Deforestation cost govt Rs. 2000 cr

The destruction of forests for economic growth has resulted in loss of around Rs. 2,000 crore to India in three years, a new government report, released by PM Manmohan Singh on Friday, said, Chetan Chauhan reports.

Updated on: Apr 6, 2013, 24:11:21 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The destruction of forests for economic growth has resulted in loss of around Rs. 2,000 crore to India in three years, a new government report, released by PM Manmohan Singh on Friday, said.

The report, for the first time, attempts to analyse impact of economic growth on nature — forests, eco-systems, agriculture — and human health and provide a number for policy-makers for proper “economic evaluation”.

Despite the limitations of the data, the report said loss to the economy was around Rs. 1900 crore on just two accounts — carbon sequestration and non-timber forest produce. Indian forests absorb about 10% of total global warming causing carbon emissions and forest produce is a livelihood source for a large and marginalised tribal population.

During 2009 and 2011, India lost around 5,339 sq kms of forestland owing to the diversion of forestland for economic activities even though 4,972 sq km of green cover was added as compensation.

“It shows that we (India) are not growing in an economically-sustainable manner,” said Dr Haripriya of IIT (Bombay), who analysed the limited environmental data on forest and ecology.

This number is small, considering India’s huge public money inflow. But it is because the report anchored by Professor Partha Dasgupta of Cambridge University did not take into account adverse health impact due to the loss of forests and its impact on local ecology and agriculture, which contributed about 14% to India’s Gross Domestic Product.

Dr Haripriya of IIT (Bombay) said India was not growing in an environmentally-sustainable manner on basis of her analysis of limited environmental data.

Air pollution in India is rising in most cities and its health impacts are well documented. Just two of around 250 cities monitored by the Central Pollution Control Board as air pollution levels below the national ambient standards. A recent Health Effects Institute study had described air pollution as fifth biggest cause of deaths in India.

But what the Dasgupta committee failed to tabulate on the cost of rising air pollution to economy in absence adequate data. Also, the committee was not able to give a definite number to contribution of forests to people’s good health.

The report also said just in three years -- 2009 to 2011 -- India lost around 5,339 sq kms of forestland because of its diversion for economic activities.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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