A Forester Remembers

When I reported for duty in Himachal Pradesh, for the first time in my life I came face to face with politicians – from the lowly village ‘Pradhans’ to Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) to Ministers. Prior to joining the Forest Service, I had no idea what a politician was and how much nuisance value one wielded. I had grown up in Army cantonments, where the most important person we saw was the Station Commander, a Brigadier, or, on very rare occasions, a Major General. Yes, I had heard about Presidents and Prime Ministers, but had absolutely no idea about the political hierarchy prevailing at the ground level. So, it came as somewhat of a shock when, at a Van Mahotsava (tree planting festival) at Rajgarh I was confronted by a diminutive individual wearing khadi pyjamas and kurta, and a Gandhi cap, who imperiously asked me where my DFO was. When I asked him who he was, a bulky, uncouth looking person by his side said “You seem to be new here. Don’t you recognize Mr. ZS, the MLA...

Forest fires, each year, destroy millions of hectares of forests worldwide. Apart from an estimated direct loss of USD 3000 million each year, there is a huge loss in terms of lives lost, health problems due to smoke inhalation, loss of soil fertility, increased soil erosion and flooding, and a host of other short term and long term effects of the fires. The recent 2019-2020 season fires in Australia have reportedly affected 186,000 square kilometers of forest, destroyed over 2779 homes and killed at least 34 people. An estimated one billion animals have been killed and some endangered species may be driven to extinction. By January 2020, the smoke from the bushfires had moved approximately 11,000 kilometers across the South Pacific Ocean to Chile and Argentina. NASA estimated that, as of 2 January 2020, 306 million tonnes of CO 2 had been emitted from the burning forests. According to a report, forest fires globally contribute 2.5 billion to 4 .0 billion tonnes of CO 2 to carbon...