TN’s green wishes wither as lakhs of planted saplings fail to take root

The Forest department in Tamil Nadu has been planting lakhs of trees every year to increase the green cover in the state since 2009. It had planted 64 lakh saplings in 2012 to mark the then chief minister J Jayalalithaa’s 64th birthday, 65 lakh saplings in 2013, 66 lakh in 2014, 67 lakh in 2015, and last year the department had spent Rs 191.85 crore to plant 71 lakh saplings. But then, not all these trees are taking roots, not to speak of the money that gets flushed down the drain.

Despite the tall claims and ‘planting’ of saplings in and around forests, at schools and colleges, government and private establishments, in parks and along highways, the State’s green cover is nearly 13 per cent short of the Union government’s forest policy of bringing 33 per cent of the total geographical area under forest cover by 2030. Well, at less than half a per cent it has not even touched the national average of 0.65 per cent growth (forest and tree cover put together), according to the latest Forest Survey of India (FSI) report, thereby exposing poor execution of the state’s ‘green drive’.

The Forest department insiders suspect foul play, a case of fence eating the crop, by a few top officials who had served the department over the last decade. A pet project of J Jayalalithaa, smartly clubbed with her birthday to enthuse and draw the public, party cadre and the government machinery into it, the green drive had full sanctioning of funds by the state government. However, no audit papers on the same are available. DT Next checked the State forest policy documents and spoke to a few retired officers, only to confirm the lack of official records.

According to government records, a massive tree-planting programme has been under way in the state since 2011, with planting and maintenance of 3.99 crore seedlings in 32 districts continuing till 2018-19. The ongoing scheme continued with another proposal to plant 70 lakh seedlings in 2019 fiscal at a cost of Rs 22.46 crore. The programme is being jointly executed by the State Forest department and Rural Development & Panchayati Raj department. The fact is that there are paper records for planting more than six crore saplings over the past 15 years, but the forest cover and the tree cover have not increased by more than one per cent. The satellite data mapping, as in December 2019 FSI report, confirms the same.

According to the FSI report, compiled using satellite data, TN has a forest cover of 26,364.02 square kilometres which is 20.27 per cent of the state’s geographical area. TN’s forest and tree cover have been hovering between 20 and 21 per cent despite the State spending crores of public money on the afforestation project.

“Two years ago, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami released the State Environment Policy, 2018, which said the State government will formulate policies and innovate strategies to increase the forest cover to 33 per cent by 2030. However, it is unlikely that the State will be anywhere near the target by 2030,” explained an official source, which had served with` the Institute of Forest Genetics and Tree breeding in Coimbatore. The growth in the State’s tree/forest cover is less than half a per cent for the past two years.

“The absence of an audit and non-transparency in records are visible. In 2013, a four-member IFS team studied the project and found that the survival of the saplings showed less than ten per cent success. The report was forwarded to the Secretariat, recommending Vigilance inquiry, but no action was taken,” said an officer, who had assisted the probing team.

“The state has announced the massive tree-planting programmes to mark the birth anniversary celebrations of the late chief minister J Jayalalithaa and has been continuing for the past nine years. Similar tree planting programmes were also conducted during the birth anniversary of the late chief minister M Karunanidhi, but the tree cover has not increased, thereby exposing the Forest department,” said T Murugavel of Environmental Monitoring and Action Initiating.

Demanding that all State-sponsored tree plantation drives need to be probed, he said: “It is a multi-crore scam. There should be an inquiry by an independent agency.” He also questioned the silence of independent ecologists and also demanded that the Forest department should think of restoring the sacred groves attached to the temples.

When contacted, a top official in the State Forest department said it will be unfair on his part to respond on a State policy matter dating back to several years. Currently, the department is planting saplings during the onset of monsoon and the survival rate of the planted trees is being monitored, the official quipped.