An essay on afforestation programmes in India

Photo Credit: Aarohi Dutta

Afforestation programmes of India can be understood under three heads as under –

1. National Forestry Programme

2. Compensatory Forestry Programme

3. Social Forestry Programme

The national forestry programme was launched in 1948, a year after India attained Independence, for development of reserve forest of the country. The objective was development of forest of economic use with emphasis on rare species and mountainous forests. Development of biospheric forests was one focus area of the programme.

Under the government programme, 12 national biospheres were to be developed (9 developed till 1999) to conserve the species of the plants in the Himalayas, northeast India, Mangrove vegetation area and plateau regions of India.

To develop deforested wasteland, the national forestry programme had a separate scheme. Two types of wasteland were recognised: deforested wasteland – about 92 million hectares and agricultural wasteland.

Under the wasteland technology mission, 65 million hectares of forest land were to be afforested by 2000. The mission was launched in 1988. The focus areas of this mission were in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Siwalik Himalaya region.

Forest and Environment Ministry was established to carry out afforestation programme. Under 

compensatory forestry programme, which was launched in 1980, it was made legally compulsory for agencies cutting forests to compensate the loss with afforestation in the neighbourhood on the same scale.

The Forest and Environment Ministry circulated a note to all the states asking them to submit compensatory forestry programme reports periodically.
The programme received considerable success in the initial years. The loss of forest during 1980-90 was estimated at 2.98 lakh hectares while fresh forest cover under c

Photo Credit: Aarohi Dutta

ompensatory forestry programme was reported at 3.45 lakh hectares thus recording an achievement of forest cover of about 0.47 lakh hectares in 10 years.

Under the Narmada River Valley Project, loss of about 35-40 lakh hectares of forest was estimated and it was planned to be compensated with 10 lakh trees over about 20,000 in the neighbourhood.

States like Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal need compensatory forestry on large scale as these states have witnessed massive loss of forest cover due to development efforts.

Social forestry programme is afforestation at micro level. It is people’s programme of afforestation. First participation is invited from people in villages. Every settlement or village is the unit of implementation of the social forestry programme.

Social forestry programme is an anti-poverty programme and comes as part of rural development programme. It is taken to provide an alternative economy to rural population. Social forestry programme was implemented on the basis of a report of the National Commission on Agriculture in 1976.

The National Commission on Agriculture suggested developing alternative rural economy to face the disastrous impact of sudden flood, drought and other calamities in rural areas. One of the suggestions was to promote people’s participation in afforestation.

In 1981, a national workshop was organized by Department of Environment under Ministry of Agriculture at Ahmedabad to discuss the possible threat of fuel and fodder famine in the country. The idea of social forestry was recommended at the workshop. The Indira Gandhi government acted swiftly and the same year social forestry was introduced in 101 fuel deficient districts of the country.

Photo Credit: Prabhash K Dutta

The social forestry programme received recognizable support in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Bihar. Hence, the programme was further extended in 1983 and a new slogan was coined: One Tree for Every Child. To meet the target, the central government decided to provide subsidized supply of saplings at the block level. However, the scheme failed disastrously in north India. It received considerable success in West Bengal and southern states of the country.

In 1983, another programme was introduced. The Operation Soil Watch Programme, which was already working in Himachal Pradesh, extended to 14 other states and 282 more districts. In 1988, it was decided to implement in all districts of the country.

Objectives of social forestry programme:

1. Fuel

2. Cow dung for rural households

3. Food reserves for dependent population

4. Industrial resources

5. Ground water table elevation

6. Fodder

7. Soil conservation

8. Employment generation

A model was prepared by UP Singh in EW Geography Journal, which explains the importance of social forestry in rural India. The model explains the multi-dimensional importance of social forestry in rural areas.







Social forestry is of three types –

1. Agro-forestry

2. Rural forestry

3. Urban forestry

Urban forestry became part of social forestry in 1983. Agro-forestry is household forestry programme. Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab and western central part of India saw considerable success of agro-forestry. The divide lines of the agricultural plots were to be used for agro-forestry.

