India's plans for palm oil spark ecological concerns, controversy
© Zikri Maulana/via ZUMA Wire/dpa
New Delhi (dpa) – India, the world's largest palm oil importer, has unveiled an ambitious plan to promote the cultivation of the crop at home that has environmentalists and politicians concerned about deforestation, ecological damage and human rights violations.
The government recently allocated 1.5 billion dollars to boost annual palm oil production to 2.8 million tons by 2029-30, from its current 300,000 tons, and cut the country's heavy dependence on imports from Indonesia and Malaysia.
The National Mission on Edible Oils-Oil Palm (NMEO-OP) will support farmers in expanding areas under oil palm cultivation to 1 million hectares, from 370,000 hectares, with a "special focus" on the north-eastern states and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Indian Ocean.
Both these regions are among India's main biodiversity hotspots and are ecologically fragile.
Environmental experts and politicians warn that the move to promote cultivation could be "disastrous" given the widespread damage to rainforests and biodiversity caused by oil palm plantations in South-East Asia.
There are concerns that plantations of oil palm, a water-guzzling crop that grows best in tropical areas, will replace forest covers while triggering water scarcity, leading to deforestation and loss of habitat for endangered wildlife, agricultural scientist GV Ramanjaneyulu tells dpa.
"As a monoculture crop which ruins biodiversity, forests and ecosystem, it will have far bigger adverse effects, by impacting monsoon, temperatures, and leading to climate change," says Ramanjaneyulu, who heads the Hyderabad-based Centre for Sustainable Agriculture.
Lawmaker Agatha Sangma, who belongs to north-eastern Meghalaya state, demanded wider consultation on the plan in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
She flagged concerns that commercial plantations would detach tribespeople from their identity linked with community ownership of lands and "wreak havoc on the social fabric."
Former environment minister Jairam Ramesh, from the opposition Indian National Congress party, says proposals for large-scale oil palm cultivation had been studied and rejected in the late 1980s as it was a "recipe for ecological disaster."
The Indian Express daily reported that the government's oil palm mission was launched despite the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education saying that the plantations "should be avoided" in biodiversity-rich areas without further studies of their impact.
Agriculture Minister Narendra Tomar has, however, said the government is going ahead with the plan on the basis of scientific analysis, while insisting that no forest land will be diverted for the purpose.
The plan may run into legal hurdles, since it could require clearances from the Supreme Court, which is currently hearing a case regarding oil palm cultivation in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
According to reports, the court had ordered the phasing out of all "exotic" plantations on forest land to conserve the island's ecology in 2002 - with exotic referring to all species of flora and fauna not native to the islands.
Ramanjaneyulu says that over the past 25 years, thanks to cheaper imports, the area that was under edible oil and pulse cultivation in India dropped significantly in favour of paddy and cotton.
"We should opt for oil palm in areas where paddy and cotton are cultivated, as India has crossed self-sufficiency in both and there is often a glut ... That is, we should change cropping pattern instead of going in for new areas and cutting forests."
"Also we should boost production of a wide range of healthier edible oils, like sunflower, sesame and safflower, instead of just palm oil," he adds.
The oil is an ingredient in a wide array of products, from fuels to cosmetics to confectionery.
However environmental case studies in forested belts of Sumatra, Borneo and the Malay Peninsula – which produce 90 per cent of the world's palm oil – found that the levelling of tropical jungles to make way for plantations has pushed out wildlife and endangered species such as the Sumatran tiger and orangutan.
New Delhi's plan comes amid a wider debate over palm oil, with the European Union banning its use in biofuels, citing environmental and human rights violations in the production.
India's southern neighbour, Sri Lanka, in April 2021 banned palm oil imports and ordered existing plantations to be razed, citing adverse environmental and social impacts.
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