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Introduction

Forest resources play an important role in the economy of any country. It is highly complex, changing environment made up of a living and non living things. Living things include trees, shrubs, wildlife etc. and non-living things include water, nutrients, rocks, sunlight and air. Forest vary a great deal in composition and density and are distinct from meadows and pastures. Forest are important to humans and the natural world. For humans, they have many aesthetics, recreational, economic, historical, cultural and religious values. Forest provide fuel, wood, timber, wildlife, habitat, industrial, forest products, climate regulations, medicinal etc.

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Forest Resources

The word forest is derived from a Latin word
“ Foris” means Outside
Forest are one of the most important natural resources of the earth.
Approximately 1/3^rd of the earth’s total area is covered by forests

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Indian Scenario

In India forest cover Overall, 21.02% of the country's geographical area is now under green cover�(as per 2009* data) The total forest cover in India is 6,90,899 km²

Forest cover in India is defined as all lands, more than one hectare in area with a tree canopy density of more than 10%.

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Forest Cover of India

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Types of Forests in India

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Types of Forests in India

Moist Tropical Forest

a) Tropical wet evergreen: Western Ghats (Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala)

b) Tropical semi evergreen: Lower hills of western Ghats.

c) Tropical moist deciduous: Dehradun, mahableshwar

d) Damp Forests: Sunder bans, Bengal delta, and Andaman.

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Dry Tropical forests:

a) Tropical dry deciduous: Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh

b) Tropical thorn forest: Delhi, Punjab, Gujarat

c) Tropical dry evergreen: Eastern Ghat

( Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu)

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Montana Sub tropical Forests

Coniferous Forests

a)Subtropical broad: Shillong, Nilgiris

b)Subtropical pine forest: Arunachal Pradesh, Kashmir

c)Sub Tropical dry evergreen: Foot Hills of Himalayas.

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Montana Temperate Forests

a)Montana Wet temperate: Nilgiri, Palmi Hills

b) Himalayan wet temperate: Assam, Himachal Pradesh

c) Himalayan dry temperate: Kashmir

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Sub Alpine Forests

a)Moist alpine scrub- high Himalayas

b) Dry alpine scrub: Sikkim

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Among the 16 different forest types of the country, the most common is
Tropical dry deciduous (38.7%)
Tropical moist deciduous (30.9%)
Tropical thorn (6.9 %)
These 3 types of tropical deciduous forests accounts for more than 76.5 % of forest area in India. Nearly 96 % of forests are owned by government and, 2.6 % by corporate bodies and rest are in private ownership.

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Functions of Forests

The functions of forest may broadly classified into following categories
Protective Function
Productive Function
Regulative Function
Accessory Function

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Protective Functions

Forest Provide protection against Soil erosion, Droughts, floods, noise, radiations

Soil erosion

Floods

Soil erosion

Droughts

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Productive Functions

Forest Provide various products like, gum resins, medicines, Katha, honey, pulp, bamboo, timber, and fruits

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Regulative Functions

The Forest regulates the level of Oxygen and carbon dioxide in atmosphere. The forests also help in regulating temperature conditions

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Accessory Function

Forest provides aesthetics, habitat to various flora and fauna besides that it also has an recreational value.

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Ecological Importance or uses of Forests

Regulation of global climate and temperature
Forest play a crucial role in regulation of global climate and temperature as forest cover absorb the solar radiations that would otherwise be reflected back into the atmosphere by bare surface of the earth.
Transpiration of plants increases the atmosphere humidity which affects the rainfall, cools the atmosphere and thus regulate the hydrological cycle

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Reduction of Global Warming

The main green house gas co₂ is used by forests for photosynthesis process the forest act as a sink for co₂ there by reducing the green house effect due to co₂

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Production of Oxygen

During Photosynthesis process forest releases oxygen a very important gas for human survival thereby are called as lungs of earth.

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Conservation of Soil

They prevent soil erosion by binding the soil particles tightly in their roots. They also reduce the velocity of wind and rain which are chief agents causing erosion

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Improvement in fertility of Soil

The fertility of soil increases due to humans formed by the decay of forest litter

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Control of water flow

The forest act as a giant sponge they slow down runoff, absorbing and holding water that recharges springs, streams, and ground water.

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Habitat to wild life

They provide the habitat for high wild life species

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Absorption of Noise

Forest cover absorbs the noise and helps in preventing noise pollution

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Absorption of air pollutants

Forest absorbs many toxic gasses and air pollutants and can help in keeping air pure.

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Economical Importance of Forest

Timber: Wood used for commercial purposes like for making furniture and other items like boats, bridges and other day to day uses.

Fuel Wood: The wood is used as fuel for cooking and other purposes by poor people.

Raw material for wood based industries: forest provide raw material for various wood based industries like paper and pulp, sports goods, furniture, match boxes etc.

