The Kerala Government will formulate action plans to protect and sustain the rich biodiversity of the State's forests and implement them without fail according to the Forest Policy cleared by the Cabinet on Wednesday.The policy states that in view of the influence the natural forests have on climate changes, the ban on clear felling and selection felling will be continued. The Government will revive forests that face extinction through afforestation measures and protect them by taking up watershed-based projects and through other effective interventions.It is pointed out that the Western Ghats has been declared as one of the biodiversity hotspots of the world by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural resources (IUCN). The State now has five national parks and 15 wildlife sanctuaries and they constitute 6.5 percent of its total geographical area ans 27 percent of the forest area. The Government will continue with the efforts to increase the extent of these protected areas to one-third of the total forest area. Also, the fragmentation of the eco-systems will be arrested and the contiguity of the isolated systems will be regained through creation of corridors.Out of the total 1.81 lakh hectares of plantations under the Forest Department, 75,000 hectares are teak plantations. In the context of the increasing demand for forest produces and the ban on converting natural forests into plantations, the productivity of the existing plantations has to be increased.For this purpose, the maintenance of the existing plantations will be intensified and modern technology adopted to improve their productivity. Besides teak, pulp and other trees will be brought under the revolving fund that was formed for the intensive management of forest trees. Action will be taken to protect eco-systems outside rge forests such as coastal areas, water bodies and mangroves with the involvement of the people.Conservation and community reserces will be formed for the urpose. Besides, farmers will be encouraged to plant trees, including sandal wood trees. The principle of planting ten trees while cutting down one tree will be adhered to when felling trees for development purposes.The encroachment of forest land will be strictly prevented even while firmly sticking to the policy of evicting all enroachents that took place after januray 1 1977. Towards this end, decentralised forest protection mechanism will be introduced under forest stations. Also modern technology will be introduced to strengthen the forest protection drive.
The Business Line, 2nd May 2009
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