If there was a compelling reason to make it easy to cut down a coconut tree, the Forest Minister did not share it with the Assembly last week and this has rightly resulted in doomsday prophets having a field day. The House finally passed an amendment declassifying the coconut tree as a tree and consigned it to the level of grass and the opposition walked out in protest. Even while declassifying it, the Forest Minister
assured the House that all possible protection would be extended to the coconut tree, which is like legalising poaching and then saying animals will be protected. It rankles.
Prior to the amendment, the permission of the forest department was required to cut a coconut tree. Now anyone can cut
a coconut tree as if it were some plant in the backyard. The
explanation offered by the government, and a feeble one, was
that coconut trees were the cause of neighbourly fights and
the amendment would perhaps, ease the tension. It might be
recalled that in 2010 the High Court of Bombay at Goa had,
in a neighbour versus neighbour
case, ruled that a coconut tree could
not be cut just because coconuts
or dried palms fell in the someone
else’s property. This could have triggered
a rethink, but is Goa going
through social turmoil on account of
fights over coconut trees, to pass the
bill? The explanation offered by the
government is not satisfactory. The
coconut tree never enjoyed the status
of tree until 2008 when the Digambar Kamat government
included it in the act, after it was noticed that coconut production
in the state had fallen. Since then, the number of trees has
increased and so has coconut production. Of course, it is not
as though everyone is going to go to start chopping coconut
trees because the tradition in Goa is to plant coconut trees and
not cut them, but the thought that it can be done more easily
hangs like a sword over the identity of the State which is often
described as the land of swaying coconut trees.
On the other hand, coconut plantation owners have welcomed
the amendment because it cuts red tape and makes it
easier to cut a tree that is either dead or dangerous. It is a fact
that obtaining permission from the forest department is tedious
and time consuming. The question is, why couldn’t the
government simplify the process in the case of coconut tree
instead of removing it from the act?
Goa was once self-sufficient in coconut production. Now it
has to import nuts from neighbouring states. It is this situation
which prompted the Kamat government to protect the coconut
tree. Now that it is denotified, the Forest Minister will have
to keep a watch over the number of trees cut and the number
of nuts produced as these figures will tell us if the State
is slipping into the danger zone. At the time of passage of the
amendment, the Forest Minister promised to extend special
protection to the coconut tree. Like any other tree, the coconut
tree also needs protection, but because it is also a plantation
tree, it requires a different set of rules. The Forest Minister will
now have to explain how he intends to protect the coconut tree
if he wishes to blunt the propaganda value the amendment
has for the opposition.
