Write a short note on timber.
Answers
Answer:
It is considered to be the first step in deforestation and clearing the land for agricultural production.
In the high mountain forests, the trees are felled and cut lengthwise by hired labour, and then converted to sleepers by sawing. Until a few years ago, the sleepers were carried to the nearest stream to be floated about 250 km away. They were then taken on land for sale or for further transportation across the plains. With the development of modern transportation facilities, the unexploited and remote forests can also be tapped.
Timber extraction leads to depletion of wood resources, as well as degrading other forest resources such as loss of consumptive uses (harvesting and hunting of other forest resources, recreational uses), loss of ecological functions (carbon storage and micro climatic control), loss of non-consumptive values (e.g., eco-tourism, genetic resources etc). Regeneration of forests is also endangered by bad land-use practices by the local population through overgrazing, lopping of trees, burning and shifting cultivation.