Just imagine you planned to increase the number of plants in your garden, but you do not know the existing number of plants and how many of them are located in which part of your garden! Will you be able to plan something? The answer is no! A similar situation is experienced by India in terms of its forests.
The Indian State of Forest Report (ISFR) is a biennial publication by the Forest Survey of India (FSI) that gives details about the state of Indian forests. The last report, ISFR, was published in 2021, so 2023 should have been the year in which the next report should have come out. One year gone, it’s September 26, but still the report has not been published.
According to Down to Earth (DTE), they submitted a Right to Information (RTI) request to get clarification on the delay, but they have not yet received a response.
Why a delay in publishing the report?
A lot of experts are speculating that the forest officials might be busy making the changes as per the new Forest Conservation (Amendment) Act 2023. The act gave exemptions to unrecorded and deemed forests from government records. Some experts feel that there might have been a significant reduction in the forest cover, and hence the government wants to hide the reality. There are others who believe that there are huge discrepancies in the data collection and that forest officials are managing it.
However, the forest officials have said that the report will be released soon. As a lot of new districts were formed, clear delimitation of their boundaries is taking time.
Some issues and questions remain.
Forest Conservation (Amendment) Act 2023 goes against the Supreme Court judgement in TN Godavarman Tirumulkpad vs. Union of India case 1996, where the apex court stressed on the dictionary meaning of forests to be taken. Experts also point out that the present methodology of data collection is inaccurate as satellite-based imagery fails to differentiate between forest, plantations, and tree cover, thereby inflating the data. Also, we need to understand that if there is no data, how are we planning to move in the direction of achieving the goals set by the National Forest Policy of having 33% forests in plain areas and 66% in hill areas. How can corrective actions be taken in the backdrop of some disturbing reports like those by Global Forest Watch, which claim that India lost around 23300 sq. km of tree cover in 2021-2023? How can the citizens ensure the accountability of our chosen representatives if they do not have the correct data?
Conclusion
The Indian government has built its image as the ‘torchbearer’ of climate-friendly initiatives by developing countries at the multinational platforms. The updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) aimed at reducing emissions intensity of its GDP by 45% by 2030, from the 2005 level, and achieving about 50% cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel-based energy resources by 2030 proves India’s sincerity towards its climate ambitions. In this very line, the need of the hour is to publish the latest Forest report with accurate data so that it becomes the true foundation of a mass movement for ‘LIFE’– ‘Lifestyle for Environment’ as a key to combating climate change. If the government believes that people need to change their behaviour, the same goes true for the government itself!
