1. What are the reasons for decreasing forests area in India during the time of British?
Answers
Answer:
this because they were cutting the forset to settle habitation and for expanding their kingdom
Answer:
The spread of railways created a new demand for timber. Wood was needed as fuel for the locomotives. Wooden sleepers were needed to hold the tracks together. Around 2000 wooden sleepers were needed for a track length of a mile (1.6 km). As railway tracks expanded all over the country large number of forest trees had been felled.
It was estimated that in Madras presidency alone around 35,000 trees were felled every year to meed the requirement of railway sleepers. Trees were cut indiscriminately and soon forests around the railway tracks started disappearing very fast. (By the year 1946 we had around 765,000 km of railway tracks. Imagine the number of trees that must have been felled to provide railway sleepers. We have now moved over to steel sleepers)
2. Shipbuilding became a problem for the British Royal Navy with the disappearance of Oak forests in England. Britain needed ships for maintaining its Imperial status. Search parties were sent to India for exploring forest resources. Soon trees were felled on a massive scale. Vast quantities of timber were exported to Britain for manufacture of ships for the Royal Navy.
3. Agricultural expansion has been made possible only with the clearing of forest lands. Agriculture meets the food demands of the growing population and also provides raw materials for industries. As the need for commercial crops like sugarcane, cotton, tobacco etc. grows there is need for more land.
This increased demand has led to clearing of forest lands in many countries of the world. Forest lands were brought under cultivation in the mistaken belief that Forests were just a waste of land resources. There was a wide increase in cultivated area between 1880 and 1920. This increase of course was at the cost of forest lands. Wherever lands are brought under the plough, forests need to be cleared.
4. Commercial farming has also been responsible for decrease in forest lands. A typical example is that of Honduras in Central America. The uncultivated land was cleared and used for commercially growing bananas by an American owned fruit company. Apart from growing bananas, these companies over a period of time acquired great power over the local governments.
5. Tea and coffee plantations also led to huge reductions in forest areas. Products like rubber, tea and coffee were needed for consumption in European countries. Colonial governments took over the forests, and gave them to the planters. These areas were subsequently cleared of forests for growing Tea, Coffee and Rubber etc.
6. Adivasis and peasant users have also been responsible for clearing of forests. Tribal population practising shifting agriculture has been clearing forest lands for cultivation of food crops. The practice is common in a number of developing countries in Africa and Sri Lanka.
Explanation:
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