The document discusses India's forest resources and policies related to forests. It provides details on: 1) India's 1952 forest policy which aimed to increase forest cover to 33% of the total land area through afforestation programs. 2) The 1988 forest policy which recognized depletion of forests and aimed to encourage farm forestry and discourage forest-based industries from using forest resources. 3) Social forestry and farm forestry programs launched to provide forest products to rural communities and encourage tree planting on private farms.

3. DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS,
AC&RI, MADURAI.

4. FOREST RESOURCES
Forest are important natural resources of India. They have a moderating
influence against floods and thus they protect the soil against erosion.
They provide raw materials to a number of important industries, namely,
furniture, matches, paper, rayon, construction, tanning, etc.
There is concentration of forests in a few states like Assam, Madhya Pradesh,
Orissa and a few Union territories.
Northern India is particularly deficient in forests. There is a need to increase
forest areas in the entire country as also to develop them in deficient states.

5. FOREST RESOURCES
It is recognised that forests have a vital role to play in the welfare and
development of a country. For a long time reckless destruction of
Indian forests continued.
It “deprived the peasantry of wood for fuel and for building cottages,
exposed agriculture to greater risks of droughts flood and soil erosion,
and, on the whole, resulted in sterilization of the soil.
It was not realized that the preservation of forests or their scientific
management was highly conducive to the economic and physical
wellbeing of the country.

6. FOREST POLICY,1952
The main objectives
To increase the productivity of forests,
To link up forest-development with various forest-based industries
To develop forests as a support to rural economy. Keeping these broad
guidelines, efforts were directed in the following specific areas.

7. FOREST POLICY,1952
The Government of India declared its forest policy in 1952.
According to this policy, it was decided to raise steadily the area under forests to
100 million nectars or 33 percent of the country as a whole.
The target was to provide green cover over two-thirds of the land area in the hills
and mountains.
To achieve the goal, it was necessary to secure the long-rang development of
forest resources on the one hand, and to meet the increasing demand for timber
and firewood on the other

8. The main elements in this policy
The area under forestry is to be raised steadily to 33.3 per cent of the total area,
60 percent in the highly regions and 20 percent in the plains.
There should be a ban on any further encroachment on the forests areas, unless
an equals area is newly brought under forests.
The area under forests should be increased by planned afforest ion. Trees should
also be planted along the banks of cannels, roads and railway tracks.
In order to benefit agriculture, they have suggested that village forest plantations
should be established in the vicinity of village on the marginal lands

9. The main elements in this policy
For encouraging industry based on forestry products they have suggested close
contact between the forests research institution on the one hand and traders
and industrialists on the other.
Transport and communication should also be extended to open up the
inaccessible forests areas
The productivity of India’s forests be greatly increased. Forests are among the
renewable resources’ in nature which, if properly managed could go on yielding
valuable products at an undiminished rate and for an indefinite period.
There is a shortage of timber and cattle, wood, of raw materials for drugs, paper
and pulp and fodder for cattle. It is necessary too secure sustained increases of
these from year to year.

10. An appraisal of forests policy
It is very much it be regretted that the forest policy by the
government has till recently militated against the paper utilization
and conservation of our forests wealth.
These has been very little element of conscious planning and
development of our forest resources’ so that large forest areas
produce inferior types of trees.
Given proper thought, Indian forests can be made to grow and supply
the more valuable types of wood, rising gristly the income from
them.

11. Right forests policy must provide
The supply of forests produce to the mass of the local
consumes
The protection of land from erosion, floods and
unfavorable climatic influences
The preservation of timber for building construction
generally
The production of raw materials, both timber and other
forests products, for industries using wood.

12. Afforestation measures.
To meet the deficiency of supply of
wood in view of the growing
demand there important schemes
were undertaken
I) Plantation of quick growing
species.
II) Plantation of economic species
(teak, sisso and seamal, etc.)
• There were various afforestation schemes under state
plans and a total area of about 4.5million hectares
were brought under man-made plantations between
1951 and 1991
iii) plantations to be raised under
the scheme of rehabilitation of
degraded forests.

13. Social forestry
The Government of India accepted the
recommendation of the national commission
on agriculture (1976) and agreed to set up
social forestry projects on non-forest lands,
public lands and on village commons, in order.
To increase green coverage
To produce and supply
firewood, fodder, small timber
and minor forest produce to
the rural population, specially
to the landless and other
weaker section.
To produce raw materials
for paper, rayon and match
industries.

14. Farm forestry
Farmers were encouraged to plant trees on their own farms
with free or subsidized seedling supplied by the forest
department

15. Public woodlots
The forest department undertook the planting of fast
growing trees along roadside, canal banks and other such
public lands for the needs of the community and

16. Community woodlots
Trees were planted by the communities themselves on
community lands to be shared equality by the villages, this was
the self financing component of the social forestry programme

17. Promotion of Methods for increase Production
In order to improve utilization of forest resources, modern
tool and equipments tested in advanced countries were
used increasingly.
Such a step was bound to be more useful in the hilly areas.
Forests at high altitudes generally remained unexploited,
due to inaccessibility.

