The Daily Populous Tuesday May 21st, 2024 night edition
Authored by weather.com and submitted by LivinInBliss

India's forest cover saw a consistent increase over the last 15 years, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) said at the recently concluded United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF) in the US.

An Indian delegation, led by Jitendra Kumar, Director General of Forests and Special Secretary, MoEFCC, participated in the 19th Session of the UNFF, held at the UN Headquarters in New York from May 6 to May 10.

The delegation apprised the UNFF that the consistent increase in forest cover was due to the "country's significant advancements in forest conservation and sustainable forest management," MoEFCC said on Sunday.

"Globally, India ranks third in the net gain, in average annual forest area, between 2010 and 2020," it added.

The Ministry further noted that "biodiversity and wildlife conservation" is of high priority for India. It can be seen in the "expanded network of protected areas to over a thousand wildlife sanctuaries, national parks, tiger reserves, biosphere reserves, and other wildlife habitats."

Advertisement Recently, the country also marked 50 years of Project Tiger and 30 years of Project Elephant, underscoring its commitment to species conservation and habitat protection.

The delegation also highlighted the creation of the International Big Cat Alliance, along with the introduction of the 'Green Credit Programme,' to incentivise entities to take up tree plantation and restoration of degraded forest lands.

The UNFF 19 also witnessed a declaration by participating countries to take urgent and accelerated actions to halt deforestation and forest degradation and to prevent land degradation.

The above article has been published from a wire agency with minimal modifications to the headline and text.

photo-manipulation on May 20th, 2024 at 19:39 UTC »

Oopsy.. body fuhrer by greenwashing.

None of the forest cover has increased. What has changed is the definition of forest, and plantations have been added as natural forests are destroyed. This is all the more dangerous because in the past, the loss of natural forest was compensated by planting the same native species in the same area nearby.

However, natural forests are now being replaced by forests that are considered profitable monocultures. Eucalyptus and other invasive plants are taking over the country, seemingly hidden under the canopy of dense forest cover by the despotic monarchy. Biodiversity zones like Arunachal & Andaman are being destroyed in exchange for afforestation in arid desert areas with minimum biodiversity like Rajasthan thus destroying the biodiversity of both the areas.

Similarly, read the internal provisions of FCA 2023 and all this grrenwashing will become clear. It is very easy to lose sight of the hype of this medieval regime if we search our brains for the facts.

kutkun on May 20th, 2024 at 19:11 UTC »

This is the best news.