Mainly fuel wood species were grown under agro-forestry.

Jodhpur Forestry Resource Institute developed some species of Acacia favourable for the environment of Rajasthan. These species provide two benefits to farmers

- Fuel wood to farmers of Rajasthan

- Fodder to desert animals; camel and goats eat the leaves acacia.

It is also able to provide much needed shadow to sanding crops delaying or slowing down the process of evapotranspiration. There has not been quick loss of soil moisture in areas under agro-forestry. So, farmers accepted this with greater enthusiasm in states like Rajasthan.

Rural forestry is basically a community forestry programme. Here panchayat, villages and NGOs are involved to do the job. Rural forestry is carried out on government’s land in villages and on waste lands. The government lands in hundreds of villages had become wasteland. Hence, government decided to bring forestry over such land pieces with the help of the villagers. They were encouraged to grow such trees which can provide food, fuel and fodder.

In Madhya Pradesh, some landlords were encouraged to promote rural forestry programme in their areas. Many landlords gave their lands on lease to private players who developed rural forestry there. In Balaghat district of Madhya Pradesh, the villagers worked to promote rural forestry by planting trees along the roads.

Urban forestry was devised to make use of government lands in urban areas for growing trees in a systematic manner. Riverside lands, Railways’ unused lands and patches near parks were brought under forest cover. In urban areas, the NGOs were involved to promote forestry. These organizations continue to work for afforestation.

Nehru Yuva Kendra scheme, which was launched in 1972 to mark the silver jubilee of India’s Independence, has been involved with urban forestry. Nehru Yuva Kendra was launched in 43 districts but when it was made an autonomous body in 1986-87 under Rajiv Gandhi government, it was extended to 311 districts. It was renamed as Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan. At present (2017), it is working in 643 districts of the country. Along with Nehru Yuva Kendra, several universities were also involved to promote urban forestry.

Under the urban forestry programme, the municipal corporations have the responsibility to develop a green belt around the city. Under another programme of the government, the industrial units within the bounds of a city has to adopt the surrounding area for afforestation.

Thus social forestry is truly an afforestation programme where people are engaged and involved in expanding the green cover. It is done at the micro-level, so its efficiency can be very high. In true sense, social forestry is a sustainable development programme. Social forestry is also a poverty alleviation and rural development programme. For urban areas, it is the most sustainable environment programme. But, social forestry programme has failed to achieve the target.

Over the last 35-40 years, there has been policy emphasis on afforestation. Social afforestation programmes have even received some commendable success in the last 25 years or so but all these efforts have not been able to compensate the loss of forests over the same period of time.

Some recognizable success was seen in states having large wastelands like, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and a few others especially during 1980s. Response was appreciable during 1990s in West Bengal. But, other states practically failed to implement social forestry schemes effectively.

Three factors are held responsible for overall failure of social forestry schemes. There has not been proper information available with people in rural areas. Many still don’t know how they can contribute in making their environment and livelihood better by engaging with social forestry programme. Corruption and nepotism prevented dissemination of information to target group people.

Photo Credit: Prabhash K Dutta 

It was commonly found that the village or panchayat level political leaders took the benefits of the social forestry programme (as timber is very valuable) leaving out the target population. There is an urgent need to increase participation of people, who have been left behind in the promotion of this programme. There is need to organize workshops and hold training camps in rural areas to effectively communicate with the people living in villages.

Secondly, the plant species were not chose on according to the climate and weather suitability of the regions. There was no connection between the selection of crops and agro-climatic regionalization of the country. For example, coconut tree plantation was focused in Bihar and lot of resources was spent on it while the state does not have favourable climatic conditions for this.

Thirdly, there is no optimum village landuse map practically available. No landuse survey was done for decades after Independence. So, the selection of environmentally suitable species is difficult to find at policy making level. Besides, there is also a lack of politico-administrative commitment to achieve the target of social forestry.

