Social forestation - the need of the hour for saving world environment

UJJAINI SHARMA

Dibrugarh, June 7: The road to a safer and green environment lies through the channel of social forestation through which the tural resources of our world, that have fallen into the grip of global warming and deforestation, could be saved from getting extinct. The parasitical germ of global warming and deforestation looms large upon the living world, particularly over the human society like a black hole that needs to be removed from the root by climbing the ladder of social forestry that aims at planting thousands of trees in the already deforested part of our world. Innumerable and unending discussions are held almost every year particularly on World Environment Day or Eco Day which is celebrated on June 5 the world over that aim at inviting solutions, feedback and suggestions from eminent environmentalists and activists of the world who work towards the common goal of protecting and saving our tural resources through a green corridor of trees and plants.

The tradition of celebrating the World Environment or Echo Day also holds deep significance in our country as evil effects of global warming and deforestation are playing havoc on our tural environment resulting in the rapid rise of heat waves across many parts of our country. With the average rainfall rate falling down below the minimum rate, several States of our country are witnessing severe drought like conditions that have mostly affected the agricultural sector. With the direction of monsoon changing almost every year, the after effects have been very disheartening as the late or early advent of monsoon brings severe setbacks for human lives, particularly of the farming community. So to fight against such environmental hazards social forestation can be seen as the perfect answer to help us achieve our goal of saving our tural habitat from getting extinct.

Thus the work of planting trees and preserving them depends on us if we wish to live in a green and healthy environment that is being destroyed by necessary evils, which in turn becomes the basic reason for environmental degradation. As we have converted ourselves into slaves of modern technology that now controls our existence, we tend to ignore the role of trees and plants in our daily life that help us lead a healthy life. Our ignorance has put a big question mark on our role in saving our ture from the bad effects of deforestation as we humans cut down valuable trees for our persol benefits.

Keeping in view the positive and far reaching effects of social forestation which involves the task of planting trees for saving our social and tural environment that together constitute our Mother ture,   the people of Dibrugarh district under the initiative of the Dibrugarh district administration headed by Deputy Commissioner MS Manivann, observed World Environment Day. As a mark of celebration, the district administration organized a meeting in which some significant proposals regarding social forestry were taken into consideration so that steps could be taken for implementing such proposals for saving our green environment. The Deputy Commissioner called upon the local residents to take up the task of planting saplings in and around the periphery of their locality.

The district administration has also proposed to benefit people under the MNREGA scheme under which individuals will be entrusted to plant trees and look after them and they will be given wages for 100 days of work. Every year, saplings are planted to create awareness on social forestry but due to lack of proper care and vigilance, the task remains unfulfilled as people are not given fincial benefits to look after these saplings.

The responsibility of saving our environment is ours because unless we pledge to work for our environment, environmental schemes introduced and implemented by the government or administration for a ‘greener and clean environment’ will not serve their purpose.