Ghats in Varanasi

• But efforts to increase global tree cover to limit climate change have skewed towards erecting plantations of fast-growing trees.
• The reasons are obvious: planting trees can demonstrate results a lot quicker than natural forest restoration.

Plantations in colonial-era India

• Britain extended its influence over India and controlled much of its affairs via the East India Company from the mid-18th century onwards.
• Britain needed great quantities of timber to lay railway sleepers and build ships in order to transport the cotton, rubber and tea it took from India.
• Eucalyptus and other exotic trees which hadn’t evolved in India were introduced from around 1790.
• Similarly, pine has spread over much of the Himalayas and displaced native oak trees while teak has replaced sal, a native hardwood, in central India.

Restoring forests in India today

• India has pledged to restore about 21 million hectares of forest by 2030 under the Bonn Challenge.
• A progress report released by the government of India and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 2018 claimed around 10 million hectares was under restoration.
• Several assemblies (known as Gram Sabhas) in the Gadchiroli district of central India has restored degraded forests and managed them as a sustainable source of tendu leaves, which are used to wrap bidi (Indian tobacco).

Future forests

• The Indian government’s definition of “forest” still encompasses plantations of a single tree species, orchards and even bamboo, which actually belongs to the grass family.
• This means that biennial forest surveys cannot quantify how much natural forest has been restored, or convey the consequences of displacing native trees with competitive plantation species or identify if these exotic trees have invaded natural grasslands which have then been falsely recorded as restored forests.
• Natural forest regeneration and plantations for timber and fuel should both be encouraged, but with due consideration of how other ecosystems and people will be affected.
• Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue.