Greening Punjab Project

THE Punjab Cabinet has cleared a “Greening Punjab Project”. That is a very positive move if the government can carry it the way it is envisaged. At least at the outset, there is no amount specified for the corpus to be created for it. There is the suggestion that private companies would also be encouraged to contribute to it as part of their corporate social responsibility — a rather grey area, subject more to charity that surety. The next challenge would be to find land to plant trees. It is proposed that land under various government departments and institutions would be used. With the large number of departments involved, there would be as many impediments. Panchayats have also not been cooperative in the past in matters regarding land.

One problem with such do-good plans is they are often forgotten along the way. Results can be achieved only if people and bodies committed to the cause are involved. Officials are never motivated enough — in this case, there would be no complaints, or votes affected, if the targets are not met. Punjab has lost lakhs of trees — and land for planting trees — to the widening of national highways and roads along canals. A plan to purchase wasteland from farmers for compensatory afforestation has earlier failed, as land price is always an issue, and the scheme is also fraught with chances of fraud. One option could be to plant trees on farmers’ land free of cost, without acquiring the land. A moratorium on cutting the trees for a period could be imposed.
Another glaring source the government has ignored is its own forestland. The state has 6.12 per cent of its land marked “forest area” in revenue records. However, barely more than half of it is covered by forests. The tree cover outside forests is almost equal to the cover in forests, which is, to a great extent, the result of agro-forestry, something the government needs to promote as a diversification option. For a movement to be anything more than a slogan, it is the sincerity that matters.