In the context of that reality, understanding the journey of someone like Jadav Payeng is essential. Belonging to a ‘mising’ tribal community of Assam, in the late 1970s he realised that nature around him was changing and on its way hurting objects of its own creation. The island of Majuli of where he’s a resident has faced the brunt of climate change first hand, yearly floods and erosion affecting not only human life and property but the rich flora and fauna and causing the island to shrink over time.

In the summer of ’79, he was deeply affected by the sight of hundreds of snakes washed up dead on the riverbed, he couldn’t imagine a similar fate for any other living being and decided to do something about it. On the sand bar, which didn’t even qualify for Government’s green initiatives owing to lesser levels of fertility, he started by planting bamboo trees, as it could sustain the harsh conditions.

He has lost count of the number of trees he has planted in more than four decades since then, estimates running up to ‘hundreds of thousands’ had shocked even the forest department. Jadav Payeng didn’t seek any permission to plant a forest, he had carried on with the ‘mising tribes’ tradition of honouring nature’. The dense groves that are a fully functional forest ecosystem today, sprawling over 550 hectares, is commonly known as the Molai forest, named after him. His dedication, he hopes has been able to set an example of what an individual can do to change the environment. Commenting on the size of his project, the ‘self-styled naturalist’ said, “It’s not as if I did it all alone. You plant one or two trees, and they have to seed. And once they seed, the wind knows how to plant them, the birds here know how to sow them, cows know, elephants know, even the Brahmaputra river knows. The entire ecosystem knows.”

In 2010, a Jorhat based freelance journalist and wildlife photographer Jintu Kalita wrote about Jadav Payeng, in an Assamese Newspaper, the very first news piece on him that brought him to the limelight. It has led to hundreds of stories and news articles, books and chapters on him as well as numerous documentaries on his work. In a public function arranged by School of Environmental Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi, Payeng was named ‘the Forest Man of India’ by the then Vice-Chancellor of the Institute.

In 2015, he was honoured with the Padma Shri and has received honorary doctorates from numerous universities since then. People from around the globe visit Molai Forest today, to see more than 120 species of migratory birds and Elephants, Tigers and Rhinos that visit from the Kaziranga National Park and a slew of other flora and fauna that call the forest home, some even native to the river basin.

Jadav Payeng is grateful for the honour and accolades, which come quite often these days, at the same time worried about this newfound fame which along with everything, brings poachers and smugglers to the forest. As the forest expands, he is concerned if he alone can continue to look after it and hopes the recognition he has found would actually help direct governments and organisations towards the cause.

In a 2013 documentary, titled ‘Forest Man’, by William D McMaster, he talks about the expansion of his reforestation project to the entire island of Majuli. To make it more economically viable and help with the development of its population, Payeng proposes the idea of planting Coconut trees which would reap monetary benefits and its stronghold over the land help against erosion. While Payeng’s plans haven’t yet received official status, the state government has been positive towards the expansion project and has recommended the island several times for UNESCO heritage site status, without much success. The due recognition could help spearhead campaigns that would essentially speed up the reclamation and reforestation project along with its protection.

The islanders, who in the past had termed our forest man insane, weren’t always supportive of his project. They are still fearful of the vastness and concerned if it would ever have negative impacts upon them. Jadav Payeng has been able to uphold a staunch protest to all such claims while making people aware that humans and our collective action causes more threat to the environment than they could ever cause. He would rather sacrifice himself than letting someone harm the forest.

Fame hasn’t changed his life on the island. He still lives in a traditional ‘chang ghar’ along with his family of four, gets up early every day, rides a boat to reach his forest, tends to the plants and replants new seeds and weeds out poisonous varieties, the process has gotten easier but he continues with the same dedication that started him on his journey some 40 years ago. He takes good care of his health, drinks a medicinal concoction of herbs collected from the forest itself, every day. He is brave, fearless and determined to do better for our environment till his last breath. When asked about climate change, he suggests humans to learn and teach the art of loving nature as much as we love ourselves, no other trick would ever compare to what we could achieve by treating nature right, the way it ought to be.

For this generation of youth, very much including me, whose war cry to heed to the climate crisis and help heal the earth has been louder than ever, Jadav Payeng’s journey and efforts to singlehandedly do better by our environment will always be heroic. In the power play of our world, biggest of our democracies either has done too little to reverse the climate crisis or shy away from accepting this theory of accelerated disaster in the interest of their ruthless capitalisation and material desires. Multinational organisations and NGOs haven’t necessarily been successful in changing the dialogue.