The government took some other measures to improve green cover area of the country. These measures included, the National Forest Act, 1988. Before, this there was the Environmental Protection Act was there. Jhoom Farming Protection Act, 1976 was passed as a legislative measure to conserve forested areas.

The government also decided to conduct inflammability test of forest areas and put up fire breakers in forests. Preferences were given in giving LPG connections and supply of gas cylinders to forest areas so that tree cutting could be reduced. The recent Ujjwala Yojana of the central government has achieved great success and is expected to reduce tree felling significantly.

Forest towers were constructed to facilitate early sighting of forest fires and organized felling of trees by timber smugglers. Satellite imagining is being used to assess the forest cover of the country and specific regions periodically to keep a watch on the progress. The government has also taken steps to develop forest research centres to improve the quality of forest land and management of forests.

Photo Credit: Aarohi Dutta

The Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy, Dehradun, the Institute of Arid Zone Forestry Research, Jodhpur, the Indian Institute of Forest Management, the Institute of Deciduous forest, Jabalpur, the Institute of Wood Sciences Technology, Bengaluru, the Institute of Rain and Moist Deciduous Forest, Jorhat and the Institute of Forest Genetics and Tree Breeding, Coimbatore are some of the examples of the research centres developed by the government in its effort to give momentum to forestry in the country. 

Globalisation brought multi-national companies and private sector in the field of afforestation in India. The course of forestry was introduced in many universities.

In spite of these new approaches for nationwide afforestation programme, there is urgent need to bring some new scheme to make afforestation viable and effective. These may include:

1. Forestry course at all levels of education right from the school

2. Training and management programme to give a boost to afforestation and reduce deforestation

3. To educate villagers about the benefits of various schemes of forestation including social forestry

4. Ecologically viable plants and seeds and saplings should be provided at subsidized rate

5. Rapidly growing plant species needed to be emphasized in supply

6. There is need to bring land reform at village level which would bring a natural declaration of surplus land as village property designated for forest.

7. Village level land survey of landuse should be conducted to demarcate forest areas

8. Such programmes should be launched as to set target for panchayats with regard to development and afforestation

Private sector, cooperative societies, public enterprises and NGOs should be engaged at larger scale for promotion of afforestation.

Resource Importance of Forests of India

Monkey sitting on the boundary separatist forest area from the city area in Haridwar. (Poor photography by Prabhash K Dutta)

India is among a few countries where all types of vegetation are found. Total enlisted tree species is about 5,000 in India. An estimated number of vegetation plant species is 15,000. Of the 500 tree species, only about 500 types are used – both directly and indirectly - for economic purposes in India. 

A large number of tree species is economically unused and their economic potential is untapped. They are categorised as wild trees. India’s forest resource is vast and diverse. Its share in nation’s GDP is about 4.5 per cent (1999). This shows the backwardness in the context of resource utilisation.

In 1951, forest production in terms of money was Rs 19 crore. In 1992, resource utilisation of forest was valued at Rs 3,800 crore. After 1992, India’s timber production has made rapid growth. India is the fourth (1999) largest timber producer of the world.

Indonesia is the leading producer of timber followed by Brazil and Malaysia. India’s forest-based economy is making progress but even then it is meager. Almost all types of vegetation in India have some economic importance but only a portion is used for economic purposes. (update – United States is the leading producer, followed by India now)

Equatorial forest has bright prospects in economy especially in respect of developing rubber and oil palm plantation. Presently rubber plantation is developed at large scale. India is the fifth largest rubber producer in the world.

In the Northeast India, rubber plantation is being developed under tribal community development schemes. Under monsoonal forest coverage, several social groups of India depend on forest resources. Tribal community’s economy is based on forest.

Vegetation under teak, sal, kendu and khair are put to direct use by tribal population. The largest acreage of teak is found in Madhya Pradesh. Teak is also the costliest tropical tree. Largest exporters and producers of teak, sal and kendu are Myanmar, Vietnam and Malaysia. Teak and sal are used in housing, furniture, railways (also in making sleeper, general bogie seats earlier) and boat making.

