No wonder if the Parliamentary Panel on Environment and Forests has held the State Government responsible for degradation of State’s ecology and environments caused by wanton destruction and damages to its forest wealth. The report of the panel, now submitted to the Rajya Sabha, has traced the causes and consequences of wanton destruction of forest wealth leading to great health hazards to the people of the State. Pollution of water bodies, obstruction in the smooth flow of water by raising structures on encroached lands and utter neglect of de-silting of rivers and nullahs have wrought havoc in the shape of floods of September 2014. The State has not taken any major step in providing waste disposal mechanism along modern lines, nor has it cared to have planned colonies to meet the requirements of burgeoning population. The panel report says that no attention has been paid to the early warning system of impending calamities like floods or avalanches or earthquakes that could have helped people take preventive measures and save their lives.
We have in these columns brought all this to the notice of the authorities. The report of the Parliamentary penal vindicates our comments and views based on the reaction of the people at large. There are some sound recommendations in the report and most of these are implementable. We would expect the Government to react to the suggestions which broadly speaking cover two areas, viz. preventive measures and reconstructive measures. The State’s forest wealth has to be rebuilt and green cover has to be provided to the swelling population. Thousands of kanals of forest land illegally grabbed by forest mafia has to be vacated and retrieved and rebuilt as new forests. Forests have to be made the lungs through which life breathes.
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