The controversy over eucalyptus planting in Kerala

Sub: Environment

Sec: Species in news

Tag: eucalyptus

Context:

The Kerala government allowed the Kerala Forest Development Corporation (KFDC) to plant eucalyptus trees for financial reasons in 2024-2025.
Environmentalists protested, citing potential adverse effects on forests and increased human-animal conflicts.
The head of the Forest Force clarified that planting eucalyptus inside forests was not permitted.
On May 20, the government revised the order to limit the cutting of exotic tree species only to KFDC-controlled lands.
The government’s revised order and eco-restoration efforts aim to align forestry practices with ecological and environmental sustainability goals.

About KFDC and Its Plantations:

Establishment: January 24, 1975.
The area under KDFC: Approximately 7,000 hectares of plantations.
Species: Includes Eucalyptus grandis, Acacia auriculiformis, Acacia mangium, Acacia crassicarpa, Acacia pycnantha (also known as wattle), Alnus nepalensis, Casuarina equisetifolia, and Pinus patula.
Rotation Ages of these species: Eucalyptus (9 years), Acacia auriculiformis (18 years), Acacia mangium (7 years).
At the end of each cycle, plantations approved by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change are felled and replanted with species from a management plan.
Experts assess soil quality and consult with the Kerala Forest Research Institute. Exotic species plantations are being converted to indigenous species for ecological benefits.

Issue with the Order:

2021 Eco-restoration Policy: Aimed to address invasive species and natural forest depletion, which increased human-wildlife conflict. It suggested replacing exotic plants with native species to support wildlife.
Chinnakanal Example: A study indicated that replacing eucalyptus with native species could provide food for wild elephants, reducing human-animal conflicts.
Policy Conflict: Environmental activists argued that the order to plant eucalyptus contradicted the eco-restoration policy, which prioritized eradicating invasive species and restoring natural habitats.

What is Ecological Restoration?

The UN define ecosystem restoration as “the process of halting and reversing degradation, resulting in improved ecosystem services and recovered biodiversity”.
In practice, a particular restoration can involve quite different transitions, depending on what best suits the local conditions.

Eco-restoration Efforts:

Goal: Phase out industrial plantations of eucalyptus, acacia, wattle, and pine by 2024, replacing them with natural forests.
Examples:
- Marayoor Sandal Division, Idukki (2019): Removal of exotic species on 108 hectares led to the restoration of active water streams after 30 years, supported by UNDP, NABARD, and CAMPA.

About the Eucalyptus tree:

Eucalyptus is an efficient biomass producer, which can produce more biomass than any other tree species.
It is widely adopted by international wood companies and has become the ‘Green Gold’ of the pulp industry.
It consumes less water per unit biomass produced than many other species of trees but due to the result of its fast growth and high biomass production, Eucalyptus species consume more water than other, less productive species.
Growing Eucalyptus in low rainfall areas becomes the reason for adverse environmental impacts due to competition for water with other species and hence it increases the incidence of allelopathy. Generally, the areas which receive an annual rainfall of less than about 400 mm are not ideal for Eucalyptus wood production purposes due to this reason.
The eucalyptus tree is one of the champions of biomass production. These trees lend themselves particularly well to genetic environment and biotechnologies, and so to farming intensification.
However, eucalyptus reduces the water table significantly in the area where it grows apart from that it reduces the fertility of the soil nearby. Hence it is considered an ecological disaster.

Source: TH