McCluskiegunj Forest Department Needs To Wake up.

While looking at old photographs taken years ago in the jungles of McCluskiegunj, I could find a huge difference between the photos of the eighties and recent ones. The forest. That’s the difference. It reflects how in the past forty years McCluskiegunj has lost most of its beauty.

I began thinking of the various ways that made the Gunj almost bald. Some reasons that were public were also known to me. Such as; huge trees were cut and stripped in the forest illegally and were sold by the powerful locals earlier when the forest was dense. But later when the Maoist arrived in around 1987 they began looking after the jungles and gradually put a stop to it. They needed the jungles for hiding. Those who disobeyed were punished physically/monetarily.

In the past decades the population of the Gunj has increased tremendously. Most of the new population are villagers from nearby areas out of the Gunj. They build huts/houses on forest, railway and no man’s land, cultivate a bit and keep cattle (goats, cows, buffaloes, pigs). Most of them are daily labourers, vendors, drivers, and many in the illegal alcohol business having the latest bikes and jazzy mobile phones per person in the family but can’t afford toilets and cooking gas.

These villagers treat the forest as their father’s property. They need wood to build, they need firewood, they need fencing to protect their vegetable fields, and they need to feed their cattle. They get all their needs for free from the forests.

The Forest Department has failed to protect the forests, the wild animals such as the deer, wild boar, bear, leopard and tiger over the years and is still in the same situation so now the remaining forest is being attacked. No leopards or tigers have been reported of for over half a century.

Though local residents do inform Forest Officials via verbal conversations over phones, sms and WhatsApp with pictures of people taking freshly cut trees. But no action is taken so far.

There is need to educate the villagers of the area to use dried leaves and twigs or even dried and fallen branches or trees as firewood if they prefer not to use government subsidized cooking gas. They should also be made aware of the law concerning forests and wild animals. Notice Boards, Warning Boards etc should be put at areas where hardly any forest remains. The Forest Department MUST do their job.