There should be proper measures against theft of timber, running of illegal saw mills, poaching of wild animals, and violation of laws related to forest and environment. The growing of trees helps in carbon assimilation process and prevents disastrous situations created by nature also. The atmospheric humidity is also retained.
So, the general citizens are to be prompted to plant trees in their private as well as their communal land. The Timber Transit Rules of the Orissa Forest Act 1972 have to be simplified so that the tenants can easily remove their trees from their own fields for private uses and dispose of them.
Out of the total forestland of the State, 33 per cent of land is bamboo forest; which comes to 18,000 sqkm. Besides Government forests, there are also private land, where various plantations are made, including bamboo. Bamboo is known as very good timber of poor men. It is widely used in different farms in household matters in urban as well as in rural areas. The bamboo clump is also known as very good assimilator of carbons as it has good crown coverage.
Hence, it acts as very good carbon sink. Bamboo yields very good paper pulp having long fibre. It is a grass. Another long fibre pulp rope in Mayurbhanj district is Sabai grass. This grass is procured by different paper mills for pulp. Now, the State Government is planning to manufacture timber and the products of timber from bamboos.
Not only the pulp of bamboos but also the pulp of all waste wood, all types of grasses, sugarcane waste etc can be used as pulp out of which the flat-sheets can be prepared. The timber plates can be manufactured from such pulp-sheets.
The bamboo pulp-sheets can be the substitute of timber. Again, bamboos can be sliced into thin pieces and can be woven into desired articles as good as wood furniture. The bamboo can be harvested over a very short period of 4 to 5 years. This is definitely a very good mission of the State Government. Bamboo is such a species, which can come right from seashore to 1,500 meter altitude.
So the propagation of bamboo for economy and ecological purposes is welcome. The forest fire damages a lot of bamboo forests, which needs intensive care and silivicultural treatments. Again bamboo has peculiar biological behaviour. Bamboo forests flower gregariously in an interval of 10 to 12 years.
The JK Paper Mill at Rayagada made a bamboo arboretum, where a number of varieties of bamboos from different parts of India is collected and grown. The science of growing bamboo is very simple. Our people in the rural level know well to grow bamboos for their domestic uses.
The writer has seen personally at Soro of Bhadrak district 150 feet long Sundarkania bamboo in the coastal plain of northern Odisha. Similarly, we gather vast quantity of straws of paddy every year after main harvest of such crop. The husks of paddy also go waste in huge quantity every crop year. These wastes can to be utilised for various of initiatives under the ‘My Green Odisha’ campaign. Straw board, chipboard and husk board can be prepared of paddy waste; which can be the substitutes of timber in domestic uses. Again paddy waste can be utilised for preparation of organic compost. We have vast waste materials of organic products, which are not utilised for constructive purposes; such things, including the everyday domestic waste, can be utilised for preparation of organic manure.
Now, the climate change has become major problems not only for Odisha or India, but also for entire globe. The reasons of climate change are many. Man is primarily responsible for nature’s furies. Ecological restoration programme is now going on in Odisha. The rehabilitation of degraded forests is going on throughout the State and a vast fund is spent on the programme.
The degraded forests, bold hillocks, open forests, eroded catchment areas, watershed land etc need proper rest, soil and moisture conservation practices and inter planting of indigenous plant species. Such operations are known as rehabilitations of degraded forests. Beat-wise operations should be carried out in collaboration with the concerned villagers who are supposed to be the stakeholders.
The “rooted water operations” is another operation which comes under the scientific operations of rehabilitation of degraded forests. Such operations can only work in the forests having the power of coppicing. It cannot work in high forest systems. So the protection and conservation measures of degraded forests with soil and moisture preservation can develop the potentialities of the degraded forests.
Stream bank erosions can be checked by massive plantations. There should be no sand lifting from the rivers, streams etc, which invites stream-bank erosions, and widening of rivers.
There should not be cutting of trees from the riverbanks and stream banks; rather there should be plantation of trees along the stream and river banks for stabilising of banks. Ecology of streams, rivers, creeks and springs etc is quite different. The species like Neem, Jamun, Hinjal, Karanj, Arjuna, Patalieta and several evergreen plants commonly grow well with certain grasses like Kashatandi, Sabai, etc., which stabilize the steam embankment and help in pisciculture.
Generally, mangrove forests are seen in the deposited silt of river mouths. Altogether a special type of vegetation is seen in the estuarine land. The estuarine ecology should be protected to prevent sea-erosions. Similarly, all the deltaic areas should be well protected.
My Green Odisha programme can help the scientific management of climate change. The programme should always aim at sustainable development goal, which also includes tribal and forest dwellers development, forest and natural resources management, scientific and systematic management of rainfed agriculture, practice of agro-forestry, social forestry, village forestry and community forestry. The climatic changes can only be brought under control if the ecological balance is maintained.
(The writer is a former forest officer and an environmentalist, M- 9937460649 )