Hard Knocks

In 2009, the India State of Forest report made a suspiciously heartening claim

In 2009, the India State of Forest report made a suspiciously heartening claim

In 2009, the India State of Forest report made a suspiciously heartening claim: that forest cover in the country had expanded by about 5 per cent over the previous decade. Conservation biologists were quick to point out, however, that this figure didn’t make a distinction between native and managed forests, and that native forests were in fact being rapidly denuded, at the rate of about 2.7 per cent annually. A study by ecologists Raman Kumar, Ghazala Shahabuddin and Ajith Kumar, published in Biological Conservation in March, brings home why the distinction is a crucial one. They compared how four large woodpecker species were doing in Himalayan sal forests, in natural forests, old and young managed forests, and teak plantations. They found that while the populations flourished in natural forests, they declined in the managed ones, which were unable to sustain them during breeding season, and fared worst in the teak plantations.

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Shruti Ravindran