Understanding through Payeng, his lesson of ‘aatmanirbharta’ (self-reliance) and approach towards natures dilemma is truly empowering. To rely on government entities then is a big mistake, time for starting on a journey of corrective measures to heal our earth is now. Resources could be limited and the path could be difficult, but we all have to commit to restoring our home, our common heritage.

The ‘hero’ culture of our times, especially in countries like India, has often been problematic. Having said that, we need to start celebrating heroes like Jadav Payeng who has single-handedly stood up against privilege, against economic resourcefulness to understand the human impact on the environment, to reverse centuries of ignorance towards our better half, nature. Keeping someone like Payeng in our conscience will motivate and help gear up the fight against human actions that affect nature. Nature will always be unpredictable in its ways, either by love or war, but if we ethically and morally oblige ourselves to take care of it, nature would inadvertently look after us. Jadav Payeng’s fruit of labour and dedication has already led the way, we just needn’t falter away.

REFERENCES

GHOSH, AMITAV, THE GREAT DERANGEMENT: CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE UNTHINKABLE, PENGUIN BOOKS, INDIA, 2016.

MCCARTHY, JULIE (2017), A LIFETIME OF PLANTING TREES ON A REMOTE RIVER ISLAND: MEET INDIA’S FOREST MAN, npr.org

KANNADASAN, AKILA (2019), MEET JADAV PAYENG, INDIA’S FOREST MAN, WHO CREATED 550 HECTARES OF FOREST SINGLE-HANDEDLY, www.thehindu.com

MCMASTER D, WILLIAM (2014), FOREST MAN (documentary), YouTube

Featured Image: Jitu Kalita

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The images of Australian bush fire is still fresh in people’s minds across the world. The tragedy led to a loss of insurmountable flora and fauna. Over 30,000 forest fires were recorded last year in India itself, and most of these forest fires account to human activity. It’s a strange reality where several conventions have taken place from the 1970s, beginning with United Nations conference on the human environment, often known as Stockholm conference, it was for the first time that the world began to take a serious interest in environmental issues at large, however, even after 50 years of the first initiate in the form of Stockholm conference our world is battling with shifts in weather patterns driven by humans since the industrial revolution. Let’s take a look to understand what causes forest fires. 

What causes forest fires?

Forest fire is the most common source of potential damage or hazard to Forests all over the world. They threaten not only the forest but the ecosystem that exists in it they are capable of destroying the balance that exists in the ecology of the forest ( flora and fauna). The gradual deterioration of functional characteristics of leaves due to no rains in summers often leads to flames which are caused by the slightest sparks The Himalayan forests, particularly, Garhwal Himalayas are burning regularly during a previous couple of summers, with colossal loss of vegetation cover of that region.

Do forest fires have only natural causes?

There are both man-made and natural reasons as to why the forests are burning around the world during recent times. Natural reasons vary from lightning which sets trees on fires to high atmospheric temperatures and dryness with less or no humidity which lead to favourable circumstances of forest fires. Main reasons range from cigarettes, bidi, lighter or any such item coming in contact with any inflammable material which may be present in the ecosystem. Forest fires increase CO2 levels within the atmosphere, contributing to the atmospheric phenomenon and global climate change. Besides, ashes destroy much of the nutrients and erode the soil, causing flooding and landslides. We can say that causes of forest fires could either be environmental which is beyond our control and human-related which can be controlled or contained. The causes of man-made forest fires are usually – The main causes of man-made forest fires include the following:

1) Agricultural activities like burning grass or stubble.

2) Throwing of burning cigarettes or matches.

3) The lighting of fires in restricted areas.

4) Residential activities like the use of electrical tools that cause sparks and burn of wastes.

5) Short-circuit of power lines passing through forests, among others. 

But how do we prevent forest fires?

Forest fires as we discussed are both dangerous and threatening to both us and the wildlife around us. We live in equilibrium with the wildlife in this world our mere existence is supported by the pillars of the ecosystem that we are a part of so preventing things such as forest fires that threaten the destruction to both flora fauna is our duty. One of the easy ways in which we can prevent it is by complying with the rules and regulations that exist to safeguard our forests Many municipalities have laws governing burning of all kinds including the time of day, time of year, and what substances can be burned, by following these rules we can reduce man-made fires also if we are on a camping trip we can check the weather it is never a good idea to engage in any type of burning if there are high winds. Wind can act as both an accelerant and may spread the hearth. Smoking in the woods may be appealing to the larger section of our society that favours camping trips but we should keep in mind that we have to carefully extinguish any smoking materials that are on us. We must not burn dangerous things like aerosol cans, pressurised containers, glass or aluminium cans, as they could explode, shatter and/or create harmful fumes or dust. Wildfire prevention techniques are often difficult when most of the people do not realise the harm involved. Fireworks and crackers should also never be used unless there is a wide-open space with no flammable materials nearby. Also, ask your local ordinances as many restrict fireworks altogether. We must also follow state laws and city ordinances regarding backyard burn disposal, remove any potentially hazardous material from the surrounding area of your burn before you get started and set up a non-flammable parameter the same way you would with a campfire.

