Practically, the capital city of Bhubaneswar has been shorn of trees after four cyclones in close succession like Phailin, Hudhud, Titli and Fani. Earlier, the 1999 Super Cyclone had created large scale damages to the greenery of the State, in general and to the city of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar in particular.
The disposal of the green debris is a big challenge for the civic authorities. The damaged trees create problems for traffic. So the State Government of Odisha recently announced that the collectors or the salvagers of wind fallen trees in Fani affected areas will be the absolute owner of the property and no legal restrictions will be imposed over such timbers for any kind of transactions for bonafide uses.
It is a good attempt of the State Government for immediate disposal of the damaged trees of the recent cyclone which will help clear the obstructions for free flow of traffic and normalise the situations.
Avenue trees are non timber species, which cannot be utilized for any other purposes other than fuel or fire woods. Most of the trees are soft wood trees, which cannot yield timbers. Second thing is that, the trees grown as avenue trees along the road sides either by the Odisha Forest Division Corporation Limited (OFDC) or by the State Forest Department all are soft wood trees and of fast growing trees, which cannot yield anything other than fuel.
Again as it is seen in the avenue plantations of our smart cities, mostly shallow-rooted and most brittle plants like Kadamba, Krushnachuda, Radha Chuda (Pelto forum), Spathodia, Clhakunda (Rain tree) etc. are generally grown as avenue plants, which are very prone to accidents and blockage of traffic. If the wind speed increases beyond normalcy, these plants can easily be uprooted. Wind resistant trees should be selected and grown as avenue plantations.
We should also know from the old British plantations along the avenue-belts of old cities and roads like Grand-Trunk Road of the State having trees like Karanja, Jamun, Dutranjeeva, Patali, Neem, Mango etc which are wind firm as well as having deep roots and every green character. They are still surviving along road, even many of them in the cities of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar.
The planters should learn from past experiences. Forestry is always guided by the locality factors. The costal factors do not permit to raise shallow rooted and brittle trees along the coastal plains specially as avenue plants along the roads. Some flowering plants can be planted like Patuli, Tentulee and Chhatian, etc.
When the oceanic cyclonic storms are following us in different names and in different magnitudes, we should be very careful as the wind speed of present cyclone went beyond 200 kmph causing severe damages to the lives and properties. Now there is no demand of fire-wood, because every household of the surrounding, especially in the urban areas, and even in rural areas, has gas-oven for cooking meals. Very rare households use firewood for their daily meals. So the demand of firewood is very remote. The only alternative is the paper mills. The paper mills can take these wood to manufacture paper pulp and even polymer companies can be contacted, if they can purchase and lift the same.
The OFDC can take the land for proper utilisation of such waste products. Even the State Forest Department should make appropriate attempts contacting the cloth manufacturing companies for utilizing pulp-wood. As information reveals the State Forest Department and the OFDC are going to plant 210 crores plants in the cyclone ravaged areas to serve the purposes of wind belts within a span of five years. The selection of planting trees are most important. The total expenditure involved is Rs 188 crore. In the current year, 24 lakh plants will be planted. As information goes, more than 15 lakh trees were damaged by the recent cyclone. An estimated amount of Rs 537.80 crore is required for new plantations.
There are legal problems in cutting and lifting of trees and tree debris. Timbers are also collected by the people of cyclone ravaged areas. But how they can be converted into desired sizes of the possessors, when there are no saw mills in the region is a moot question. Once the bona fide is established by the Government, there is no difficulty or hurdle for transit of timbers upto saw- mill and from saw-mill to owners’ houses. When there is no saw-mill in the nearby areas, what is the use of announcing bona fide users. It is a fact that there is problem of smuggling of timbers from nearby forests of the cyclone ravaged areas, but the Government agency should guard and properly manage the problem. Moreover, the task should be given to the OFDC for smooth transaction of bona fide timbers. The creation of OFDC is only to avoid corruption and corrupt practices in the field of commerce of timbers and other forest produces. At present, only one saw mill is operating in the nearby areas of Khordha town. It is not convenient for all people of Bhubaneswar to use the mill. So, alternative arrangement should be made.
The question arises is if one cannot utilize or easily be given permission for utilization of timbers of his own grown trees or bamboos, why he will be interested to raise plants of forest species wasting money, labour and time and also land? The timber transit rules under the provision of Odisha Forest Act 1972 is harassing very much the genuine plant growers of the State. The tenants timber is most Herculean task. The bona fide right holder has to run several times to the Revenue Inspector and then to Tehsildar, the Range Forest Officer and the DFO for spot verifications. The Timber Transit Rules of the State of Odisha exploit the human rights, when followed to verify the genuineness of rights. In the time of internet, every information on land records and ownership of property can be known online. Once the ownership is verified, the particular land can also be located easily in the map and also in the field.
During Phailin, large numbers of avenue trees were damaged in Bhubaneswar. The Forest Department evolved a decent method of disposal of cyclone damaged trees of private personnel. A prescribed format was issued to apply for salvaging of damaged trees. After spot verifications, the range officer concerned was reporting the fact to the DFO and the DFO was sending the same to Assistant Conservator of Forests (ACF) to pass the salvaged properties and the timber transit permit was also issued either by the ACF or by the DFO.
The practice is stopped now and again the old procedure of knocking at the door of Revenue Inspector and Tehsildar is there. The law should be simplified.
Now, the Forest Department is claiming that 17,229 sqkm of forests is achieved due to the efforts of forest administration outside the recorded forest areas of the State, which is 32.98 per cent of the state figure. These are all people’s land and private plots. Unless the timber transit rule is simplified and made pro people, how the management of forest wealth can be done? The authorities need to brood over the matter.
(The writer is a former forest officer and environmentalist)