Naga Students’ Federation (NSF) has expressed serious concern over the long-term negative impact, which the commercial cultivation of oil palm could have on health, forest, biodiversity and quality of soil of the state.
Citing the Ministry of Forest report, prepared by the Forest survey of India (FSI), NSF stated that Nagaland has lost a total of 235 sq. km of forest land in the last two years, which could be largely attributed to the forest clearing for starting the cultivation of oil palms. “Our rich bio-diversity, flora and fauna, wild fruit plants, rare medicinal plants and the habitat of rare species stands threatened to be annihilated if the plantation drive continues,” NSF asserted. In August 2021, the Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, gave its approval to launch a new Mission on Oil palm to be known as the National Mission on Edible Oils – Oil Palm (NMEO-OP) as a new Centrally Sponsored Scheme with a special focus on the North east region and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
A financial outlay of Rs.11,040 crore was made for the scheme, out of which Rs.8,844 crore is the Government of India share and Rs.2,196 crore is State share. NSF said that Nagaland alone has a total of 5423 hectares under oil palm cultivation across seven districts. It said that efforts were being made on a war footing to expand the area under oil palm cul-tivation.
Pointing out that oil palm tree required 200 to 300 litres of water per day, NSF said Nagaland as a state which often faces drought and uneven rainfall cannot afford to cultivate such a water guzzling plant on a commercial scale.
It said other environmental concerns associated with the oil palm cultivation cannot be ignored such as soil degradation, water pollution from fertilizers which in turn pose a huge risk to human health.
NSF has, therefore, urged the responsible authorities to thoroughly peruse the various failure stories of the oil palm cultivation in various parts of the world and provide informed advice to the citizens of the state and not mislead them with promises of ‘economic windfall’.
Further, the federation also urged the responsible department to exercise utmost caution in “propa-gating the economic benefit of the oil palm while shying away from educating the gullible farmers of its negative impacts.”