In a solemn call to arms for environmental preservation, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has stirred the bureaucratic waters, summoning the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), the Survey of India (SoI), and the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to account for India’s staggering loss of 2.33 million hectares of tree cover since the turn of the millennium.
The NGT’s gavel struck with purpose as Chairperson Justice Prakash Shrivastava, alongside judicial member Justice Arun Kumar Tyagi and expert member Dr. A Senthil Vel, responded to an urgent plea raised by an Indian Express expose titled “India lost 2.33 million hectares of tree cover since 2000: Global Forest Watch.”
Drawing from the sobering revelations of the Global Forest Watch (GFW), a watchdog leveraging satellite data and other sources for real-time forest monitoring, the NGT grappled with the stark reality. Over the span of two decades, India’s verdant canopy shrunk by 6%, with 4,14,000 hectares of humid primary forest succumbing to the relentless march of deforestation.
The report not only laid bare the extent of ecological devastation but also sounded the alarm on the climate front. It divulged a disconcerting balance sheet: while forests siphoned off 141 million tons of CO2 annually, they also belched out 51 million tons, leaving a net carbon sink of 89.9 million tons per year. A somber total of 1.12 gigatons of CO2 equivalent bore testimony to the magnitude of the crisis.
Delving deeper into the data’s narrative, the NGT unearthed the prime perpetrators behind India’s arboreal decline. Five states – Assam, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, and Manipur – shouldered the burden of responsibility, accounting for a staggering 60% of the tree cover loss between 2001 and 2023.
The NGT’s judicial scalpel dissected the legal implications, pinpointing violations of the Forest Conservation Act, 1980, the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, and the Environment Protection Act. With a resolute gaze fixed on the horizon of accountability, the NGT dispatched notices, summoning the implicated ministries and institutions to a reckoning slated for August 28.
Notably, the NGT’s directive pierced the bureaucratic veil, commanding the SoI Director to furnish a comprehensive report delineating India’s forest cover trajectory since 2000, with a keen focus on the North East, every five years leading up to March 2024.
As the echoes of the NGT’s summons reverberated through the hallowed halls of governance, a rallying cry emerged – a clarion call for stewardship, a fervent plea to stem the tide of ecological desolation before it’s too late.
