Kolkata, Oct 13 The West Bengal government seems to have ignored cautions in central reports on the rapid reduction in forest areas since 2011 in the hills of Darjeeling district, which was devastated earlier this month following massive rainfall and landslides.
Opposition parties and environmentalists have already cited the rapid deforestation to facilitate unbridled real-estate development in the hills as the main reason for disturbing the ecosystem there and have also accused the state government of neglecting this crucial environmental issue.
From the biennial India State of Forest Report (ISFR) for 2023, the latest available, it is clear that although a caution on the fast decline in forest areas in the Darjeeling district was there, the state government either overlooked or neglected those cautions.
The IFR report is prepared and published every two years by the Forest Survey of India (FSI), Dehradun.
As per the ISFR for 2023, the total forest area in the Darjeeling district then was 1,402.67 square kilometres, as against 2,289 square kilometres in 2011, which was the last year of the previous Left Front regime and the beginning year of the Trinamool Congress regime in West Bengal.
This means that there had been a 31 per cent decline in the forest area in the Darjeeling district since 2011 till the last year of review.
The reduction, as per the report, had been for all the categories of forest in Darjeeling district, namely "very dense forest", "moderately dense forest", and "open forest".
The "very dense forest" region in Darjeeling, which was around 714 square kilometres in 2021, declined to around 397 square kilometres, as per the survey report for 2023.
In the case of "moderately dense forest", the decline was from around 663 square kilometres in 2011 to around 339 square kilometres, as per the report for 2023.
In the case of “open forest,” the decline was from around 992 square kilometres in 2011 to around 663 square kilometres, as per the report for 2023.
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