From 2000 to 2020, Uttarakhand lost nearly 50,000 hectares of forest lands from commercial activities
Around 21,000 hectares of this land was destroyed due to mining, hydropower plants, road construction, power distribution lines, water pipelines and irrigation. And the rest due to railways, defence, laying down optical fibres, building construction, rehabilitation, etc.
This is increasing at an alarming rate in a State where over 2/3 of lands are covered by forests.
This degradation weakens our first line of defence against a rapidly changing climate and increases food security risks for a burgeoning population..