To boost carbon footprint, focus on dryzone afforestation

At the Conference of the Parties (CoP-26) meeting in Glasgow, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the decision to cut one gigatonne of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent annually from now till 2030 from our projected greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. By 2030, half of our power requirement is also announced to be met from renewable sources. The GHG emission is nearly 3 gigatonnes (GT) of CO2 equivalent annually and it would be almost impossible to reduce it to two-third at least in the initial few years when we are adding coal-fired power plants to meet our energy requirement.

When all the emerging economies are facing the challenge of recovery after the pandemic, the demands for coal in power plants have gone up. Many plants across the globe faced a shortage of coal on account of soaring prices owing to several disruptions in supply. Incessant rains during October and November, last year in coal-bearing areas was one reason for a low generation.

Coal power plants are projected to expand at least till 2030 when we peak our GHG emission and thereafter we steadily cut to become net-zero by 2070. We need to increase our storage of CO2. In addition to protecting our natural and plantation tree covers, we must grow more trees and make all our barren areas green.

Based on our commitment in Paris climate accord in 2015, we are to grow trees on 26 million hectares of degraded land by 2030, which will have the potential to sequester 2.5 to 3 GT of CO2 equivalent. The PM has also been repeating this commitment on many national and international forums, yet the programme has not received the necessary impetus. The existing forest in the country has a growing stock of 80 million cubic metres, which has sequestered 7 GT of CO2 equivalent. We hold on to this by preventing encroachments and forest fires. Growing trees over 26 million ha degraded lands, our total carbon storage would be 10 GT of CO2 equivalent.

Successive biannual reports of the Forest Survey of India indicate that tree cover in notified forests is decreasing, while it is increasing on private lands. In other words, agroforestry and farm forestry have been picking up quite well.

We have not signed the pact on the sidelines of the Glasgow summit along with countries owning 85% of forests on the globe to end deforestation by 2030. It becomes quite critical when our own assessment suggests that we are consistently losing notified forests. In other words, the carbon sequestration potential of our natural forests goes on decreasing. Who knows, by 2030, it may come down from 7 to 6.5 GT.

The state forest departments across the country focus on managing notified forests only by identifying degraded patches and growing trees there. The departments must aggressively move out of forests to grow trees on wastelands held by communities and revenue departments to supplement the efforts of private landholders who are already growing trees successfully.

Growing trees

Taking examples from Karnataka, the investments on growing trees in notified forest areas especially in the Western Ghats region are disproportionately more than investments in dry zone afforestation. Every head of the department allots substantial money for afforestation in Uttar Kannada district and the barest minimum for similar work in the Vijayapura district. The success and the rate of growth of plantations in the Malnad region are more than that in dry areas is generally the argument for justification.

Uttar Kannada is a heavily forested district where forests in the past were subjected for timber extraction followed by planting the areas with the monoculture of teak and Acacia auriculiformis. The diversion of forests for development projects and anthropogenic pressures like illicit felling of trees, livestock grazing, encroachments, forest fires etc have caused fragmentation and degradation of natural forests. The present trend in the district is to plant up tree species in the gaps. Planting in narrow gaps is meaningless; the trees would not put up any growth. There is a limit to the amount of biomass any land can produce, so planting more trees beyond the capacity of the land should be avoided. It would also not add to the carbon sequestration potential of the forests.

As against this, although the rate of growth of trees in completely barren and dry areas may be several times slower, its greening would offer greater carbon sequestration potential. I had an occasion to visit Vijayapura recently, where Deputy Conservator of Forests (Social Forestry) Sareena Sikkaligar has raised a number of plantations of native species like neem, ficus, bauhinia etc on roadsides, community lands and revenue wastelands. The district has quite an insignificant extent of notified forests and P K M Prashanth who recently joined as territorial Deputy Conservator of Forests, Vijayapura is also engaged in growing trees outside notified forests. Both forest divisions in Vijayapura have grown 3,600 ha of successful block plantations on revenue lands in the past three years besides many stretches of plantations along roads and canals.

The Deputy Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer of Zilla Panchayat are reluctant to hand over the lands to the forest department on the plea that the same may be required later for developmental projects. If the areas are not handed over, forest laws would not apply and no culprit damaging the plantation can be brought to justice. The approach of district administration is incorrect as we face the threat of global warming and we must generate enough carbon storage potential. Likewise, there is a vast potential of growing trees in blocks as well as in strips along roads and canals in other non-Malnad districts as well, which can be properly focused on.

We often sacrifice a large number of well-grown trees in road widening projects. The Divisional Forest Officer of Bijnor in Uttar Pradesh has stated that he lost more than 40,000 well-grown trees in the widening of two National Highways and Delhi-Dehradun Expressway through the district and that he received money from the National Highway Authority to plant up 10 times the trees sacrificed. Sadly, there is no land available for planting. Land for afforestation must be identified, sometimes in the adjoining districts, before cutting the trees.

(The writer is former Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Karnataka)