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| On brink of environmental disaster! 'Timber mafia, land grabbers plundering forest wealth in J&K' | | | Syed Junaid Hashmi
Jammu, Mar 24: Timber mafia, land grabbers have been plundering the forest wealth and if the way forest cover is being reduced is any indication, Jammu and Kashmir is likely to witness environmental disaster by the year 2025.
Life is likely to get difficult for future generations. Courtesy: Ineffective state machinery which has allowed loot and plunder of forest wealth by land grabbers and timber mafia. Besides, the lurch for commercializing every inch of available land including the forest land which is available freely has added to the woeful situation.
If the situation is allowed to deteriorate as it looks likely, Jammu and Kashmir would be battling environmental disaster by year 2025. According to a confidential report of Union Ministry for Forest and Environment, copy of which is with Early Times, warning has been sounded to the state government and it has been told to take steps on war footing basis for preventing impending environmental disaster.
The report states that J&K would witness marked expansion in temperate deciduous, cool mixed and conifer forests. It affirms that these forests would come up at the cost of alpine pastures which are likely to shrink and move to re-establish towards northeast. Temperate deciduous forests in lower limits of the state are likely to be replaced by evergreen warm mixed forests.
The report has said that due to extreme climatic variations, there would be increased occurrence of fire, erratic rainfall and anthropogenic pressure while on the other side of it, there would be decline in socio-economic important species like Deodar, Fir and Oak and corresponding increase in Blue and Chir Pine.
It has said that in Jammu and Kashmir, with the passage of time, more and more paddy land would be converted to rain fed orchard or dry land. There would be rise in deficit of food production over the years while the entire population would become increasingly dependent on import of mutton, milk and poultry. Besides this, glacial melt in the Himalayas is projected to increase flooding, rock avalanches from destabilized slopes, and affect water resources and decreased river flows as the glaciers recede.
The report projects that there would be decrease in freshwater availability while climate change would to impinge on sustainable development as it would compound pressure on natural resources and environment associated with rapid urbanization, industrialization, and economic development. It goes to state that J&K needs to preserve forests in Jammu and Kashmir on war footing basis.
The report has also given an account of how forest fires have reduced the tree cover. It has said that a number of fires currently raging in Jammu & Kashmir are likely the result of deliberate arson. In the case of fires in the Hirpora forests of Shopian area as well as in forests of Anantnag, Doda, Rajouri, Bhaderwah, there are strong indications that they are the direct off-shoot of the timber smuggling problem which continues to be a major cause of deforestation in J&K.
Like other Himalayan States, global warming (GW) has also been observed in J&K State. Its pronounced effect was seen during 1998-99, when whole of the Kashmir valley suffered from a severe drought. During this drought, there was unprecedented water scarcity in almost every village. The rainfall in pre-monsoon (March to May) dropped by 55 per cent of the normal (about 300 mm). Acute shortage of water affected both fruit and crop production.
Nowadays, the climate of Kashmir valley has so much changed that many of the farmers are now reluctant to grow paddy or rice. They are shifting towards horticulture. Like Kashmir valley, the effect of climate has been evinced in the Kandi belt of Siwaliks as well as in the Ladakh region. |
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