Question

Hypothesis deforestation in odisha

Answer 1

Odisha (Orissa) is facing environmental degradation worse than any other states in the country. The root cause of the disaster is the large-scale deforestation over the past few decades.

Forests cover nearly 37 percent of the total area of the state. It is mainly divided into four:

1) Dense forest

 

2) Sparse dense forest

3) Tidal forest

4) Almost devoid of trees and fallow forest land.

Environmentally sound forest, help to maintain the ecological balance and hence, area coverage of dense forest has to be increased. The drastic reduction of forests is primarily due to unauthorised felling, forest fires, fast growing cattle population, unauthorised overgrazing, encroachment on forest land for sedentary peasant cultivation, shifting cultivation and above all population explosion. This has resulted in a reduction in rainfall, heavy increase in the frequency of floods and droughts. Top soil which is created by nature over thousands of years is eroded as a result of shower, filling up the artificial reservoirs and river beds downstream, reducing the rate of percolation. Consequently, wells, springs and other water bodies dry up.