Abstract

With the objective of economic upliftment of the people and conservation of ecology in the Western Ghats, the Planning Commission initiated the Western Ghat Development Programme (WGDP) during 1974-75. Objectives of WDGP during the Seventh Five Year Plan wer (i) to maintain the ecological balance which is essential for the life support system (ii) to preserve genetic diversity (iii) to restore the ecological damage caused by human interaction and (iv) to create awareness among people and educate them on the far reaching implications of ecological degradation and to ensure their active participation in the ecodevelopment scheme. While considering the development of forestry sector in the State, one cannot ignore the role of forests in maintenance ofthe ecological balance. So the schemes implemented under WGDP also gave due importance to the ecological development. Thus, Forest Department undertook the work of afforestation of delicate hill slopes for raising protection forests. As organized encroachment is one of the important problems in Western Ghat region, especially in Kerala, the need for forest protection was keenly felt. While drawing up programmes under this scheme the department gave importance to maintain and improve natural forests thanto promote commercial plantations, so that future degradation is considerably checked. The present study in its evaluation of the forestry schemes undertaken by the Kerala Forest Department under the WGDP (during the Seventh Five Year Plan period) showedthat the forestry programmes implemented under the WGDP have been effective to a great extent in augmenting the forest resources. Moreover, the programmes implemented by the Forest Department under WGDP have fulfilled the objectives of ecorestoration andecodevelopment to a large extent. It is felt that, in future, forestry programmes under WGDP may be focused on raising of bamboos, improvement of productivity of the plantations, forest consolidation etc. Ecorestoration of the degraded forests by planting appropriate species should receive adequate attention for conserving both soil and moisture