"It was a wonderful experience interacting with you and appreciate the way you have planned and executed the whole publication process within the agreed timelines.”
Subrat SaurabhAuthor of Kuch Woh Pal
The book, ‘Changing Land Uses – Shrinking Streams and Carbon Sinks’, attempts at providing an overview of the calamitous consequences of deforestation on the world climate. Deforestation worldwide has been lowering the carbon sequestration potential of forests and increasing the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere. The planet is already warmer by 1.10 C with reference to the preindustrial era and we are facing frequent and destructive climatic catastrophes, namely, storms, sea surges, floods, droughts, etc. Several perennial streams have become seasonal owing to deforestation in the catchments. With special reference to Karnataka’s Western Ghats forests, the book carries several investigative stories highlighting how notified and un-notified forests have been plundered for a variety of reasons. Diverse land tenures in the Kodagu district of Karnataka and the administration’s failure to regulate the rights and privileges have resulted in the loss of tree cover. Natural forests in different land tenures have been allowed to be degraded for quid pro quo. In addition, forests have been diverted for many developmental projects such as the widening of roads, construction of reservoirs for power and irrigation, the transmission of power, establishment of rail connectivity, etc. leading to changing land use, the disappearance of perennial streams, and loss of carbon sinks. It is high time that states acted in conserving natural forests irrespective of the ownership, and the country as a whole must grow trees over 26 million hectares of degraded land by 2030 as pledged in the Paris climate accord of 2015.
Brij Kishore Singh
Brij Kishore Singh is an Indian Forest Service officer of the 1976 batch of the Karnataka cadre. He had managed forest divisions as Deputy Conservator of Forests at Gulbarga, Shivamogga, and Kollegal. In the Government of India he served as Conservator of Forests (Central) in the Eastern Regional Office, Ministry of Environment and Forests, Bhubaneswar, where he monitored forest diversion cases in Odisha, West Bengal, Sikkim, Bihar, Jharkhand, and the union territory of Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
At the state level in the Government of Karnataka, he served as CEO, the Lake Development Authority, Administrator, of Command Area Development Authority, Bhadra (Shivamogga), Managing Director, of Karnataka State Forest Industries Corporation, Managing Director, of Karnataka Forest Development Corporation and Chief Wildlife Warden, Karnataka. He reached the apex post of Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Head of Forest Force), Karnataka, before superannuating on 30-06-2013.
Post superannuation, he is engaged in the evaluation and assessment of Protected Areas, including Tiger Reserves across the country. He teaches ‘Forest Economics’ to range forest officer trainees in Karnataka Forest Academy, Dharwad. This is his fourth book, the other three being Destroy Forests, Destroy Life, Economics for Foresters, and Forest rights Act – Accelerated Deforestation.
