& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Political Sparks Ignite Kenya's Forests
THE political sparks are flying in the run-up to Kenya's forthcoming mulU-party election — and are threatening the country's already diminishing forests.
The outbreak of politically-generated fire comes only two years after the country's forests suffered widespread damage from the cypress aphid, which decimated cypress and cedar forests. Losses were put at more than USS 1.9 billion. This time, however, the culprit is man.
About 200 people have died in the clashes, which started in 1991 with an outbreak of fighting between ethnic groups in the sprawling Rift Valley and Western Provinces. Antigovernment critics claim the trouble was instigated by government supporters to hamper the onset of multi-party politics after the government bowed to domestic and international pressure for the Introduction of political pluralism.
Senior figures in the Kenya African National Union (KANU) vehemently opposed the ending of one-party rule, arguing that it would result 1n ethnic strife — a prophecy that has come true.
Panicky villagers have set fire to forests, sugarcane plantations and other areas suspected of harbouring their enemies. The attackers themselves have left a trail of de struction by setting homes and farms alight.
Outrage and controversy naturally centres on the loss of life and personal possessions, overshadowing discussion of environmental damage.
Officials of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources are reluctant to discuss the issue because of its political sensitivity. But privately. many warn that large areas of forests are in danger unless a solution to the political problem is worked out.
Environment and Natural resources Minister Philip Leakey describes the last dry season, which coincided with the height of the clashes, as disastrous: This season we've lost more forests to fire than we have witnessed In the last six years."
The Ministry has not yet fully assessed the environmen-tal Impact of the fires, but says that between January and March this year 17.407 hectares were consumed by fire compared with 6.355 hectares in 1991.
The financial loss, based on sale of forest products at maturity. is put at KShs 136 million (USS4.3 million) for the first three months of 1992. compared with KShs 2.6 million in 1991. Fire-fighting costs rose to KShs 3.6 million from KShs 26.000 in the same period.
Ministry sources suggest that both sets of figures arc conservative, and that real losses are likely to be much higher.
Other estimates of damage are considerably greater. The Dally Nation estimated losses in the worst hit Molo region of Rift Valley Province at about 30,000 hectares by the end of April, with a further 3.800 hectares destroyed in the area around .Mount Elgon. The latter is home to a number of rare tree species, and a host of other rare plants sought after for their nutritional and medicinal properties.
Less than four per cent of Kenya's land area is forested. The area covered by Forest Department plantations has grown from 60.000 hectares in 1978 to 170,000 hectares today, but clearance for agriculture and tree-cutting for firewood and charcoal make enormous inroads into other forest land.
Environment Ministry ofli-cials warn that a number of adverse effects of deforestation will make themselves felt over time. Minerals from animals, insects and plants killed In forest fires can enrich the soil — but only for a couple of years. Then rapid deterioration sets in. sometimes leading to total soil sterility. Tree-loss facilitates soil erosion.
The areas most affected by the clashes and the fires are the wettest and most productive. They are Important water catchment areas. Officials are studying the effect on hydroelectric generation, fisheries and other water-based Industries.
Cypress, pine and cedar forests might prove relatively easy to regenerate, but slower-growing Indigenous forests could prove problematic. Specialists say that even where regeneration occurs, the biological diversity of intact natural forest is never matched by heavily disturbed land, no matter how intensely planted.
Money for reforestation — as well as for compensation for ruined property, necessary for healing the wounds — will be hard to find In an economy facing recession and in the grip of the worst drought of the century.
Recent rains helped extinguish some of the still simmering fires, but the failure of this year's "long rains" has added to the danger of natural conflagrations.
The human clashes have been damped down by the security forces, though minor skirmishes have been reported since June, when the worst fighting was suppressed. There is a danger of revenge attacks as displaced people return to reclaim their homes, land and property.
Visits to affected areas by candidates in the run-upto multi-party elections — expected early next year — will also have to be handle carefully if they are not to produce further potentially dangerous sparks
— PANOS