Support community forest initiatives, Supreme Court urges Centre

NEW DELHI: The environment protection model implemented through community efforts the people of a small village, Piplantri, in Rajasthan's Rajsamand, was projected by the SC on Wednesday as the ideal way to protect environment, promote gender equality, and foster economic growth.

While asking environment ministry, as well as state govts, to encourage implementation of similar models across country by rendering financial help, a bench of Justices B R Gavai, S V N Bhatti and Sandeep Mehta narrated the inspiring story of the small village that provided green cover in Rajasthan, known for its unforgiving conditions, especially in the Thar desert.

Writing the judgment, Justice Mehta, who hails from Rajasthan, said when Piplantri sarpanch Shyam Sundar Paliwal's daughter died tragically, he introduced the practice of planting 111 trees for the birth of every girl child in the village, a practice that got replicated in surrounding areas.

The result - over 40 lakh trees were plants, which helped raise the water table, cooled the climate by 3-4 degrees, improved local biodiversity, and protected land from erosion and desertification. Planting of indigenous trees provided economic benefit to people and significantly increased female to male ratio as villagers celebrated the birth of every girl child, which was resented earlier.

Directing Rajasthan govt to identify 25,000 'sacred groves' in the state and take steps for their protection, SC said, "These groves are rapidly vanishing due to increasing demand for timber, urban expansion, deforestation for agriculture, and the pressure to extract natural resources."

SC suggested to Centre and states to "support these (Piplantri) models (of community forests) by providing financial assistance, creating enabling policies, and offering technical guidance to communities".

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