Conclusion 

We are at a turning point in our century, we cannot afford to see our ecosystem get destroyed by anthropogenic causes, what we need to do is, focus on is sustainable development that does not take away the resources of the future generations, we must keep the upkeep of our ecosystem as our top priority and work together as a community and to look after our forests, we must educate our children about the benefits of forests and wildlife and the role it plays to maintain our ecological cycle. At the end of the day, the world is a global village and we cannot look away from it. 

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With the similar objective of promoting investments through transparent and expedient approvals by implementation of an online system, further delegation, rationalization and standardization of the process as part of ease of doing business in March 2020, the environment ministry proposed a draft notification to replace the 2006 EIA. Currently, the notification is at the stage of public comments. This draft raised key concerns among the communities as it primarily provides for a reduction of time period from 30 days to 20 days for the public to submit their responses during a public hearing for any application seeking environmental clearance.

It also requires that the public hearing process be completed in 40 days compared to 45 days under the 2006 notification. In addition to this projects can receive clearance post-facto, i.e. a project operating in violation of the EPA can now apply for clearance and it also increased the discretionary power of state government to waive the process of getting clearance for strategic projects (where it can include long list of projects).

Background of Environment Impact Assessment and Public Hearing

Saving our planet, lifting people out of poverty, advancing economic growth… these are one and the same fight. We must connect the dots between climate change, water scarcity, energy shortages, global health, food security and women’s empowerment. Solutions to one problem must be solutions for all.

– Ban Ki-Moon

India issued the country’s first Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) notification in 1994, under the Environment (Protection) Act (EPA) of 1986. This was later replaced by a modified draft in 2006. In both forms, the EIA performs the important function of assessing and regulating the impact of new projects on the environment and empowers the public to participate in the process of approvals.

The Environmental Impact Assessment report, Environment Management Plan and details of public consultations have to be submitted by the project proponents to the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) for appraisal of the project. The 2006 notification made clearance of a four-step procedure with screening, scoping, public consultation, and appraisal as mandatory steps to be followed by project proponents before clearance could be granted. After these four steps have been followed, the recommendation for acceptance or rejection of EC is sent to the regulatory authority, which is the MoEF for category ‘A’ and State Level Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) for category B projects. Public consultation is the third step in the process of environmental clearance.

The enactment of this procedure was influenced by series of environmental problems which can be exemplified through the cases such as Bichri village where many villages, agricultural land water of the wells, surface water, cattle, and human beings were badly affected because of the industrial operation in the district of the Udaipur, state of Rajasthan and Tanneries case where public hearing before setting up of the factory was considered as an important measure. In the Samarth Trust Case, the Delhi high court had considered EIAs “a part of participatory justice in which the voice is given to the voiceless and it is like a jan sunwai, where the community is the jury”.

Sustainable Development

It is often argued that the process of environment clearance is leading to piling up of files and delays in projects. Developers complain that the EIA regime dampened the spirit of liberalization, leading to red-tapism and rent-seeking. This is the present state of implementation of existing mechanisms in Kerala, the administration took 1,049 days to clear the construction of the IT park project of M/s L&T Tech Park Ltd, instead of 105 days.

Amidst this, in the case of Vellore Citizens Welfare Forum vs UOI  it is held that companies are vital for the country’s development, but having regard to pollution, the doctrine of ‘Sustainable Development’ must be adopted by them as a balancing concept. If final clearance is granted after taking into account the environmental, social, and health concerns, then it can be said that the government is using this process as a tool to ensure sustainability which implies that the delay in clearance should be encountered while balancing it with the above concerns.

Reduced capacity to clearance and administrative inefficiency in granting clearance was often highlighted right from Sterlite to LG polymers’ case which has shown us the dampening spirit of the government towards already existing environmental laws.

Conclusion

A solution to development should also solve the problem of mounting environmental challenges. Introduction of environmental impact assessment is the hallmark of participatory governance in the country and dilution of this in any way hampers the primary aim of promoting a sustainable environment. Encountering bureaucratic inefficiency would always be a welcoming step but granting discretionary powers to the same authority would always raise concerns among the communities.

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