Restoration of Eco-Systems a fourth pillar in our economy
– A National Perspective
We know by
now that zoonotic diseases such as COVID 19 can take a heavy toll on human
lives and economic activity. Living in
crowded cities, commuting in trains and buses, working in offices and factories
now come in with a considerable element of risk. But urban India is the engine of economic
growth, the economic surplus that is generated from the urban middle class, generates
demand and work across India. While the privileged
in urban India are adapting to Covid, the quest for livelihood remains the
central challenge that India needs to face as it strives to improve standards
of living for its citizens. While the government
and the private sector are providing jobs through agriculture, manufacturing
and services, there is a fourth pillar which is barely being tapped today. This is Ecosystem Restoration both as a means
to secure healthy livelihoods and as an important investment for a sustainable
future. Restoration of eco-systems that
clean up water bodies, create urban green spaces, bring abandoned quarries and
mines back to life, restore degraded forests and wilflife corridor, reclaim
shola-grass lands and evergreen forests from exotic plantation forests.
So, what does
eco-system restoration entail? How much
does it cost per acre? What are the most
opportune / important areas of restoration one needs to focus on? And can this really become a major economic
pillar?
We know
that eco-systems when left alone reach their climax stable state – such as shola-grassland
systems in upper western ghats, evergreen forests in Silent Valley and
Arunachal Pradesh, the moist-deciduous forest grassland complex in
Kanha/Bandhavgarh. But when the rate of
human exploitation exceeds nature’s ability to repair itself degradation is set
in motion. Sometimes landscapes with
heavy soil compaction, topsoil erosion, barren patches can take generations to
recover. But judicious human
interventions to augment moisture retention through trenches, saucers, stone overflows
for assisted natural regeneration, check dams, and ponds to allow for larger
scale water percolation and needs for wildlife, along with seed broadcasting
and seedling plantation to address species imbalance can turn the tide. If the landscape is ridden with invasives
such as Lantana Camara or Juli-flora, they need to be removed carefully and
selectively to ensure that native vegetation is undisturbed, and dormant
invasive seed bank is not exposed or activated.
Our efforts in Lokkere Reserve Forest – a 2000 acre degraded forest
adjacent to Bandipur (www.Junglescapes.org), in a rain shadow belt gives me the
confidence that restoration can work, and once we place the landscape in a trajectory
where natural cycles take over (microbes, nurtients, moisture) multistory vegetation
will come back abetted by native wildlife.
What resources
does it take? Not more than Rs 10,000 to
Rs20,000 an acre, sometimes even lower.
And this is spread over a 3-to-5-year period and supports about 50 to 70
families full time for nearly a decade’.
These are healthy occupations – which leverage their knowledge of the
lay of the land, which bank on their expertise and knowhow and local decision
making. We have seen that the net result
is a restored eco-system, and pride within the local communities that they
created a home for the wildlife. The
relationship changes from one of exploitation of nature to custodianship.
Which
brings us to next question – what are the opportune areas for restoration? In urban spaces, having a cleaner lake has a
multiplier effect on health and sanitation.
Closer to cities, where hill sides have been ravaged by quarrying
restoring quarries through topsoil augmentation, seed broadcasting and assisted
natural regeneration can bring positive changes to the water table, and soil
stability. Our country has over 50
Project Tiger Reserves – being protected regions they typically have healthy
ecosystems – though invasives have become a major issue in some forests. But typically, adjacent to tiger reserves
there are reserve forests – such as Lokkere Reserve Forest and Heggaewadi block
next to Bandipur, Segur plateau next to Mudumalai, Reserve forests betweeen
Sariska and Ranthambore, reserve forests and corridors that connect Pench and
Kanha, the list is long. But as we bring
back the wildlife population, our tiger reserves are reaching their carrying
capacity. Strengthening reserve forests
that connect to tiger reserves must be of the highest priority. With 65000 square kilometers of tiger
reserves, and a targeted 35000 sqkm of reserve forests that are contiguous to
tiger reserves, restoration in such belts can have a multiplier effect for both
wildlife and livelihoods in such remote areas.
A second
priority area needs to be the watersheds of rain fed rivers. The shola-grassland forests and dense
evergreen/moist deciduous forests feed all the major peninsular rivers in
India. The Narmada – Tapti and Mahanadi
rivers are completely dependent on forests in Vindhya’s and Sapura’s, and the
Eastern Ghats. An immediate requirement
is to bring back native forests instead of exotic plantation forests in
Nilgiris, Palani hills, and the Malnad – Sirsi belt in Karnataka. This is a harder task. Exotic mature plantations have to give way to
native forests. The native seedbank is
largely absent in hundreds of square kilometers. The methodology for restoration is not clear
or known. We have to learn through action.
But if we succeed, we can improve rainwater harvesting, improve capture
of moisture from clouds that waft by, and augment runoffs by 20%, and make a
huge positive dent on carbon capture.
This will entail about 20% of western ghats – an area of 10,000 sq.km.
at least.
We talked
about restoration providing alternative livelihoods for local communities. We talked about scale – more than 40,000
sq.km or nearly 10 million acres that needs to be restored. At 20000 rupees an acre, restoring 25% of our
degraded forests becomes a Rs 20000 crore economy (about $3 billion), directly
spent in implementation of restoration activities on the ground every
year. This will require more than local
communities pitching in. We would need
NGOs or local organizations to plan and work with stakeholders, academics to
train the next generation of students and researchers, we need an expanded
forest department which would have to work more closely with local communities
to restore, rather than just protect current forests. And if we add water bodies in urban areas,
quarries to cater to the construction industry, mined areas, we are creating at
least a Rs 60000 crore ($10 billion) restoration pillar which starts to look
like the consumer durables sector in scale.
I am bringing in these figures, only to highlight the employment
potential this sector brings. The
benefits are of course in the carbon we sequester, the eco-system services it
provides, in the form of drinking water for urban cities, irrigation needs for
the farms in the plains. And the wildlife
that find a home, and the human wildlife conflicts that are avoided in the
process.
In India
this opportunity has largely gone untapped.
The conservation space is dominated by iconic figures who have worked
against all odds to save our keystone species from extinction. The government has stepped in to provide the much-required
legal protection for the existing protected areas to thrive. While India is congratulating
itself in saving itself from the brink of species extinction, the fact is that
the work has barely begun. Conservation
organizations, corporate donors, the ministries that allocate funds need to
wake up to a Rs 60,000 crore socio-economic segment – with figures stated very
conservatively – that needs to be created and sustained. Almost in tune with the United Nations declaration
that 2021-30 is the decade of ecological restoration.
