Dimapur, March 28 (EMN): A conservation group has called for more attention on finding solutions to address some of the urgent challenges in the way of balanced, productive and sustainable ecosystem in Nagaland.
One of the major challenges is unchecked human activity that is interfering with the integrity of the ecosystem, according to a conservation group called Green-Sons.
The chairman of Green-Sons, Jess Murry, submitted an article which was received here on March 28. The article offered perspectives concerning conservation and ecosystem.
According to the article, the result of cumulative activities of farmers, households and industries all of which are trying to improve their socio-economic wellbeing tend to be counterproductive for various reasons.
“People may not completely understand the long term consequences of their activities on the natural resource base,” Murry said.
“The most important ways in which human activity is interfering with the global ecosystem are a) fossil burning which may double the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration by the middle of the present century as well as further increasing the emission of sulphur and nitrogen very significantly.”
Likewise is the expansion of agriculture and forestry, and associated use of fertilizers such as nitrogen and phosphorus. This is significantly alerting the natural circulation of these nutrients, Murry explained.
Another reason is the increased exploitation of the freshwater system both for irrigation in agriculture and industries and for waste disposal.
Green-Sons took the example of Wokha district where the population has increased from 1,61,223 in 2001 to 1,6 6334 in 2011 (2011 census). This has led to a population density of 103 persons per square km, the article stated.
“To satisfy food needs the growing population the fallow period has been reduced to about Six years at present. During the last decades, most of the remaining forest lands were converted into shifting cultivation area which included slopes of more than 100%.Classified dense forest may be recorded to about only 9%,” Murry explained.
The organisation observes that little is known about the agricultural productivity and rural communities’ food security in Nagaland where high population growth might be leading to increasingly shorter fallow period and a reported decline in soil productivity.
“This problem is particularly severe in Wokha district of Nagaland, where 73% of the population depends on shifting cultivation and the duration of the fallow period has been reduced from 15 years in the last decade to six years at present,” the Green-Sons leader stated.
Murry observed, given the rapid population increase and the continued predominance of shifting cultivation, Nagaland is suited to analyse the relationship between demographic factors and the fulfilment of basic subsistence needs; cereal production and fuel wood collection and the ensuing effects on forests and soil degradation.
Another issue Murry broached was about how the disappearance of natural resources damages an area and limits its ability to sustain a population.
“The population could be of trees, animals or even people. Often these damages are the result of beneficial activities performed irresponsibly. Degradation of natural resources often has a chain effect,” Murry stated.
For instance, the article explained, rampant deforestation in a way of ‘jhuming,’ logging and coal mining at Bagthy valley, in Wokha district, has reduced the habitat of the wild elephants. This has escalated the human-elephant conflict which again has in turn led to the loss of lives and properties forcing the local farmers to abandon their field in some cases.
“And this is a persistent phenomenon in this area. Haphazard deforestation also isolates plants and animals from their own species which in fewer option leads to inbreeding, weakening the gene pool. Larger species, usually predators, are especially vulnerable to population loss simply because they are few of them,” Murry stated.
“A bad breeding year, a natural disaster or a disease can wipe them out. On a global scale, deforestation contributes to a build-up of greenhouse gases; fewer trees means more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.”
Murry reminded that ‘we but shall have a better understanding of whether and why rural dwellers depletes their natural resources’ only when the challenges have been met.
‘However, people are gaining a better understanding that one system can’t operate at the expense of the other. Conservation if natural resources have become a priority for business and government which tout sustainability as a way time strike a balance between helping the environment and preventing economic or personal hardship,’ the article from the Green-Sons added.
