Shillong, March 27: Despite a Supreme Court ban on felling of trees, reckless and rampant axing of trees is still reportedly continuing in the State for the purpose of production of charcoal or for the wood-based industries in parts of Ri-Bhoi.
At a time when rapid urbanization is taking place in the state and the capital city of Shillong frequent cutting of trees has become a cause of concern, the environmentalists of the state have stressed on the need for large scale afforestation programmes in the state.
Not only in Shillong, but the rampant felling of trees in different parts of the Garo Hills, especially in East and South Garo Hills districts, has posed a threat to ecology in a region regarded as a bio-diversity hot spot. Unabated deforestation has left vast tracts of barren lands in Rongsak, Rangmalgre, Nokrek and Dadenggre.
One of the environmentalists Naba Bhattacharjee rued the fact that there is hardly any visible signs of afforestation and Shillong which was known for its greenery is continuously witnessing huge deforestation due to rapid urbanization even as he questioned the Forest survey which says that Meghalaya has more than 77 percent forest cover
Expressing concern over the fast depletion of forest cover in the state, Naba Bhattacharjee stressed on the need for a comprehensive Forest policy to save forests which are decreasing due to many factors such as developmental activities, rapid urbanization and others.
It may be mentioned that most of the forest land in Meghalaya belongs to the clan or community and only a small patch of forest areas in the state are under the jurisdiction of the State Government but however Naba Bhattachrjee says that the State Government enforce its laws even in private forest to safeguard forest even as he asserted that the private forest is controlled by the United Khasi and Jaintia management and controlled of forest act 1958.
The whole area from Selbalgre in West Garo Hills along the Tura-Williamnagar road now wears a naked look. Experts have cautioned that large scale deforestation is depleting the water table which has led to shrinking of rivers like the mighty Ganol and Simsang. These are the main sources of water in Tura, Williamnagar and Baghmara towns. The Condition of Shillong and Ri Bhoi district is no better as the place which is known for its greenery is finding difficult to maintain its green belt.
Stating that the quite a number of forest areas falls under the jurisdiction of autonomous district councils, Bhattacharjee said that the District council has the power to declare the forest which has common benefit as green belt, adding enough rules have been formulated to save forests but there is a need to implement such laws in letter and spirit.
According to Bhattachrjee, State Government need to formulate proper forest policy in tandem with with district council and forest department to have holistic approach towards safe guarding of forest and he further pointed out that the State need needs a combined forest policy and blue print of action plan of how the state increase its forest cover.
In 2012, Meghalaya Government passed the Meghalaya Forest Regulation (Amendment) Bill, 2012 to have clarity on the definition of the areas which would be considered as Forest and the Section 3 of the Act states that an area would be ‘forest’ if it is a compact or continuous tract of minimum 4 hectares of land irrespective of ownership and where more than 250 naturally growing trees per hectare with size of 15 cm at breast height or more than 100 naturally growing bamboo clumps per hectare are present in case of the tracts containing predominantly sympodial bamboo.(SP News)
