The book attempts to codify important interventions to reorient the present forest management practices in the state of Karnataka in India. It critically looks at the present status of forests and how a resource once plentiful stands degraded and has lost its functional efficiency. There is also a detailed assessment of the threats to forest and wildlife conservation and practical ways to address these challenges. The book argues that optimizing productivity from forests and addressing the underlying livelihood issues of the forest-dependent communities hold the key to an effective forest and wildlife conservation. Further it also evaluates past efforts to regenerate forests, various afforestation schemes and shortlists recommendations for a successful nursery and plantation program. Acknowledging farm forestry as the only practical way to achieve the objective of increasing forest and tree cover to one third of geographical area of the country, the book comes out with a well-defined strategy and action plan for a successful farm-forestry campaign. Recognizing the significance of people’s participation, the book suggests ways to meaningfully involve people in forest and wildlife conservation. Finally, the book anvils a comprehensive action plan and a way forward for holistic and effective management of the forestry sector.

The book traces the history of forestry since the middle of the 19th century in the erstwhile territorial units that constitute the present state of Karnataka, in India. It provides glimpses of the forest policy and management of the British Indian government which had laid the foundations of scientific forestry in the Indian subcontinent. A chronological account of the development of national forest policies, plans, and strategies in post-independent India has also been given in the context of their impact on forest management in the states. The book dwells comprehensively on multifarious aspects of forestry including the challenges faced by a forester in a situation of increasing demand and shrinking forest. It highlights the strengths and weaknesses of the forest administration and recommends strategies to protect the remaining natural forest and to increase the tree cover everywhere to effectively confront the specter of environmental catastrophes facing the planet earth. The book has brought out the inseparable and intrinsic relationship of mutual interdependence between forest and water – two of the most important natural resources on which the future of mankind depends, and calls for urgent action. With detailed data, analysis, and inferences derived with an open mind, the book forms a reference document for the present and future foresters. Problems of the forestry sector in the developing world are similar. Although the book focuses on the forestry scenario in Karnataka, lessons learned and strategies recommended for forest conservation are relevant across a larger landscape, with similar challenges and problems.

The book traces the evolution of wildlife management in the state of Karnataka in India. It provides glimpses of how the concept of wildlife management grew as an offshoot of forest management and evolved into an overarching policy initiative. It presents a chronological account of the development of national wildlife policies, plans and strategies and their impact on the wildlife management in the states. The book highlights the events that unfolded as production-centric management gave way to wildlife-centric management in certain designated forest areas, known as Protected Areas. It outlines a significant aspect of wildlife conservation in the state—namely, the immense contribution of a ‘conservation-oriented forest management’ approach that the Forest Department has adopted since the 1980s for management of all types of forests in the state. The challenges faced by wildlife officers in handling matters related to man-animal conflict, rehabilitation of people from protected areas and forest protection with possible suggestions to resolve them are related. The need to take cautious steps in strengthening wildlife tourism and research is emphasized. The book also examines the relative merits of the forest laws and wildlife laws, and calls for wider application of the wildlife laws to protect the vanishing forests, especially in the eastern plains.

This book addresses the challenges and opportunities faced by the world’s forests posed by climate change, conservation objectives, and sustainable development needs including bioenergy, outlining the research and other efforts that are needed to understand these issues, along with the options and difficulties for dealing with them. It contains sections on sustainable forestry & conservation; forest resources worldwide; forests, forestry and climate change; the economics of forestry; tree breeding & commercial forestry; biotechnological approaches; genomic studies with forest trees; bio-energy, lignin & wood; and forest science, including ecological studies. The chapters are contributed by prominent organisations or individuals with an established record of achievement in these areas, and present their ideas on these topics with the aim of providing a ready source of information and guidance on these topics for politicians, policy makers and scientists for many years to come.

The book, ‘FORESTS OF KARNATAKA - WHY AND HOW OF WHERE THEY ARE,’ attempts at understanding the diverse forests of Karnataka, their current status, and the primary factors that led to their transformation from their pristine (original and un-spoilt) states to the present states. Although formation of different types of forest depends fundamentally upon the general climatic and soil-related factors which vary from place to place, the present conditions of the forests are to a considerable extent reflective of the treatments meted out to them over the centuries. Past treatments of the forests include past forest management practices such as forest reservation, logging, clear-felling, raising plantations, forest protection, etc. as well as other biotic factors such as shifting cultivation, expansion of agriculture, heavy withdrawals of biomass, introduction of plantation crops, recurring fires, over-grazing, encroachments, etc. As a matter of fact, we now have different types of forest in different parts of the state depending upon the nature and intensity of the past interventions. The book while analysing various factors that resulted in degradation of a vast majority of the state’s forests has also suggested ways and means of how the existing forests can be protected from further degradation, enabling them to recover and rejuvenate.

Focusing on Karnataka in India, this study examines the implications of the model of development sought to be introduced in the entire country through the governance reforms of the post-1991 period — a model that bypasses Panchayat Raj institutions (PRIs), resulting in a majority of the population being left outside the purview of development. These changes in governance resulted in, among other things, the prolific growth of NGOs in the country, particularly in Karnataka. Explaining how community-based organizations (CBOs) set up by these NGOs have made their way into rural Karnataka, this book expresses concern over how they now perform functions that rightly belong to PRIs following the 73rd Amendment to the Constitution which devolves 29 functions to local self-government, passing on the funds they receive from the centre to their district and village branches, though these should actually go to PRIs. The book argues that elected representatives have been put in place by the people at all levels, and it is they who should take decisions regarding the development of this country. In the post-liberalisation period, governance through institutions that eschew political decentralisation is fraught with hazards. Not only will avenues for the expression of people’s wishes be lacking in such a scenario, but there will also be increasing inequality, resulting in a skewed development. The inclusiveness which the present government seeks will elude them unless they restore and strengthen Panchayat Raj institutions.