Social Forestry

The term social forestry was first used by the National Commission on Agriculture,Government of India.In a broad sense the term signifies plantation of tress in and around the agricultural fields,along railway tracks and roadsides,river and canal banks, government and panchayat wastelands in order to take the pressure off the forests and for optimum use of the waste and fallow lands.The objectives of social forestry can be summed up as

• Improvement of environment for protecting agriculture from adverse climatic effects
• To ensure steady supply of wood, fuel,fodder and minor forest produce
• To provide employment for unskilled workers
• Reclaim wastelands
• Improvement of the standard of living of the rural population
• Improvement of the scenic beauty of rural India

Social forestry can be categorized into four groups

1. Farm forestry
2. Community Forestry
3. Extension Forestry
4. Agro-Forestry

The weaknesses noticed so far in this program are

• Lack of awareness of the benefits of social forestry among rural people
• Indiscriminate cutting of community forests
• Corruption and misuse of funds
• Unsatisfactory implementation by the state governments

However it must be noted that it is one of those less highlighted yet highly successful programmes undertaken by the government.A visit through the roads of rural India is the documentary evidence of the success of this mammoth task.However considering very little forest coverage of the country the program has to be implemented with more enthusiasm and better public cooperation.