Tree Plantation on non-forest areas

Afforestation and reforestation are many times used synonymously, the reason being both involve planting of trees. Afforestation is planting of trees on areas which were historically devoid of trees. Planting of trees on grasslands, savanahs, shrublands etc is afforestation. Reforestation is planting of trees on areas which were previously forested as well. Afforestation involves change in land use pattern. Many a times, forests are thought of a default vegetatation of the degraded area, which may not be true. The areas which are devoid of tree vegetation are thought of as degraded areas. Other important critical ecosystems are ignored. Though all the ecosystems are important for the healthy biosphere. The diversity must be in terms of ecosystems as well. The different ecosystems are performing different functions in a biosphere. The diversity present in the biosphere in terms of the varations in the ecosystems is called ecosystem diversity. There are different ecosystems like forest ecosystems, grassland ecosystem, desert ecosystem, pond ecosystem etc. These ecosystems have evolved over a long period of the time by the process called ecological succession. The climatic and edaphic factors determines whether the climax community would be a forest, a grassland or any other type of ecosystem. The change in the natural land-use would mean that we are going against the nature, which often proves catastrophic in the long run. The ecosystem Restoration is assisting the recovery of the ecosystem that has been damaged destroyed or degraded, to its former state or close to it. Bringing the degraded forest or grassland ecosystem back to their original state or close to it, would be ecosystem restoration Eosystems are sometimes degraded to such an extent that the restoration to its original state is not possible. In that case, ecosystems are taken to some productive state, the process called rehabilitation. The degraded forest ecosystem changed to some other ecosystem would be rehabilitation. The creation of a forest isn’t restoration, if historically the area was not under forest. Forests are an essential ecosystems which besides providing different material goods, perform important ecological functions, are also important tool to combat the global climate change by immobilizing the atmospheric carbon by carbon sequestration. They are habitat for variety of faunal species as well. The massive afforestation programmes are launched, where millions of trees are planted to reverse the global climate change. The fast-growing non-native species are mostly planted which over course of time become invasive species and eliminate the native species. Hence disturbing the delicate ecological balance. These fast-growing species are water intensive. They are lowering the water table of the area, which results in change in the vegetation of the area. They are believed to create dessert ecosystems. A study found that the areas where forests have been created by planting trees on grasslands, savanahs and shrublands, the streams have shrank up 52% and 13% of all streams dried up completely for at least a year. Increasing tree cover would mean the faunal species which prefer open, well-lit areas are pushed out. In grasslands, fires are frequent which help to remove the vegetation which shades the areas. With more trees, the grazers would have less to eat, and are at risk of being eaten as predators would have more cover.
The banks of the rivers or streams are planted with tree species. The idea behind this is stabilization of the river banks. These are proving counter productive during floods. They are getting washed away by floods by the erosion of the banks. These trees are increasing the erosive power of the flood waters. The area adjoing the river channels in the lower areas are large tracts of flat lands called flood plains. These are usually wet lands. They act like sponges, absorbing large amount of water during floods and then releasing it slowly when the floods subside. So these areas act as buffer against the floods prventing the destruction of human settlements. In coastal areas, similar function is being done by the mangroves. The filling up of these wetlands for any other purpose would mean there is no buffer against the floods. Trees are planted along the slopes of the hills with aim of checking landslides. But it too could prove counter productive. The tendency of landslides to form is influenced by many outside factors. Climate is important as it influences the accumulation of water which precedes the landslides and trees which can influence the soil stability. Although it would seem tree roots should stabilize the soil, but the ability of the trees to add significant mass to the slope by accumulating water and destabilize the soil by aiding water infiltration may have an opposite effect making the slope land-slide prone. The landslides are often deep seated, the tree Plantations on slopes which are not suited for trees geologically could have more landslides when planted with trees. The tree plantation being darker than the grasses or even crops would reduce the albedo. Which is amount of the sunlight that is reflected back into space without being absorbed by the surface. The lower albedo would result in slightly increase in temperature than the desired decrease. The frenzy for the plantation of of fast-growing trees has led to the reduction of the biodiversity. The mono-culture tree plantations are replacing the diverse tree Plantations. The trees we have grown up with are nowhere to be found. The new generations wouldn’t know their names either. These are the costs we are paying for going ahead with massive afforestation programmes. Not all plantations are good, some are bad.
(The author is Lecturer (EVS), at Govt Degree College Kupwara. Views are his own)
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