18. Forest Development corporations
To attract institutional finance for forestry develropment. 17
autonomous forest development Corporations have been set up
in various states and union Territories. Their main functions are
raising new plantations.

19. National wastelands Development Board (NWDB)
The central Government set up NWDB in 1985 to bring 5 million
hectares of wasteland per year under fuel wood and fodder and fodder
plantation.
The setting up of these Board was Governments' response the
continuous deforestation in the context of the exploding population on
the one side and the tremendous suffering of the weaker sections in the
rural areas in their search for fuel wood and fodder on the other.

20. NEW FOREST POLICY, 1988
The 1952 forest policy had failed to stop the serious depletion of forest
wealth over the years. It became imperative to evolve a new strategy of
forest conservation.
A new forest policy was in preparation for a long time by the Ministry of
Environment and Forests. The Government of India announced its new forest
policy in December 1988. The important features of this policy are:-

21. Depletion of forest area and the target for green cover
The new forest policy begins by stating that forests have been
depleted owing to fuel, fodder and timber needs and transfer of land
for non-forest uses and for non-forest uses and for raising revenue.

22. Discouragement to forest-based industries
The new forest policy states that forest-based industries
must get their raw materials from wood raised through farm
forestry, and that no forest based enterprise-except at
village or cottage level-would be permitted in the future,
unless it has been first cleared, after a careful study of
availability of raw materials.

23. End the system of private forest contractors
The new forest policy advocates an end to the system
of contractors working the forest.
The contractors will be replaced by institutions such as
tribal cooperatives, government corporations, etc.

24. WATER RESOURCES
India is one of the wettest countries in the world, with average annual
rainfall of 1100 m.m India’s water policy since independence, has mainly
concentrated on highly visible large dams reservoirs and canal systems
but has ignored minor water works such as tanks dug wells and tube
wells.

25. Government policy on water resources
India’s water policy since independence or more specifically, since 1950-51,consisted of the
construction of huge dams and reservoirs ,distribution canals,etc.,all the which were
designated as major and medium irrigation works
They were also known as multi-purpose projects, since they were designed to generate
electric power ,provide irrigation water to agriculture and control floods.
The government launched a new agricultural strategy in 1962 in the form of intensive
agricultural programme (IADP) and high –yielding varieties programme. It was to support
the new agricultural strategy ,that the government encouraged intensive utilization of tube
well irrigation and surface wells. this form of irrigation was called as minor irrigation

26. IADP
Even though the government encouraged minor irrigation. It did not
formulate any policies to prevent ruthless and uncontrolled exploitation of
ground water resources or for their regeneration.
In the formulation of its policy regarding utilization and management of
water resources.
The government did not consider the role and significance of traditional
sources of water, viz., ponds and tanks, small rivers , and watersheds, means
of irrigation, usefulness for controlling and moderating floods, use for inland
fisheries etc – all these were ignored by planners and policy makers

27. RELIANCE ON LARGE DAMS
The former prime minister of India Mr. Rajiv Gandhi who addressed the sestets
irrigation projects have been initiated 1970
Only 65 out of these have been completed. 181 are still under construction.
A serious blunder our planners have committed and continue to commit is their
reliance in big irrigation dams as a means of rising agricultural production.
These gigantic dams costing hundreds and thousands of crores of rupees
because of poor planning and bad execution- have brought much less benefits.

28. EXTENT OF WATER RESOURCES
Indian economy stated un believable as it may seem till now we have no
arrangements in this country to compile and publish on an annual basis,
comprehensive data regarding various aspects of water which are important for
policy analysis and
programme formulation and for monitoring the efficiency of use of our scarce
water resources B.S NAG AND G.N kathpalia made and commission on
agriculture for the year 1947 and also for the year 2025 their estimate is
summarized.
It has been estimated that irrigation accounts for 92 per cent of the water
utilization and domestic and industrial uses account for the balance of 8 percent.
With the growth of population and the increase in demand for products of
agriculture and industries the demand for water will also increase.

29. NEGLECT OF TANKS
The second commission stated clearly: dug wells and tanks are by
and large the most important source of irrigation in the drought
areas.
Dr. Bhumbla a former commissioner of agriculture government of
India, states there is absolutely no doubt that if stress is laid on
management of rainwater by storing the excess run-off the average
production of rice can be raised to 120 million tones and that of
wheat to 70 raised to 120 million tones within the next 5 to 10 years.

