Expressing his concern over growing disconnect between forest settlers and their natural habitat, Director General of the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE) SC Gairola identified it as one of the reasons behind dwindling productivity of the forest and its gradual degradation.
Addressing a press conference ahead of one day Regional Research Conference of Eastern India, 2018 taking place at Institute of Forest Productivity on May 15 said that Governments of the day needed to work in that direction.
“I cannot say what is happening in Jharkhand as it is for the State Government to answer. But I believe that forests cannot grow in isolation but contribution from people is required for its best uses. People’s dependence on forest is good for forest but destructive harvesting is the danger. In many cases unscientific harvesting of forest produce is happening and may have been happening here as well,” said Gairola when asked about failure to reach the targeted 33 per cent of green cover despite efforts of all kind.
Though he expressed satisfaction over recent forest data revealing that the cover has grown up in the country but the goal is still far from being reached. “Forest cover has improved but quality of forest or density of trees inside the forest has not been satisfactory. We would also have to think over growing forests outside the designated forest like in roadsides, on private land and farmlands,” said the DG who also happens to be Chancellor of the Forest Research Institute (FRI) (Deemed to be) University, Dehradun.
Gairola at the same time underlined the need to descend forest related scientific researches from labs to ground. “We at the ICFRE have come across several such projects which may prove beneficial to forest departments, industries and farmers. Unless this happens there is not point keep researching. We have singed a MoU in this regard which would help us after finding out workable researches that can be beneficial for mankind. All India Coordinated Research Project is also coming up. Center for Forest Policy Research has been setup to help the Government taking policy decisions related to forest. Also National Forest Research Plan is getting revised,” added Gairola informing about some of the ideas the ICFRE is working at present.