106 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
land use survey, soil conservation in catchments of River Valley Projects and flood prone
rivers, afforestation or social forestry programmes, Drought Prone Area Development
Programmes and Desert Development and Control of Shifting Cultivation.
- Afforestation
Top priority should be given to the forestry. Forests occupy central position in nature.
They restore ecological balance of all ecosystems (including desert), maintain biological
diversity, act as catchments for soil and water conservation, prevent floods and safeguard
future of tribals. We should develop massive afforestation programmes of indigenous and
exotic fast growing species for production and protection forestry on suitable land including
wasteland. A massive social forestry programme is needed to meet demands of local people
for fuel, fodder, timber etc. the two major goals for forestry are:
(i) Supply of goods and services to people and industry by a well thought out plan of
production,
(ii) Long term ecological security through conservation of forests cover and its
restoration.
The areas where our water regimes are located i.e. Himalayas and Western and Eastern
ghats together with catchment areas; National Parks; Sanctuaries, Sacred Groves; Biosphere
Reserves and all ecologically fragile areas should be protected from fuel-starved villagers and
fodder-starved cattle. For this, public support must be generated in order to fulfil the real goal
of eco-development. Such awareness will be very helpful for supply of goods and services to
meet the local villager’s needs. One very good example of public support is the Chipko
Movement of Bishnoi Women in U.P. We, have only about 14% forest cover, and thus need to
plant nearly 70 million hectares of additional land. This can be done by:
(i) Intensive plantations,
(ii) Production/captive plantations.
These are explained as under:
(I) Intensive plantations: Intensive plantation is planting all the available land from
villagers’ fields, to community land, to road/rail sides every available space. Indigenous
and/or exotic species can be used for plantations that remove pressure on natural
forests. Social/participative/agro-forestry programmes are included in this category.
(II) Production/Captive plantations: Plantations are to be done on fallow land not being
used for agriculture; mostly on free grazing lands. A part of such plantations may
be used to generate fodder for cattle. Moreover short rotations of indigenous or
exotic species are to be preferred over long duration sal or teak.
The productivity in USA could be enhanced by:
(i) Proper manipulation of silvicultural and nutritional requirements that is use of
fertilizers, irrigation, bacterial and mycorrhizal inoculations,
(ii) Disease and pest management,
(iii) Weed control,
(iv) Advanced techniques in forest tree breeding for superior genetic strains,
(v) Judicious use of tissue culture methods.