Involve village chiefs in Save Singda Movement
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: May 18, 2022 -

AS the minister in charge of power, forest, environment & climate change, and agriculture departments, Thongam Biswajit will have to constantly monitor changes associated with technological advancement, which necessitates regular supply of power, and notable degradation of the environment due to rampant deforestation activities in the hills.

With certain sections of the society seemingly Unconcerned in-spite of the serious ecological imbalance, the young minister shall have to lead from the front and work at the ground unlike his predecessors who accorded more importance to file processing.

Having inspected institutions set up to aid the farmers achieve the cherished goal of self-sufficiency in food-grain production within a week of taking over charge as the minister of power, forest, environment & climate change, and agriculture departments, Biswajit's physical involvement in the tree plantation drive in the catchment area of Singda Dam on Monday could be construed as display of commitment to contribute his mite in lessening the imminent adverse impacts of global warming.

Barring stray reports of landslides occurring in some hilly areas as and when heavy rainfall lashes the state, as in the present case, brief spell of heat-wave during the summer months and near drought-like situation when lean season sets in, Manipur has till date been fortunate enough not to have experienced calamitous destruction caused to lives and properties.

However, it would be a wishful thinking to assume that the state would continue to enjoy pleasant weather condition as the global warming phenomenon is already having its effect across the world. Considering such a threat perception, minister Biswajit has tremendous responsibility to keep unforeseeable things under control.

Thus, the launch of 'Save Singda Movement', which is obviously aimed at regeneration of the forest cover to ensure perennial existence of the source of water for Singda Dam project, suggests that minister Biswajit is both aware of the future consequences and has the enthusiasm to do everything at his disposal.

Significance of the campaign could also be gauged from the fact that the Singda project often ceases operation citing low water level, which was not the case some 10 years back.

With the catchment areas increasingly bearing barren look in the recent past, it could be safely stated that those communities settling in the dam's periphery or along the catchment area have been living under the impression that impact of their deforestation action would only be felt by those living in the plains.

Such a fallacious concept will only be realised when massive landslides occur as a consequence of randomly felling trees and for belittling the clarion tall for afforestation activities.

Nevertheless, at this juncture it would not be beneficial to any community trying to find who is at fault. Rather, the government's focus should be towards initiating widespread tree plantation campaign and reach out to all the communities to turn the campaign into a mass movement.

As the 'Save Singda Movement' is an endeavour of the forest department to replenish the Singda river catchment area in coordination with stakeholders of different sectors, half the battle could be won if the department succeeds in bringing on board village chiefs and hill-based CSOs, like in the 'war on drugs' campaign.