India’s forests are facing rapid degradation due to various anthropogenic pressures, including climate change and extreme weather, particularly high heat levels, that have profound impacts on forests at multiple levels, ranging from cellular processes to ecosystem-wide effects. These impacts are both direct and indirect, altering the growth, structure, function, and resilience of forest ecosystems as well as depletion of the water table, with significant ecological and socioeconomic consequences.
However, evidence from across the country demonstrates that when tribal communities actively participate in forest management, degraded ecosystems can regenerate dramatically, benefiting both the environment and local livelihoods. Tribal communities play a critical role in forest regeneration, and highlighting successful models of participation, benefits, challenges, and policy frameworks can support these initiatives.
The State of Forest Degradation in India
India’s forest ecosystems have been under significant pressure for decades, resulting in extensive degradation. By the 1970s, it was estimated that India was losing more than one million (10 lakh) hectares of forest land annually due to commercial exploitation and growing local pressures. The rapid denudation and degradation of green cover continues to be a serious concern, with environmental pollution, encroachment of catchment areas, deforestation, and rampant mining activities causing soil erosion and ecological imbalance.
Source: ISFR 2023, Vol. 1
The blame for forest degradation often shifts between forest managers and forest-dwelling communities. However, research indicates that the activities of non-tribal populations often have a more significant impact on forest ecosystems than those of tribal communities who have traditionally lived in harmony with forests. The forest fringe areas inhabited by non-tribal populations show higher rates of degradation, with activities such as grazing, extensive fuelwood collection, illegal selling, and extraction of fodder, medicinal plants, sand, and rocks contributing significantly to forest loss.
This degradation directly affects the approximately 10 crore tribal and an estimated 15-20 crore other traditional forest dwellers (OTFDs) who depend on forest resources for their livelihoods, particularly in remote forest fringe villages. As forest resources are depleted, these communities face increasing poverty and suffering, losing access to crucial sources of fuel, fodder, food, raw materials for village industries, and medicines.
When India gained Independence in 1947, tribal communities were the most deprived in India, lacking knowledge of their rights in our new-found freedom, leading to an almost total bureaucratic control over their resources and rights, especially by the Forest department. Today, tribal youth are educated and aware of their rights, and their self-governance has been ratified by the Indian State and made statutory through the Forest Right Act, 2006, and participatory self-governance must be a priority for the government at both the State and Centre.