How to better manage the forests!
Dr VK Bahuguna
June 3, 2024, 08:29:56
(The write was Director-General Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education govt of India)
The forest management in the country is in the eye of storms recently in the midst of raging forest fires in Uttarakhand forests. The observations of a Supreme Court Bench headed by Justice BR Gavai and comprising of Justice SVN Bhatti and Justice Sandeep Mehta on the handling of forest fires are being discussed among the academics, professionals and environmentalists. The Bench observed “we are at pains to say that the approach of state of Uttarakhand in controlling the forest fires, to say the least, lackadaisical. Though action plans have been prepared and finalized, no steps are being taken for implementation of the same”. A very pertinent and damning observations, and had put the state officials in tight spot. The Court also summoned the Chief Secretary and the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests on 17th May 2024. However, these acerbic comments of the Apex Court should force the policy makers to analyse what ails the forest management in India and for that matter efficient governance in many other fields. Our system of governance in many areas is like an ancient musty labyrinth full of twist and turns and with dead ends. The convoluted way of functioning leads to systemic failures during critical times and is due to the lack of accountability, failures in change management and thus inefficiency. The Indian civil services have both positive as well as negative streaks. On the positive side civil servants develop an organised way of functioning and have a well defined structured way to take decisions. On the negative side is that a few of them often are biased and self protective, defiant and doggedly status quoist and resist changes. Notwithstanding this criticism, one thing is clear civil services have played a great role in strengthening the unity and democratic fibre of the country and immensely helped in ensuring rule of law in the country.
The forest management in India has a long history even in ancient India during 8000-10,000 BC, the religious texts such as Aryanakas, Upanishads and Smritis have many narrations on use and management of forests with highlighting sustainability as an implicit theme. Asoka’s edicts and Chankya’s ‘Arthsastra give vivid account of wildlife sanctuaries and forest management. The Indian civilization in fact evolved in sylvan surrounding and precisely this is the reason that still we have such a large variety of forest bio-diversity and wildlife in our country. During the medieval period destruction of forests and wildlife by kings and Nawab’s continued unabated till India’s independence, though the British in 1864 initiated scientific management of forests with the appointment of a German Botanist/forester Dietrich Brandish as the first Inspector-General of Forests. He is rated as the father of scientific forestry in the tropical half of the world. Today the structure of governance in all the sectors of administration both in the Central as well as Stat governments is the legacy of British period. Nothing much has changed except proliferation of structures and some adjustments here and there. British system had its own colonial motives though but they had set up a very fair system of running the administration according to the objectives and in many respect they had far better sense of dedication to duty. Some of the best managed institutions like army, police, forests, railways, central secretariat etc are testimony to their talent and commitment in running efficiently the governance. Forest administration had achieved outstanding success in protecting and conserving the forests and wildlife despite heavy pressure of population and poor infrastructure at their disposal.
However, in many situations the forest department is found lacking like preventing the forest fires and checking smuggling of wood and wild animals. Let us examine why the department is not responsive to the emerging situations in administration and exhibits lackadaisical attitude in dealing with serious issues. Forest administration in India despite having very well qualified and well trained professionals are faltering at crucial moments. The forest officers when posted outside the department do very well though.
One of the biggest needs for efficiency today is modernization of technology though remote sensing and geographic information systems have helped a lot in monitoring the forest cover through Forest Survey of India. However, for assessing the bio-diversity losses and richness of species regeneration, capacity building of FSI and other institutions and State Forest Research Wings is absolutely essential. The forest departments are awfully weak in emerging technologies, innovations and finances. Administrative reforms are long overdue to cut down the bureaucratic red tape to speed up decision making process. During my incumbency as Principal Secretary in Tripura, I had convinced the Chief Minister Manik Sarkar that Tripura is not using the state forest service officers effectively by not giving them independent charges at the delivery point which is the interface with the public as they simply while away their time as attached officers with phoney designations. Tripura government in 2015, therefore, had undertaken a massive restructuring of forest department by strengthening the decision making process and better utilizations of man power and also removing the stagnation among the Range and Beat officers by creating sub-divisions, making Ranges co-terminus with Blocks and making District Forest Officer Co-terminus with Districts. These changes made tremendous impact in controlling cross border smuggling and better inter-departmental cooperation and instilled holistic approach to forest management by integrating efforts with other primary sector activities. One of the reasons for success was motivation of forest officials after reforms and decentralized decision making and better interdepartmental coordination and interface with public.
The legal framework of the forests needs to be strengthened by enhancing the punitive and fines in the existing Acts for the illegal activities rather than attempting to enact new laws. The planning of forests and wildlife management had to be integrated with water resources management particularly seamless integration of forest and non forest lands hydrology in view of emerging threats of climate change. Another important issue for reform is training and capacity building of forest and other govt officers specially those who are at delivery points. The well functioning Joint Forest Management Committees should be empowered. Similarly, the beneficiaries of Forest Right Act need handholding for better productivity of the land vested, livelihoods and health and education facility. The overall climate centric district administration is the need of the hour.
The budget allocation of forest department and of central organizations like ICFRE, FSI and IGNFA as well as of Environment Ministry needs to be stepped up as also their schemes. The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change itself need a relook on its policies, the way it sees its role and officers and thus its implementation ways.
(Tripurainfo)