Infrastructure Projects, Growing Demand For Housing, Poor Oversight Have Rapidly Depleted Forest Cover In Kashmir firstpost.com

For over two decades, forests in Kashmir have been mercilessly chopped ever since political turmoil gripped the region in the 1990s. In the absence of any monitoring, the timber-smuggling industry, involving ministers, their relatives, bureaucrats and smugglers has thrived in the Valley. While the government says it has succeeded in curbing the illegal felling of green cover, the forest department is now confronting another challenge of an even bigger magnitude — every year, hundreds of hectares of forest land are lost to infrastructure building. According to data accessed by the author, 13,902 hectares of forest land have been diverted to government departments for infrastructure projects over the years. This diversion cost around 17 lakh trees including deodar, chir, kail and fir. In the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, the chief secretary-headed Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) would approve the use of forest land for non-forest purposes.