the CCI will review the current system of green regulatory process and have the powers to overrule the Environment Ministry if it refuses any project on the basis of environment, forest or wildlife concerns. It even allows for the CCI to take decisions regarding any clearance, if it is ‘unduly delayed’. This, when over 95 per cent of the proposed projects romp through the green ministry.

There is also an ongoing effort to reduce the projects that need to come to the Centre for clearance. A committee has been set up under Planning Commission member K Kasturirangan to review the kind of projects that can be dealt with at the State levels, and hence dispense with the need for approval by the Union Ministry. It is reported that the PMO and several states have been pushing for such a ‘reform’ in a bid to make the clearance process simpler for the industry and infrastructure projects. It’s easier, apparently, to get the nod at the State level. Given that most projects get the nod at (For every three projects rejected by the Environment Ministry’s statutory bodies, 97 are cleared, according to a recent article in Tehelka) at the centre too, one shudders to think of the implications for this one.

Under pressure from the National Highways Authority of India, the Environment Ministry has also taken a call, and, reportedly, filed an application in the Supreme Court to modify its order of 2011 (that was upheld and endorsed by the apex Court in the Lafarge case) which required projects involving forest land to have forest clearance before they applied for environment clearance.

The Ministry now wants to delink these two clearances. The problem with easing this clause is that project developers will present a fait accompli to the Ministry, citing huge investments made on the basis of environment clearance in those parts of the road (or any other linear project which may tear into prime wild habitats) which are on non-forest land. Essentially, we might have a highway that is built, with considerable expenditure, on both sides of a pristine forest or even a sanctuary, before the project is presented for forest clearance at the Ministry’s door. The developer then argues that immense investment has already been made and that a forest clearance cannot be inhibiting a project at such an advanced stage. There are no prizes for guessing which way the wind will blow.

What is the message that India is sending? That social, environment and forest concerns are a nuisance, an impediment? That a country which prides itself as a pioneer in conservation leadership is now backtracking on its commitment? That it is not just overlooking vital ecological concerns of far-reaching consequences, but even the basic tenets of democracy to ease the way for big investment?

How can we overlook the huge social unrest and the pain of the displaced in our haste for our growth dream? Nor can we commit to saving our wildlife, then push for policies that weaken the regulatory framework that protects their habitat. Tigers, elephants, bustards, cranes, dugongs, dolphins, snow leopards will not survive if we decimate, degrade, destroy the forests, grasslands, wetlands, rivers, mountains and seas — that also sustain us.

We all want the Indian economy to roar, but that roar will fade if its foundations are weak. Growth, especially for a democracy like ours, needs to be inclusive, and ecologically sustainable. These concerns should not be mere words but reflect in policy and deed.

(The columnist is senior consultant, WCS India, and founder-director of 'Bagh'. She is also a member of the National Board for Wildlife)

Source: http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnists/item/53592-predators-of-wildlife-get-bolder.html

Not as green as they first appear

Gautam Pandey

In Kerala, as elsewhere, pristine forests are being fragmented and destroyed by activities like plantation, mining and farming. The needs of development have to be balanced with the importance of protecting the endangered green cover. Without the latter, nothing will remain

With an opportunity to travel through Kerala for over 20 days by road for work was more than a dream come true. My first trip to ‘God’s own country’ was due and I couldn’t wait to explore the backwaters and rainforests of Kerala. To make up for lost time I decided to drive through the State starting from the southern tip and fly to Thiruvanathapuram, a sea of green stretch below me. I planned to drive through the State zig-zagging my way and heading north.

I was a little unprepared as my ‘first impressions’ hit me. It was hard to tell when exactly I crossed the city and when a town began. The entire stretch seemed urbanised with villages and towns merging into one and other.

After a couple of hours of driving, I reached greener areas with old growth mixed forests on both sides of the road. These were the primal rainforests I had been waiting for. As I drove on and my eyes got used to the explosion of green all around me, I gradually realised that while there was prime forest, it was fragmented — stitched together by plantations. After I saw one plantation, I kept seeing them everywhere. Rubber, spices, tea, and coconut plantations were seamlessly interwoven with the forest. This was an illusion. What seemed green and healthy was actually a heavily fragmented and stressed environment.

