In 1997, a giant over-1000-year-old redwood tree in California, US was to face the axe by the logging and sawmill major Pacific Lumber Company (Palco). In a desperate bid to save it, then 23-year-old environmentalist Julia Butterfly Hill went up the tree and stayed on a 6-by-4-foot platform for around two years.
Unflinchingly, she weathered the harsh condition of living atop a tree and agreed to descend from her 180-foot-high abode only after inking a pact with Palco that assured protection of the ancient tree and the 200-foot buffer zone around it.
Today, as lushly-forested Goa metamorphosis into a concrete jungle, the State’s age-old trees that have survived for hundreds of years face a fate similar to the redwood tree of California. Sadly, there’s no Hill to save Goa’s green lungs.
Trees are being indiscriminately felled to make way for roads, buildings and other such structures – all in the name of Smart City. It makes one wonder what is so smart about bringing down life-giving trees to create an ecologically dysfunctional city.
It makes one wonder what is so smart about bringing down life-giving trees to create an ecologically dysfunctional city.
Our green cover is the very source of life, offering oxygen, biodiversity and so much more that makes healthy living possible. Destroying it is defying our ancestors’ wisdom, which compelled them to revere and preserve nature.
Recently, a stately 200-year-old banyan tree in the St Inez area of Panjim was mauled to translocate it to another area. The callous manner in which the whole exercise was carried out has left everyone aghast. There is little chance of it surviving in its new location at Campal with its branches violently chopped off and roots bruised.
In another part of Goa – Siolim – a controversy over illegal tree felling, allegedly involving a politician, has kicked off and landed in the High Court. These are just a few cases of tree cutting caught in the public eye and media glare.
Environmental NGOs like Goa Green Brigade receive dozens of distress calls of mindless felling of trees every day from different parts of the state. The frequency of these calls has shot up in recent times.
Environmental NGOs like Goa Green Brigade receive dozens of distress calls of mindless felling of trees every day from different parts of the state. The frequency of these calls has shot up in recent times.
One of the major dangers to the trees is the breathless pace of real estate development in the once-idyllic coastal state. In the past few years, Goa’s realty sector has turned red-hot as investors look to make a fast buck from it.
Powerful builders’ lobbies from Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai have alighted on Goa’s shores to make mint before its property market cools off. This real estate goldrush has endangered Goa’s forests, and trees in general, like never before.
Powerful builders’ lobbies from Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai have alighted on Goa’s shores to make mint before its property market cools off.
Till a few decades back, Goa had a healthy green cover but it’s slowly disappearing as structures of steel, glass and concrete run through it. Tree authorities of the Goa Forest Department, which began mapping trees in 2022, are yet to complete their tree census. Till April last year, only two per cent of Goa’s trees were surveyed by them.
In the minutes of a meeting held by the Tree Authority in May last year, it was cited that the shortage of manpower due to forest fires in the state had slowed down the tree census.
The delay has angered tree lovers. Meanwhile, the deputy conservator of forests (DCF) has allegedly been very lenient in issuing licenses for tree cutting. As per the data put up on the Goa Forest Department website for the current month, the DCF has given permission for felling over 30 trees till April 10.
Notably, the amendments to the Goa Preservation of Trees Act, 1984 have diluted its provisions in a way that it promotes tree felling rather than preventing it. Even the penalty imposed on offenders does not serve as a deterrent to the crime.
Notably, the amendments to the Goa Preservation of Trees Act, 1984 have diluted its provisions in a way that it promotes tree felling rather than preventing it.
Three years ago, a five-member committee set up by the Supreme Court to evaluate the true value of a tree came up with a valuation of Rs 1 crore for a heritage tree with a lifespan of over 100 years. They computed the value of a tree for a single year at Rs 74,500.
If one were to go by this valuation, just imagine the notional loss on account of rampant tree-cutting and forest fires to the state exchequer and private tree owners. It would run into thousands of crores of rupees. So, how can a penalty of a few thousand or a lakh of rupees effectively check the heinous environmental crime?
What if the value of trees were included in the estimation of a state or a country’s GDP? Goa, despite the recent massive green pillaging, would be among the wealthiest states of India. It could also give wings to the movement to save trees. The moneybags would then chase trees instead of real estate or shares.
