Straying into forests

With the pressures of growing human and cattle population, forests have undergone degradation and fragmentation due to the illicit removal of wood and grazing by cattle, sheep and goats. The livestock consume grass as well as young regenerated plants of many palatable and fodder species. Regeneration of non-palatable species is also trampled and damaged. Graziers lop the trees and bring down twigs, branches and fruits of palatable species for their livestock, which damages plants and hamper their reproduction.

Fire is also put in the forests for new flush of grass, which are relished by the livestock. In turn, the ground fire damages young regeneration and crown fire can char the standing trees. The burnt patches create enough opening in the forests which, in turn, is followed by an intense weed growth of unwanted species. Historically, graziers camping in forests for longer duration have encroached and permanently settled. Gauli camps in Haliyal and Yellapur in Uttara Kannada district are the best examples.

To maintain the growing stock, the management in many forest divisions across the country prescribed rotational grazing in their National Working Plan 2014. This means that the forests were divided into many grazing blocks and only one block was kept open for grazing in a particular year, thus providing a better chance for regeneration to establish. With the growth in human and cattle population all round, and failure of forest officers to implement, the rotational grazing was given a go by and all blocks were opened at a time.

Increased decline
This resulted in rapid degradation of forests, especially near villages and towns. The strength of the frontline staff went on declining, as recruitments were put off in view of repeated economy measures. With the growing human and cattle population around the forests, forest departments across the country moved for increasing the strength of their frontline staff, but there was hardly any positive response from their governments. Some states like Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh have commenced the recruitment of frontline staff in the last one decade, but many other states are yet to do so.

Each domestic animal entering the forest consumes nearly 10 kg of forage, while on the other hand wild animals require much more to sustain themselves. An elephant needs nearly 100 kg of forage every day while other ungulates require 10 to 30 kg, depending upon their size. Livestock grazing in forests leads to the non-availability of forage for wild ungulates. Consequently, wild animals like elephants, chital and gaur move out of forests in search of forage and come in conflict with humans.

The Government of Karnataka has been paying a compensation of nearly 10 crore annually, for injuries and loss of human life and property. Wild animals are generally dependent on plants like shivane, Randia dumetorum, Bridelia species, Premna latifolia, Ziziphus species and Bauhinia racemosa. These species are also liked by domestic animals.
 
Abundance of Acacia leucophloea, whose barks and leaves are consumed by pregnant elephants, can lead to a very healthy elephant population. Acacia leucophloea is also liked by goats and sheep. Lack of regeneration of these important forage plants is a huge conservation challenge. Wild animals have the first charge on these forests and any domesticated livestock intruding there, disturbs the equilibrium provided by nature. Lack of regeneration of native species in any forests gives rise to unwanted weed growth such as Opuntia dillenii, Prosopis juliflora, Cassia spectabilis, Lantana camara, Eupatorium.

Vicious circle
The central government and many state governments have been regularly taking up afforestation and reforestation programmes in already denuded forests, under various budget heads. Plantations of native species even under barbed wire fencing, cattle proof trenching and stone wall fencing have registered low survival rate, owing to the fact that the barrier is broken at least in one place and cattle and human find unauthorised entry.

Thus, forest officers have limited choice of species for plantations and one can find the monoculture of teak, Acacia auriculiformis, Cassia siamia, and Eucalyptus grown in plantations across the State.

As a result, the Forest Department is caught in a vicious cycle. First, there is degradation and denudation of forests due to excessive grazing and next the same biotic pressure does not allow the department to restock the area with the native species. There is a necessity to take adequate steps to strengthen the department to deal with culprits engaging in grazing and forest fire.

On the contrary, the attention of the Department is diverted and personnel are asked to perform duties in areas outside forests. Today all territorial division staff is engaged in various afforestation schemes in village waste lands, revenue lands, margins along roads and canals, private holding etc, at the expense of routine duties of patrolling and maintenance of forest boundaries.

Grazing undoubtedly inflicts damage to forests. If regeneration and reproduction of some species in lower girth classes are affected, the composition of forest changes. Plantations of natural species fail and forest densities start dropping, which is also confirmed by periodical reports from Forest Survey of India. If we control grazing, there is no necessity of taking up any plantations in the forests.

(The author is a retired principal chief conservator of forests, Karnataka)