What are the main reasons for the degradation of forests in india?
Answers
1. Agriculture:
Conversion of forests to agricultural land to feed growing needs of people. There are an estimated 300 million people living as shifting cultivators who practice slash and burn agriculture and are supposed to clear more than 5 lakh ha of forests for shifting cultivation annually. In India, we have this practice in North-east and to some extend in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and M.P. which contribute to nearly half of the forest clearing annually.
2. Commercial logging:
(Which supplies the world market with woods such as meranti, teak, mahogany and ebony) destroys trees as well as opening up forest for agriculture. Cutting of trees for fire wood and building material, the heavy lopping of foliage for fodder and heavy grazing of saplings by domestic animals like goals.
3. Mining:
This causes environmental impacts like erosion, formation of sinkholes, loss of biodiversity, and contamination of soil, groundwater and surface water by chemicals from mining processes. In some cases, additional forest logging is done in the vicinity of mines to increase the available room for the storage of the created debris and soil.
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Contamination resulting from leakage of chemicals can also affect the health of the local population if not properly controlled. Extreme examples of pollution from mining activities include coal fires, which can last for years or even decades, producing massive amounts of environmental damage.
4. Increase in population:
The needs also increase and utilize forests resources. To meet the demands of rapidly growing population, agricultural lands and settlements are created permanently by clearing forests.
5. Urbanization and industrialization:
Since Industrialization and Urbanization needs land to grow, so major amount of forest lands are cut in order to promote Industrialization and Urbanization. This creates harmful effect on environment and forest ecological balance.
6. Construction of dam reservoirs:
For building big dams, large scale devastation of forests takes place which breaks the natural ecological balance of the region. Floods, droughts and landslides become more prevalent in such areas. Forests are the repositories of invaluable gifts of nature in the form of biodiversity and by destroying these we are going to lose these species even before knowing them. These species could be having marvelous economic or medicinal value. These storehouses of species which have evolved over millions of years get lost due to deforestation in a single stroke.
7. Forest fires:
They may be natural or manmade, and cause huge forest loss.
8. Overgrazing:
Overgrazing occurs when plants are exposed to intensive grazing for extended periods of time, or without sufficient recovery periods. It can be caused by either livestock in poorly managed agricultural applications, or by overpopulations of native or non- native wild animals.
Overgrazing reduces the usefulness, productivity, and biodiversity of the land and is one cause of desertification and erosion. Overgrazing is also seen as a cause of the spread of invasive species of non-native plants and of weeds.
Agriculture: Conversion of forests to agricultural land to feed growing needs of people. ...
Commercial logging: ...
Mining: ...
Increase in population: ...
Urbanization and industrialization: ...
Construction of dam reservoirs: ...
Forest fires: ...
Overgrazing:
degradation of forest is also known as deforestation....