A short note on forest and wildlife (800-900 words)(for class 10)??
answer only if u know.
Answers
Answer and Explanation:
A large area of land on which trees and other plants grow naturally is called a forest. And the wild animals (like lion, tiger, elephants, deer, snakes, etc.) and birds which live in a forest, are called wildlife.
The ‘plants’ and ‘animals’ of a forest are called ‘flora’ and ‘fauna’ respectively. Due to the presence of a large number of species (of plants and animals), forests are said to be ‘biodiversity hotspots’. One of the main aims of the management of forests and wildlife is to conserve the biodiversity which we have inherited.
This is because the loss of biodiversity leads to the loss of ecological stability of the forest ecosystem.
A person with an interest or concern in something is called a stakeholder. When we consider the management (or conservation) of forests, we find that there are four stakeholders in it. These are:
1. The people who live in and around the forest and are dependent to some extent on forest produce (forest products) to lead their life.
2. The Forest Department of the Government which owns the forest land and controls the resources from the forest.
3. The industrialists who use various forest products for their factories, such as wood for making paper and furniture, and tendu leaves for making bidis, etc.
4. The forest and wildlife activists who want to see the forests in their pristine form (original condition).
Industrialists have a major vested interest in forest resources. They consider the forests as merely a source of raw material for their industry (or factories). Some of the major industries which are based on forest produce are: Timber industry, Paper manufacturing industry (or Paper mills), Lac industry and Sports equipment industry. In fact, most of the deforestation is caused by industrial needs. It is true that wood from the forest trees is needed for manufacturing various types of goods required for development but at the same time efforts should be made to make up the loss of trees cut down from the forest.
This can be done by planting saplings in the forest in place of cut down trees. It should be noted that the destruction of forests affects not just the availability of forest products but also the quality of soil and the sources of water.
A major programme called silviculture has been started to replenish the forests by growing more trees and plants. Thus, silviculture is a major programme started to replenish depleting forests. The silviculture programme has many advantages:
(i) It produces a large quantity of raw materials for industry (like timber and paper industry)
(ii) It increases the area of earth under forests (which is good for the conservation of wildlife)
(iii) It maintains a perfect water cycle in nature
(iv) It prevents soil erosion
(v) It prevents floods
There are certain people (called activists) who are not dependent on the forests (or wildlife) in any way but who want forests and wildlife to be conserved to prevent undue damage to the environment.
They started by working for the conservation of large wild animals such as tigers, lions, elephants, and rhinoceros but they now recognise the need to preserve forests as well. This is because without preserving forests, we cannot conserve wildlife (wild animals and birds). We will now give two instances where ordinary people have played a great role in the conservation of forests by preventing them from being cut down indiscriminately.
(i) The Case of Khejri Trees :
There is a Bishnoi community in Rajasthan state of our country for whom conservation of forests and wildlife has been a religious belief. In 1731, Amrita Devi Bishnoi led a group of 363 persons who sacrificed their lives for the protection of khejri trees in khejrali village near Jodhpur in Rajasthan.
This shows the determination of some people to work for the conservation of their natural environment. The Government has recently instituted an ‘Amrita Devi Bishnoi National Award for Wildlife Conservation’ in the memory of Amrita Devi Bishnoi.
(ii) The Chipko Andolan:
Another example of the contribution of common people towards the conservation of forests is the Chipko Andolan (Hug the Trees Movement). The Chipko Andolan originated from an incident in a remote village called ‘Reni’ in Garhwal, high up in the Himalayas in the early 1970s.
A logging contractor had been allowed to cut down trees in a forest close to a village. The people of the village did not want this forest to be cut down because it would have spoiled their healthy environment. One day, when the men folk of the village were out for work, the contractor’s workers came in the forest to cut down the trees.
In the absence pf men, the women of the village reached the forest quickly and clasped the tree trunks with their arms, preventing the workers from cutting down the trees. The forest trees were thus saved. The Chipko Movement quickly spread across all the communities and helped in the conservation of forests.