Not the right track

Production forestry is definitely not the right way to go about conserving forests (“Smoke in the woods”, April 9). Moreover, measuring productivity of forests in terms of the immediate monetary value of goods they provide is a sign of ignorance of their immense climatological and conservational benefits. Importance must be given to preserving endemic and natural forests in an area. On a recent trip to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, I was delighted to see majestic tropical evergreen trees, surrounded by several layers of smaller foliage. But when I ventured in, I found “plantations” of tobacco trees with hardly any canopy around and supporting no wildlife. I was shocked to find that these plantations are considered as forests. If an expansion of artificial plantations is the future envisaged by the draft Forest Policy, it will sound the death knell for our forests.

Rishika Malik,

Gurugram, Haryana