- The Kerala government issued an order allowing the Kerala Forest Development Corporation (KFDC)to plant eucalyptus trees for its financial sustenance in 2024-2025.
- The KFDC was established in 1975 as a dynamic production forestry enterprise that has 7,000 hectares (ha) of plantations.
| Eco-restoration Policy The Kerala government had decided to phase out plantations of eucalyptus, acacia, wattle, and pine by 2024 and replace them with natural forests. This process is called eco-restoration.In 2021, the State government had published an eco-restoration policy. To address the proliferation of invasive species that are not suitable for the environment.To stop the resulting depletion of natural forests.To provide adequate resources to wild animals in forests itself.To avoid Man-Animal conflict. |
The plantation includes the following species: Eucalyptus grandis, Acacia auriculiformis, Acacia mangium, Acacia crassicarpa, Acacia pycnantha (wattle), Alnus nepalensis, Casuarina equisetifolia and Pinus patula.
- Eucalyptus plantations have a rotation age of nine years. At the end of each cycle, plantations approved by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change are felled.
- Kerala State Forest Protective Staff Organisation study found replacing exotic plants in forested areas with the corresponding natural species could help ensure food for wild elephants at Chinnakanal in Munnar which is filled with eucalyptus trees.
- Marayoor Sandal Division in Idukki, 108 hectares of exotic species were removed to allow natural grasses to flourish. The result was water streams in the area were restored after a 30-year gap.
Dig Deeper: Why Eucalyptus is considered harmful to the native ecosystem?