Sal is mainly grown in South Asia. Kendu leaves are used in Bidi industry. Large number of tribal communities of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Jharkhand and West Bengal depend on this resource for their livelihood.

Khair’s largest acreage is found in Bihar (including Jharkhand) (1999 figure). It is commonly used as betel leaves in Bihar. Khair also has medicinal value.

Tribal communities in this part of the world are traditionally dependent on various kinds of wood for making umbrella, basket, toys and decorative goods. These items have been sold by the tribals in the local markets for centuries.

Under Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP), which is a poverty eradication programme, tribal communities are provided proper training to make better use of leaves of trees like sal and a structured market is made available to them.

In Karnataka, there has been greater use of sandalwood in woodcraft industry where decorative goods are prepared. Sandalwood is used in chemical industry. Wood pieces are also used in various religious pursuits.

Bamboo and savai grass are two other monsoon forest products which are used in paper industry. Over 70 per cent of raw materials of paper industry in India come from bamboo and 15 per cent from savai grass. Thus, 85 per cent (1999 figures) of the raw materials of the paper industry come from monsoonal forest.

There has been indirect importance of forest. Mulberry species are used for domestication of silk worm or cocoon. This is, thus, possible in monsoon forest. Domestication of lac bugs for lac industry is done on mulberry trees. Mainly acacia species are used for lac bug domestication. Even the banyan and peepal trees are used for domestication of lac bugs.

Lac bugs cannot grow where temperature is above 20 degree Celsius and below 12 degree Celsius. So, the conditions are most suitable in south Bihar and Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Eastern Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and plateau regions of West Bengal and Karnataka.

Silk worm industry is dependent on deciduous forest. Silk worm industry is found even in Manipur, Assam and Meghalaya. Recently, silk worm domestication is emerging in Kashmir Valley. Mulberry plant is emerging in the Valley region. Among the Indian states, Karnataka is the largest producer of raw silk and silk textile.

China is the world leader in silk production and silk textile followed by India and Japan. In the field of artificial silk, Italy is the largest producer.

Lac production is highest in united Bihar. (1999). The National Research Lac Institute is situated at Namkum near Ranchi. It is the largest collecting and processing centre of lac. India is the largest exporter of lac in the world. India exports 52 per cent of world trade.

Himalayan forest is of high economic value. Siwalik Himalaya is more important economically. Teak, sal, bamboo and savai grass are of more economic use. Siwalik Himalayas is dense in comparison to other Himalayan forests.

Another advantage is that it is of low altitude, so its economic use is possible. In fact, forest-based economy has developed in Siwalik Himalaya region especially in Garhwal area of Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. In these regions, wood craft industry is developed.

Lesser Himalaya and the lower slope of the Greater Himalaya are characterised by temperate and taiga woods. They are of economic use. Deodar covers 5.80 lakh square kilometers and largest acreage is found in Jammu and Kashmir. Pine acreage in Jammu and Kashmir is about 7,380 sq km. (all figures to be verified).

Both deodar and pine are used in paper and woodcraft industries. Other species of economic use are silver fur, blue pine and spruce. Spruce is used in paper industry. Greater and Lesser Himalayas forest resources are nearly unused and they have tremendous prospects of development. Sustainable development strategy may help in the proper utilisation of Himalayan forest.

Coastal forest in India is also of great economic value. Only mangrove is not of much economic use. Three important tree species – coconut, palm and cane are of much value.

India is the largest producer of coconut. What is required is to develop coconut-based industries. Coir-based, copra-based industries should also be developed using raw materials from coconut forest.

In Tamil Nadu, there is tremendous prospect to develop palm oil industry. Cane is used for making fishing boats.

India’s sub-tropical and arid regions’ vegetation types are yet to be properly surveyed from the resource point of view but cactus species are being recognized as the potential raw material for various chemical and drug industries.

Date palm is another prospective vegetation for economic use. Iraq and Iran produce sugar from date palm. Date palm vegetation may be developed as a raw material for sugar industry.

