IMPHAL, March 1: Today hill slopes are being deliberately deforested and used widely for poppy plantation, Andro MLA Th Shyamkumar observed in the House today raising a cut motion during the Discussion and Voting on Demands for Grants for Environment and Forest department.
He said trees are being cut down and after clearing the slopes of the tree roots, poppy plants are planted.
Once, the poppy plants are cultivated, the hill slopes suffer from erosion during the rainy season as was the case in the recent Thoubal flood, he said. At the same time some people continue to cut off hills just for the soil, he said.
He observed in the house that during the recent Thoubal flood, the flood water had deposited large amount of mud from the hills inside the houses.
If all these are not checked and controlled in time, the floods will be a lot more dangerous from the one witnessed last year, he observed.
Shyamkumar said he and his team had trekked the Nongmaijing Hill range recently and found widespread cultivation of poppy plants there. He said the plantation is beautiful even more than the view of the Dzuko lily, it makes one emotional.
He charged the Forest department of allowing such plantation, and added, if such a trend is to continue, there is no need for the department to exist in the hills.
He said instead of trees being planted, we only see more and more trees being cut down.
The State has hills on all sides, but we cannot see any hill fully covered by trees, he observed.
Once there was a time when the people used to draw water from the streams trickling down the hills, however, today, it is not so, he continued.
Shyamkumar continued, he had on several counts urged the concerned minister and the authorities against allowing washing of sand inside rivers and to stop sand quarrying from river banks; nonetheless such practices continue unabated.
He said even the police allow all such activities after collecting some illegal fine.
BJP MLA Kh Joykisan also raised a cut motion on the demand observing that there is very less visibility of forest guards in the hills.
He urged the concerned authorities to recruit more guards if necessary.
Oinam MLA Dr I Ibohalbi also observed that if we want to save the Loktak Lake, there is a need to clean-up the buffer zone and not just the core zone.
The most important aspect is the siltation from the rivers feeding the lake, he said.
Dr Ibohalbi also drew the attention of the Loktak Development Agency chairman that the buffer zone of the lake is full of phumdis helping in more siltation in the lake.
He also observed that more than 80 paris of land are said to be encroached upon and hence the department need to check them so as not allow forest land to become patta land.