Environmental Ethics

Author(s): S M Jain
Publisher: Prakrit Bharti Academy

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of Mahuwa trees were cut away by tribals from their own fields and sold for paltry sum of Rs. 200/- which was one time income against about same amount from flowers and seed's every year over and over again. When this author intervened and objected to permission by revenue officials to fell green trees against rules, the argument was that tribals approach the revenue officials with request that mahuwa tree is shading and affecting the yield of his agricultural crop maize, they have to allow its removal. The value of maize grown in limited area under the mahuwa tree was hardly Rs. 10/-. Such is the apathy of tribals for trees. When forest villages in Madhya Pradesh (India) and elsewhere were converted into revenue villages under political expediency of vote banking the first thing the tribals did was to cut away and sell the magnificent sal trees which were giving sustained income from sal seeds much more than from agriculture crops.
Planned scientific forest harvesting:
It is also argued that commercial exploitation of forests by government have resulted in their destruction. This is also not correct. Most of the trees in tropical and sub-tropical regions are very good coppicers. If the tree is properly cut and stump is dressed, it will produce good coppice shoots and forest will rejuvenate over and over again from coppice and also from seeds of seed-bearers left uniformly all over the worked area. The commercial cuttings by government agencies were on scientific lines under judiciously prepared working plans. There were no restrictions on tribals for the domestic needs of fuel, timber and fuel. They were given remunerative wages. All forest areas worked by government agencies produced good coppice shoots and forest rejuvenated better than the crooked and malformed trees because of cutting of trees by tribals at height of 3'-4' and more from ground. The cutting of trees under government agencies was proper and scientific at 3"-4" height. However the good coppice shoots from such cuttings were soon destroyed deliberately by tribals by grazing their rampaging cattle, goat and sheep. The
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