Acacia has also chemical and drug related significance. They may be used for domestication of new 

varieties of lac bugs. They are plants of quick growth and can be used for fuel (where LPG transportability is difficult for rough and undulating terrain) and fodder purposes.

It is obvious that the forest resource of India keeps bright prospect for future development. Presently, it is in under-developed situation.  It may be developed as an alternative economy for tribal and rural people. Several raw materials may be collected from the forest. What is required is to prepare a sustainable national policy for the development of forest resources.

Distribution of Forests in India

Forests are important for all forms of lives. (Photo: Prabhash K Dutta | New Delhi)

Total forest area in India is 64.01 million hectares – about 19 per cent of Indian territory (1999 figure).

Dense forest - 11 per cent

Open forest – 8 per cent. Grazing is permitted in an open forest.

Mangrove forest – 0.15 per cent

Indian forest is only 1.85 per cent of the total forest cover of the world. India has about 2.4 per cent of the total area and over 16 per cent of world’s population.

Under the existing policy of the government, 33 per cent of India should be under forest cover. Even the law of 33 per cent forest cover is not application in all parts of the country. Ideally, 60 per cent of the mountainous and plateau regions should be under forest cover while 20 per cent of the plain regions should have forest cover.

Distribution of forest in India is highly uneven. Maximum forest coverage is found in Andaman and Nicobar Islands. As per 1994, 92 per cent of the total area in Andaman and Nicobar Islands was under the forest cover.

Mizoram had 88.7 per cent, Nagaland 86.5 per cent, Arunachal Pradesh 82 per cent, Manipur 78.9 per cent and Meghalaya had 70.3 per cent forest cover. (Data till 1999) These are the mountainous and hilly states and have above 60 per cent of area under forest cover.

At the other hand, forest coverage is below the required 60 per cent despite being mountainous regions. Examples are two-third of Tripura is mountainous region but has corresponding forest cover is only 52 .8 per cent. In the case of Sikkim, the entire state is mountainous but the forest cover is only 44.4 per cent.

Other states and union territories where forest cover is above national average are as follows:

Dadar and Nagar Haveli – 42 per cent

Goa + Daman and Diu – 36.2 per cent

Assam – 31.2 per cent

Madhya Pradesh + Chhattisgarh – 30.5 per cent

Odisha – 30.3 per cent

Kerala – 26.5 per cent

Himachal Pradesh – 23.7 per cent

There are six states where the forest cover is below the national average but above 10 per cent. These states are as follows:

Andhra Pradesh + Telangana – 17.2 per cent

Karnataka – 16.9 per cent

Bihar + Jharkhand – 15.3 per cent

Maharashtra – 14.3 per cent

Tamil Nadu – 13.6 per cent

Uttar Pradesh – 11.5 per cent

Remaining states and union territories have less than 10 per cent forest cover. These states’ forest cover is given below:

West Bengal – 9.2 per cent

Jammu and Kashmir – 9.2 per cent

Gujarat – 6.1 per cent

Chandigarh – 4.4 per cent

Rajasthan - 3.8 per cent

Punjab - 2.7 per cent

Delhi – 1.5 per cent

Haryana – 1.2 per cent

Going by the forest cover, Northwest India can easily be called the Yellow Region of the country. Punjab and Haryana are almost treeless states.

There has been intra-regional variation in the distribution of forest. Such variation is more prominent in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Assam, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh have regions of different topography and consequently the plain areas have very low percentage of forest cover, very much like states of lower average state.

Many districts of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh where forest is below one per cent but Chhotanagpur of Jharkhand and Uttarakhand have higher forest cover. When Jharkhand was part of Bihar then it was a huge contrast to compare the forest cover of Chhotanagpur region and the rest of united Bihar.

While united Bihar’s average forest cover was 15.3 per cent while that of Chhotanagpur was 27 per cent. Same was the case in united Uttar Pradesh, which had an average forest cover of 11.5 per cent with eastern districts bordering Bihar had less than one per cent while Garhwal district had over 40 per cent of forest cover.

It is obvious that the distribution is characterised by inter-regional and intra-regional variations.