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Food: Fruits, roots, leaves of plants and trees along with the meat of forest animals provide the food to the tribal people.
Miscellaneous Products: Miscellaneous products like, resin, gums, oils, medicines, Katha, honey are provided by forests

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Deforestation

Forest are exploited since early times for humans to meet human demand
The permanent destruction of forest is called deforestation

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Causes of Deforestation

Population explosion: Population explosion is the root cause of all the environmental problems, vast area of forests are cleared for human settlement

Shifting Cultivation: It is a traditional agroforestry system widely practiced in north eastern region of country in which felling and burning of forests followed by cultivation of crop for few years and abandon of cultivation allow forests for re-growth cause extreme damage to forest.

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Growing food demand: To meet the food demand of rapidly growing population more and more forests are cleared off for agricultural purpose.

Fire wood: Increasing demand of wood for fuel increases pressure on forests.

Raw material for wood based industry:

Increasing demand of wood for making furniture, plywood, match box etc results into tremendous pressure on forests.

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Infrastructure development: Massive destruction of forest occurs for various infrastructure development like, big dams, highways projects etc.
Forest fires: Forest fires may be natural or man made cause a huge loss of forest
Over grazing: Overgrazing of land by cattle result into soil erosion, desertification.
Natural forces: Floods, storms, heavy winds, snow, lightening are some of the natural forces

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Effects of Deforestation

Deforestation adversely affects and damages the environment
The adverse effect of deforestation are discussed below:
Soil erosion: The soil gets washed away with rain water on sloppy areas in the absence of trees leading to soil erosion.
Expansion of deserts: Due to strong winds laden by rock dust, land mass gradually gets converted in atmosphere.

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Decrease in rainfall : In the absence of forest, rainfall declines considerably because forest bring rains due to high rate of transpiration. It maintains humidity in atmosphere
Loss of fertile land: Less rainfall results into loss of fertile land owing to less natural vegetation growth.
Effect on climate: Deforestation induces global climate change. Climate becomes warmer due to lack of humidity in deforested areas, also pattern of rainfall changes

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Lowering of Water table: Lack of recharging of underground reservoir, results into lowering of water table
Economic Losses: Deforestation will cause loss of industrial timber and non timber products
Loss of biodiversity: Loss of flora and fauna result into loss of bio-diversity leading to disturbance in ecological balance world wide.
Environmental changes: It will lead to increase in carbon dioxide concentration and other pollutants which results in Global warming.

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Afforestation

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Afforestation

Through
Agro forestry
Social forestry
Urban forestry
The conservation measure against the deforestation is afforestation. The development of forest by planting trees on waste land is called afforestation
The main objective of afforestation
To control the deforestation
To prevent soil erosion
To regulate rainfall and maintain temperature

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To control atmospheric condition by keeping it clean
To promote planned uses of wasteland
To Protect forest ecosystem and to get benefits of forest products.

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Steps to be taken

Reforestation: Reestablishing the forest wherever they have been cut.
Public awareness about the importance of forests
Joint Forest Management (JFM)
Strengthening rules and regulations regarding the forests
Banning the old growth forest products
Revising agricultural practices.

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Forest Degradation in India

At the beginning of 20^th century about 30 % of land in India was covered with forests but by the end of 20^th century the forest cover was reduced to 19.4%
As a result of exploitation, the tropical forest cover in India, is now only reduced to coastal western Ghats and northern India
We have a huge population size and a very low precipitate forest area 0.075 Ha per capita as compared to 0.64 ha/ capita of world forest area

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The National forest policy has recommended 33 % forest area for plains and 67 % for hills
The deforestation rate per unit population in India is lowest among the major tropical countries
For effective forest management of country we have to take the confidence of tribal who have been living in forest.

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Dams and their effects on Forest and Tribal People

When a dam is constructed across any river a huge artificial lake is developed in the catchment area of that dam. It is also known as back waters. The backwaters covering a large surface area. Create a lot of ill-effects on the living environment. They are as follows:
It creates the loss of forest which are submerged under the back waters of the dam.
It creates danger to the habitat of the wild life. The wild life are forced to migrate.
It also affects the land under cultivation, in the catchment area as the crops get submerged under water.
The roads, already in existence are put under water after the construction of dam. So the road network is damaged.

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The Story of Kani Tribe: Compensating Indigenous Knowledge

In December 1987, a team of scientists was on a botanical expedition to western Ghats in Kerala. They took with them a few members of Kani Tribe as their guides. The scientists noticed that the guides were eating a fruit that seemed to keep them energetic even during the tough treks. When the scientists tried it, they too felt a ‘ sudden flush of energy & strength’.
Initially, the kani were reluctant to reveal any information about the plant, saying that it was a sacred tribal secret that could not be told to outsiders. After considerable persuasion, the tribals showed the plant, Aarogyappacha as a source of fruit.
The scientists, who were from Tropical Botanic Garden and research Institute (TBGRI). Thiruvananthapuram, secured specimens of the plants and conducted investigations. They found anti-stress and other beneficial properties among the plant’s active ingredients. Using Aarogyappacha, and three other medicinal plants, they formulated a drug and gave it the name jeevani.

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