Deforestation

Deforestation is the conversion of forest land into non-forest land. Globally, an estimated 40% of tropical forest has been lost, compared with only about 1% in temperate regions, and the picture in India is particularly stark -- forest cover stood at roughly 30% at the start of the twentieth century but had fallen to about 19.4% by its end, well short of the National Forest Policy 1988's recommended targets of 33% forest cover on the plains and 67% in hilly terrain. Forests are cleared to make way for agricultural land to feed a growing population, and trees are felled for timber, firewood, and to make room for grazing cattle, among other uses. In parts of north-eastern India, farmers practise slash-and-burn agriculture, locally called Jhum cultivation, in which forest trees are cut and burned, the resulting ash used to fertilise the cleared land for a period of farming and grazing, after which the plot is left fallow for several years to allow natural recovery -- but as population pressure has grown, the fallow period between successive Jhum cycles has shrunk, giving the forest less time to regenerate and accelerating deforestation in recent years. Because trees store large amounts of carbon in their biomass, one of the most significant consequences of deforestation is a rise in atmospheric CO2; deforestation also drives biodiversity loss through habitat destruction, disrupts the hydrological cycle, causes soil erosion and, in extreme cases, leads to desertification.

Reforestation -- the deliberate or natural regrowth of forest on land that was once forested but was cleared or destroyed -- can occur naturally over time, or can be actively accelerated through planned tree planting that pays careful attention to restoring the biodiversity that originally existed there. India has seen powerful examples of people-led reforestation: Saalumarada Thimmakka, an environmentalist from Karnataka, is celebrated for planting and nurturing 385 banyan trees along a four-kilometre stretch of highway between Hulikal and Kudur, plus nearly 8,000 other trees, work honoured with the National Citizens Award of India and a Padma Shri in 2019; and Moirangthem Loiya of Manipur devoted seventeen years of his life, after leaving his job, to single-handedly restoring the 300-acre Punshilok forest, planting bamboo, oak, ficus, teak, jackfruit and magnolia until the forest today supports over 250 plant varieties, including 25 kinds of bamboo, and has become home to a rich diversity of wildlife. …