Keonjhar: Extensive deforestation for paddy cultivation due to the practice of slash-and-burn process on forest lands in Bhuyan Juang Pirh range under Keonjhar forest division and various other places under Telkoi forest range is posing great threat to the green cover, sources informed Friday.
Slash-and-burn is a farming technique which involves cutting down and burning trees, bushes and other vegetation in a forest to create a field. It is usually implemented at the onset of summer. The empty piece of land is then left unattended. During the rainy season, the land is used for cultivation of paddy, maize, mustard and different types of vegetables. However, due to burning of the green cover, the land goes to waste and cannot be reused again for cultivation.
To prevent this destruction of green cover, both the Central and state governments have launched various schemes like ‘Mission Jeevika’ and MGNREGA. However, due to a lack of awareness and successful implementation of the programmes, the forest dwellers continue with the slash-and-burn technique and in the process destroy forest cover.
The Juang tribals living on and below the hills near Kanjipani, Bargoda, Gonasika, Ton, Rakam, Sudung, Talpada and Baragarh localities are usually the main users of the slash-and-burn technique. They cut trees and other plantations from the roadside at Panasanasa, Haldipani and Upper Panasanasa localities to create cultivation opportunities. Similarly, a large number of trees have been burnt for paddy cultivation in remote areas at Lungajhar and Rangadihi villages under Saharpur Panchayat.
Although the traditional slash-and-burn farming method is accepted as a means of livelihood by forest dwellers, there is a demand to ban such methods as it harms the forests and the environment. This technique also leads to devastating forest fires that also damage the green cover. The tribals not only burn the forests, but also sell the wood they acquire to earn a good sum.
“If the forest department engages local people in fire fighting, they could get employment,” said environmentalist Harekrushna Mohanta. “A lot of money has been spent on MGNREGA and other schemes in the last 10 years. But no one has the exact information of how much the forest dwellers have benefited from this,” said Akshay Patnaik, a social worker.
Ecologist Bhaktcharan Mohanty said that while these two ranges were once densely forested, slash-and-burn farming method has substantially destroyed green cover. Zilla Parishad chief executive officer Bishnu Prasad Acharya informed that awareness about MGNREGA is slowly increasing and many tribals have got jobs.
Nayankant Sahu, officer of the Bhuyan and Juang Pirh ranges, said, “People are being taught about the ill effects of the slash-and-burn farming process (Podu chasa). It is also being discussed in meetings of the forest protection committee. A man was recently arrested for clearing forests for slash-and-burn farming purposes.
PNN