State Regional Forest Policy still in cold store

BANGALORE: Although more than two months ago the World Environment Day celebrations were held, the Karnataka Regional Forest Policy is still to see the light of day. As announced earlier, the Forest Minister was to unveil the policy on June 5, the day commemorated as World Environment Day globally.When asked about the delay, Forest Minister C H Vijayshankar said: “With many new projects in the loop, every forest officer is engaged.I do not want to divert them from their projects.” He added, “The draft is almost ready, we just to have conduct a thorough check and discuss it with the officers.Shortly we will implement the policy.” The minister said that with the new policy, the department aims to improve the quality of forest land and restore degraded forests. Also, Sandalwood and its conservation would be the primary focus.According to an extract from the draft policy, “The department will take steps to preserve and promote sandalwood trees, both in forests and private lands to bring back the lost glory of sandalwood to the state.” As per the national forest policy mandates, 33 per cent of the geographical area of the state has to be under forest and tree cover but currently only 22.6 per cent is under forests.He told Express: “The new policy stresses on minimum mining and clearing of encroachments from forest areas in five years, shifting people from tiger reserves and keeping mining and quarrying to the barest minimum in the Western Ghats and coastal region.” We envisage encouraging tree planting in educational institutions, offices, industrial establishments, cultivable wastelands, fallow and barren lands, agricultural lands, catchment areas of rivers, lakes, sea shores and other landscapes.Further, encouraging native species, developing and conserving medicinal plants, forming eco-development committees and reconnecting fragmented habitats to reduce man-animal conflicts.“We have set aside incentives like supplying quality seeds, subsidies, easing regulations on tree felling and creating market opportunities to promote cultivation of trees on private land/community land,” he added.But on the contrary, very few officials in the forest department are happy with the decision.An official from the department on condition on anonymity said: “The regional forest policy is not required. Since we have a Central Forest Policy issued by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, there are chances that it might clash.”   

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