Vid, not Marathwada, is focus of plantation drive

Nagpur: The BJP government’s 2 crore tree plantation drive on July 1, seems to ignore drought-prone Marathwada that is more in need of trees while focusing heavily on Vidarbha that already has much of state’s forests.
The mass campaign of ‘Greening Maharashtra’ has gained momentum and the number of saplings to be planted has swelled from 2 crore to over 2.91 crore but far fewer saplings are being planned for Marathwada than Vidarbha.Figures with TOI show Marathwada’s eight districts — Aurangabad, Beed, Hingoli, Jalna, Latur, Osmanabad, Parbhani, and Nanded-- will be planting just over 54.86 lakh saplings. These include 36.70 lakh to be planted by forest department on its own land and 18.16 lakh by other departments.
On the other hand, Vidarbha’s 11 districts— Nagpur, Gadchiroli, Chandrapur, Wardha, Bhandara, Washim, Yavatmal, Buldhana, Amravati, Akola and Gondia-- will plant 78 lakh saplings. These include 59.14 lakh by forest department 18.76 lakh by other departments.
Why so few trees in Marathwada that needs greenery badly? Expert from the region Rajendra Dhongde says, “Land availability is an issue in Marathwada. It has only 4% degraded forest land while 96% is without any green cover. Quality of this land needs to be improved by good plantations.” Things can improve in the region if large-scale plantations are taken up at roadside, along canals, in gaoran (E Class) land, and farm bunds. “There is no alternative to taking up plantations on land outside forest,” he added.
Even Maheep Gupta, CCF & deputy director general for social forestry department (SFD), admits, “More plantations are needed to sustain region’s ecosystem but due to less forest cover there are limitations.” Gupta added as Vidarbha had more forest (33,276 sqkm) compared to Marathwada (3,099 sqkm), it is possible to take more plantations in Vidarbha.
Marathwada is always in the news for water and agrarian crisis as its entire ecosystem has been damaged due to wrong choice of crops. Latur, which was supplied water by railways this year, has learnt a lesson and has decided to plant 11 lakh saplings, highest in Marathwada. Gupta said good forest cover was also linked to rains. “Recently, our IFS colleague from Karnataka cadre Jagmohan Sharma had presented a research paper that stated even 1sqkm forest area attracted rains.”
Gupta said another problem with Marathwada was that it was rain shadow region where Western Ghats blocked the passage of rain-producing weather systems and cast a ‘shadow’ of dryness behind them.
Dhongde too said developing forest areas was a must for sustainable development of Marathwada. “Good forest cover would enrich water table in areas where the seedlings are planted. It would also ensure economic gain in future,” he said.
LOPSIDED PLANTATIONS
* 8 districts of Marathwada:
Forest area: 36.70 lakh saplings
Other areas: 18.16 lakh
* 11 districts of Vidarbha:
Forest area: 59.14 lakh
Other areas: 18.76 lakh
* 5 districts of West Mah:
Forest area: 33.21 lakh
Other areas : 9.10 lakh