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On August 1, as part of Amrit Brikshya Andolan 2.0, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma launched the nationwide mega tree plantation campaign, which aims to plant a total of three crore trees across Assam with the theme ‘Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam’ to honour the contributions of mothers in one’s life. Early on that morning, CM Sarma planted a sapling at the Ministers’ Colony in Guwahati’s Dispur. The plantation drive, which will run until August 15, stressed the importance of enthusiastic public participation in the exercise to make it successful. The campaign is aimed at enhancing green cover and promoting environmental sustainability. The state government has urged schools, colleges, government and private institutions, NGOs, and the general public to participate actively in this drive. Last year, Assam received nine Guinness World Records certificates for tree plantations. As part of the drive, a total of 1,11,17,781 seedlings of commercially valuable tree species were planted across the state on a single day on September 17. The previous edition of Amrit Brikshya Andolan met significant public enthusiasm.
Trees plantation is good and important since trees hold the soil together so that erosion can be prevented. They absorb rain during rainy days so that water runoff is prevented from going down low-lying areas like residential places, streets, and markets. Trees also help control climate through evapotranspiration, a process where water is drawn up through the soil by the roots and evaporates from the leaves. The surrounding air cools as the water transforms into vapor. One tree can transpire 11,000 gallons of water into the atmosphere per year. Studies suggest we need at least 40 percent canopy coverage to combat the heating effects of concrete in cities. While the state government has undertaken a program to plant millions of trees in the state through the Amrit Briksha Movement, several conflicting activities of the government have concerned nature lovers, various organisations, and the public.The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has axed a total of 2,217 trees from 2015 to 2024 for the construction of six-lane flyovers at Boragaon, Gorchuk, Lokhra, and Basistha Junction, along with the six-lane approach on the Guwahati bypass. In May, a group of people illegally cut more than 100 trees in the Bichan Kuchi area near the Kaldiya River in Assam’s Bajali district. According to the 6th Annual World Air Quality Report 2023, Guwahati is the second most polluted city in the world. Due to the significant impact that cities have on the environment, low-carbon cities are crucial to mitigating the effects of climate change. Transitioning to low-carbon or even net-zero cities requires us to integrate mitigation and adaptation options in multiple sectors, including energy, buildings, transportation, industry, and urban land use. And it is necessary to decarbonise urban systems.
These alarming figures and issues have raised concerns among environmentalists and citizens alike about the impact on the state’s green cover. While the development of infrastructure is crucial for a growing city, the heavy toll on the environment has prompted calls for stricter environmental impact assessments and compensatory afforestation measures. The loss of such a significant number of trees is likely to have far-reaching consequences for the state’s ecology and air quality. According to a report in 2021, the area of reserved forests in Assam was 12,92,964 hectares, and the area under encroachment was 3,40,747 hectares. Around 2 lakh households were reported to have encroached on forest land.
Planting trees has been considered a panacea for all environmental challenges, from pollution and biodiversity loss to climate change. But in the last few years, scientists have warned about the dangers of mindless and gimmicky afforestation practices. If forest restoration initiatives are to achieve climate goals, they require major changes in design and implementation. According to a global study, the
Northeast lost about 1.45 million hectares (Mha) of tree cover between 2001 and 2020, amounting to roughly 76% of the country’s total tree cover loss during the same period. Assam had the highest share of the national tree cover loss in the period, at roughly 14%.
Nonetheless, factors like quality seedlings, selection of planting site, selection of species, time of planting, and post-planting care are equally important. Most saplings, after being planted, also need to be watched over and nurtured before they grow strong and independent and begin their work in sequestering carbon. Caring for and monitoring planting efforts over time are critical, but they have not yet become a core part of tree-planting drives and programs. One of the main reasons why saplings often do not survive much longer than a year or two after mass planting drives is because they are unsuited for the places they are planted in. In many cases, this is due to a lack of good-quality seeds and saplings, but in others, it is simply a lack of good planning.
For example, planting the wrong kinds of trees in the wrong places. In 2015, the then-Deputy Commissioner planted record saplings on both sides of the Moran-Naharkatia road. This event had grabbed a lot of attention, and people had heaped praise on the Deputy Commissioner for taking up this green initiative. Ironically, these trees are now being cut to widen the Moran-Naharkatia road. Around 2,553 trees will be cut for this road-widening project. So what purpose did the initiative of planting saplings on both sides of this road serve? Funds were spent to plant those saplings, and more funds were being spent to cut down those trees! Trees indeed provide vital ecological services, but if reforestation is done improperly, it can do more harm than good. Planting the wrong species of tree can kill native flora, harm wildlife populations, and deplete groundwater unnecessarily.
There should be robust systems of monitoring tree planting that must exist in almost all state forest departments, covering everything from
detailed documentation through plantation journals to locally modified technology-based systems followed by frequent field inspections by various officers. These mechanisms will not only provide full data on expenditure but also provide insight into the growth of plantations.
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(The author, Shahruk Ahmed Mazumdar can be reached on Twitter at @Shahrukhahmedsk)
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