I reached Munnar where entire hills as far as the eye could see had been shaved off prime forest and had tea planted on them. How ironic it was to see people getting their photographs taken with the Munnar hills as a backdrop. The whole situation felt more like a ticking bomb than ‘God’s own country’.

The majority of the world’s biodiversity hotspots are located in tropical forests. The Western Ghats are a prime example of a tropical biodiversity hot spot which is home to numerous endemic species. Unfortunately what has happened in Kerala is evident through out the entire Western Ghats. Plantations, mining and construction have fragmented and split our forests like a piece of shattered glass. While some patches can be large and sustain a degree of biodiversity, the majority gradually become degraded with some forests altogether disappearing.

India has had a long tradition of conservation and the sacred groves were one such method of conservation. A forested area often with streams and lakes was believed to have a resident deity and considered sacred. No one was permitted to cut, kill, or take anything from a scared grove. Some groves are even out of bounds for humans. Sacred groves are like banks of bio-diversity left untouched and pure. In some areas so strong is the belief that people passing through and exiting a grove would dust their body and clothes just incase they don’t carry anything out of the forest.

With big money backing the mining industry, these groves aren’t spared either. Recently while filming in Goa we visited a sacred grove which was on the list to be mined. The forest was unspoiled with a pristine stream flowing out from under the roots of a gigantic tree. We drank the water and rested there. It was hard to imagine that in a matter everything here would just be scraped away leaving the red earth exposed like a big open wound. The mining industry was destroying prime forests and fresh water sources. While announcements to control the mining have been made and some mines closed down, the reality is quite different. A few weeks back our crew was attacked by mining mafia goons and it was forced to destroy all the footage. The situation in Goa’s forests is so bad that experts foresee a huge freshwater crisis in the State within the next few years.

What is a little confusing is, that while experts and researchers raise alarm bells about the state of forests the Forest Survey of India has actually declared that India’s forest cover has been increasing for the last 13 years, with a net addition of 1,128 sq km, or 0.16 per cent, in the last two years. This was indeed good news, what with all the carbon credits, global warming and climate change issues, except for one little fact.

The very definition of ‘forest cover’ by the FSI is that if tree canopy covers more than 10 per cent of a one hectare plot, it can be classified as a forest. Since satellite images are used to determine ‘forest cover’ all mono culture plantations including tea, coffee, rubber, timber etc qualify as a forest.

Recently, researchers Priya Davidar, Jean-Philippe Puyravaud  and William F Laurance argued in a paper they presented that the FSI used computer software that couldn’t distinguish between natural forests and plantations. Based on their ground research what has now been revealed is truly frightening. Rather than expanding, India’s forests have been shrinking by 1.5 per cent to 2.7 per cent per year since the last two decades.

This is a very high rate of forest loss and India is at risk of losing the majority of her forests within the next few decades. With rapidly shrinking and fragmented forests diversity and number of species will continuously reduce.

Fragmented forests result in a large number of wild animal deaths every year. Animals, both large and small, move and migrate between forests and many are run over, killed, separated and sometimes poached as they leave the forest and cross inhabited areas. Not only are the animals directly affected, but it is also the health of the forest itself which suffers. Animals are natural seed dispersers and with restricted movement plant species are also affected. In tropical forests this movement of plants and animals plays a crucial role and maintains a high level of biodiversity. It has been observed that in isolated forests biodiversity degrades over time with some species becoming extinct locally.

With roads, railway lines, fields and plantations separating forest areas, animals have no choice but to cross these man-made barriers. The result is road deaths and often man-animal conflicts, with casualties on both sides. Moreover, as a fragmented forest gets smaller and further fragmented, the population of animals and insects falls, resulting at times even in the extinction of a species locally.

On the upside, what we have now is a lot of comprehensive and conclusive research. The time for action is now. Driving through Kerala I eventually landed up at The Gurukula Botanical Sanctuary where a committed and passionate group of residents, gardeners, naturalists and educators with love for nature have been working towards habitat restoration in degraded areas of the Western Ghats. The sanctuary itself is on the border of a large rainforest reserve and was actually a reclaimed plantation. Through some planning, but with most of the healing left to nature the forest over 30 years has come back, and along with it so have the insects, birds, reptiles and mammals.

Hopefully, with just a little foresight and common sense, we just might be able to save what was never really ours to destroy.

(The writer is a wildlife filmmaker)

Source: http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnists/item/53040-not-as-green-as-they-first-appear.html