30. GROUND WATER RESOURCERS
Ground water and its proper use assume great significance for a country such as
India which faces continuous threat of drought and famines and ‘the big thirst’ in
less than 20 years from now.
India's ground water resources would about 10 times the annual 3,700 million
hectare meters.
The introduction of the new agricultural strategy in the early 1960 there has
been increasing use of tube wells.
In 1961 only 1 percent of net irrigated land received tube well irrigation but by
1990-1991 about 30 percent of the net irrigated land got the benefit of tube well
irrigation.

31. India’s water policy has concertrated on gigantic river system and reservoirs
and despite huge investment on them, their productivity continues to be
low. They have not helped in controlling or moderating floods.
Ground water table has gone down dramatically in more intensely cropped
areas, clearly indicating the need to increase recharges or to regulate
pumping. In some areas there is serious pollution danger to ground water
due to industrial wastes.
India continues to be highly flood-prone and drought – prone but either the
government nor the planning commission has shown sufficient imagination
to appreciate the gravity of the situation and make necessary correction to
India's water policy.

32. FISHERIES
India is the sixth largest producer of fish in the world and perhaps, second in
inland fish production fisheries play an important role in the Indian economy,
Generating employment for large coastel population about 1 million
fishermen draw their livelihood from fisheries
The contributing of the fisheries sector to gross domestic product (at current
prices) has increases from Rs. 1230 crores to Rs15,980 crores between 1980-
81 and 1998-1999. Fisheries contribute about 0.9 to 1 per cent of GDP.

33. FISHERIES
The five year plan assign high priority to the development of
fisheries because of the necessity to raise the nutritional
levels of proteins deficient Indian diet and to earn much
needed foreign exchange.
The fisheries programmes have emphasized family-based
labour-intensive inland and brackish water fisheries and
improving the harvesting from seas by stimulating the
growth of country boats, mechanized boats and deep sea
trawlers.

34. DEVELOPMENT OF FISHERIES
Despite the vast fishery resources, the production of fish
in India is far from adequate.
India produces only 9 percent of total supply of fish in Asia
whereas japans' contributed to the extent of 43 per cent
and china coming next to about 18 percent.
The importance of developing fishery resources lies in the
fact that they can act as substitute to our land resources.

35. INLAND FISHERIES
The fifth plan the central government sponsored (a) fish farmers
development agencies (FFDA’s) to popularize fish farming in tanks and ponds
and brackish water fish farmer’s development agencies (BFDAs) for
development of brackish water acqua culture.
There are nearly 15 FFDAs functioning in 17 states.
The government of India is also implementing a ‘shrimp and fish culture
project’ with world bank assistance for development of shrimp culture in the
states of A.P, Orissa and west Bengal and for increasing inland fish
production in Bihar and U.P.

36. Land policy
Land policy aims to achieve certain objectives relating to the security and
distribution of land rights, land use and land management, and access to
land, including the forms of tenure under which it is held.
A land-use policy is essentially an expression of the government's perception
of the direction to be taken on major issues related to land use and the
proposed allocation of the national land resources over a fixed period of
time.

37. A sound national land-use policy is effectively part of the enabling
environment and should cover all uses of land.
To achieve the policy objective of sustainable production and conservation
of natural resources.
Governments should pursue strategies which actively promote forms of land
use which are both attractive to the people and sustainable in terms of their
impacts on land resources.

38. In 1992, Agenda 21 recognized the need for integrated planning and
management of land resources, stating that it should be a decision making
process that "facilitates the allocation of land to the uses that provide the
greatest sustainable benefits“
Land use planning is even more crucial today, with growing pressures from
climate change, urbanization and bio fuels.

39. Every year 19.5 million hectares of agricultural land is converted to spreading
urban centres and industrial developments, often forcing farmers onto shrinking
and more marginal lands.
The uncontrolled expansion of human settlements constitutes a challenge for
sustainable land planning and management.
Particularly the concentration of people and cities in coastal areas increases the
demand for limited land resources.
Coastal areas are among the most crowded regions in the world. Demands on
land resources and the risks to sustainability are likely to intensify.

40. Role of tribal's in forest recognized
The new 1988 forest policy removes many anti-people statements of earlier
documents and recognises the symbiotic relationship between the tribal
people and forest.
It seeks to ensure that communities living with in and around forest areas,
specially the tribal's should be able to get their domestic requirement of fuel
wood, fodder, minor forest produce and construction timber from forest.

41. Depletion of forest area and the target for green cover
The new forest policy begins by stating that forests have been
depleted owing to fuel, fodder and timber needs and transfer of land
for non-forest uses and for non-forest uses and for raising revenue.

42. Forest land not to be diverted to non-forest uses
The forest department used to assign forest land to individuals
or non-government agencies for the purpose of reforestation.
But its a cognisable offence to put forest land into “non-forest
uses” which have been defined as “cultivation of tea, coffee,
spices, rubber, palms, horticultural crops or medicinal plants”.