Tosa Maidan range is a high altitude landscape of undulating meadows and is made of three prominent meadows: Pathra, Guttemarg and Badshamarg and nestled in the Pir Panjal mountains of district Budgam.
This place is home to billions of species including micro and macro organisms. The forests of Tosamaidan range have been facing extensive destruction due to rapid urbanization, illegal logging, illicit construction, illiteracy, and firmly human greed as well. The rich fauna is also extensively threatened due to poaching, encroachment, deforestation, fires and other human caused destruction. The human wildlife conflict is increasing at an alarming rate and the major driver behind the conflict is deforestation and habitat loss.
Deforestation is a major environmental issue, affecting many forests in Kashmir as well as globally. The deforestation rate is indeed alarming and serves as a wakeup call for every one of us to acknowledge the worrisome situation that caused by human development and exploitation of forest resources. By looking at the chopped trunks of cedrus species one can imagine the devastation done by the local ignorant people and this has been going on for a longtime and no one cares.
The wild animals that used to live here before the habitat loss and fragmentation not only lost their habitat but also the lives due to undue migrations and food scarcity. Deforestation is threatening forests and wildlife and the capacity to provide economic and ecological services not only for sustainable local livelihood but also for ecosystem and climate equilibrium on the Earth. The services that forests provide like carbon sequestration, oxygen, global warming and climate change, also got altered due to human devastation. Deforestation not only accelerates the common human suffering but also cause soil erosion that directly leads to decrease in biodiversity.
The green gold has been looted since long and the authorities are still to react and wild mafia is booming and always ready to exploit nature. The recent episode of bear attacked man in Budgam is the result habitat loss and deforestation while the next day bear was declared as verminous and people were united to kill the bear. The effects of deforestation can be felt by everyone who breathes air on the earth and can be felt especially by those who live in oxygen scarce environment. The cutting down of forests in Tosa Maidan not only impacts the wildlife but affects the soil and water quality in the immediate area. The land is still there but with less number of tress, less species of trees and animals. Tosa Maidan not only lost the trees but the overall aesthetics. The aesthetics of the place used to attract thousands of tourists that also got reduced. Artists used to visit such places for eternal peace and new ideas but nowadays only jungle smugglers are present within with a sharp Axe. The natural landscaping before the devastation arrest the heart of tourist but the humans changed the natural landscaping by exploitation of resources for their personal benefits.
The profit driven society of modern times are hardly concerned about the impact of all the drivers including deforestation. By cutting down the forests present along the Tosa Maidan range not only impact aesthetics, landscaping, forest services, but increase the rate of runoff and soil erosion. The runoff and soil erosion lead to water pollution and mineral leaching which is very difficult and irreversible process. The runoff also accelerates the process of nudation. In subsequent decades the meadows of Tosa Maidan were intensely bombed by military actions that lead to string of human and ecological causalities.
The number of locals and activists came together collectively to launch a movement under the name of Tosamaidan Bachao Front and they worked a lot to improve the overall health of Tosamaidan. The river present in the vicinity of Tosa Maidan use to receive the waters from glaciers throughout the year in elapse but nowadays the glaciers present in higher altitudes are receding at the earliest and these rivers turned dry. The rice production of the area is also affected due to water scarcity and the reasons behind are evident.
The nomadic people of the area are mostly responsible for deforestation and wildfires. They cut down forests and sell it in low costs as the availability of stock is not limited and some people from the forest department also extend help in smuggling for some bucks. The authorities should strictly deal with smugglers and should frame strict laws to deal with offenders. Forest authorities should promote awareness programmes among the people and should select volunteers from the society to safeguard the forests. These natural resources are our resources and it is our prior duty to save it from exploiters. It is also very unfortunate that small portions of the society are exploiting the natural resources and the majority of people are unperturbed and more a potato.
It hardly took five minutes to cut down a tress but need years to grow a tress and there are people who are promoting afforestation and reforestation programmes, schemes around the world. All the religions speak about the conservation of nature and consider all these natural resources as sacred while we are neither religious nor morally upright as we keep cutting down of forests. Forests play an important role in supplementing global food and if we do not conserve forests we are losing resources that sustains us and eventually if the same rate of deforestation continues the day is no longer when will get die off of hunger or in any natural disaster.