Question

write an essay on deforestation in India more than 300 words​

Answer 1

ELLO MATE,

Deforestation, clearance, clearcutting or clearing is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land which is then converted to a non-forest use.[2] Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. The most concentrated deforestation occurs in tropical rainforests.[3] About 31% of Earth's land surface is covered by forests.[4]

Deforestation, clearance, clearcutting or clearing is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land which is then converted to a non-forest use.[2] Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. The most concentrated deforestation occurs in tropical rainforests.[3] About 31% of Earth's land surface is covered by forests.[4]Deforestation can occur for several reasons: trees can be cut down to be used for building or sold as fuel (sometimes in the form of charcoal or timber), while cleared land can be used as pasture for livestock and plantation. The removal of trees without sufficient reforestation has resulted in habitat damage, biodiversity loss, and aridity. It has adverse impacts on biosequestration of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Deforestation has also been used in war to deprive the enemy of vital resources and cover for its forces. Modern examples of this were the use of Agent Orange by the British military in Malaya during the Malayan Emergency and by the United States military in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. As of 2005, net deforestation rates had ceased to increase in countries with a per capita GDP of at least US$4,600.[5][6] Deforested regions typically incur significant adverse soil erosion and frequently degrade into wasteland.

Answer 2

$\huge\red{\textbf{Hello\:Mate}}$

As per the revenue records, area under forests in India is 67.16 million hec­tares. But the forest survey of India estimates the forest cover in India at around 64.2 million hectares. This implies that India’s forest cover is around 19.5 per cent of the total geographical area of the country.

Significantly, data provided by the American earth observation space craft, Landsat, had revealed that India’s forest cover declined from 16.9 percent in the early seventies to 14.1 percent in the early eighties. This implies that the country has been losing forest cover at the rate of 1.3 million hectares a year. The Landsat data had also shown that forest cover within 100 km of India’s major cities is diminishing at the rate of 15 percent a year.

Obviously, defor­estation in this stretch is the direct outcome of the escalating urban fuel wood demand. Against this backdrop there is hardly any reason to believe that In­dia’s forest cover has recorded such a phenomenal growth to touch 19.5 percent in the late eighties from 16.9 percent in the early eighties, because the magni­tude of forces and factors that have been causing deforestation all through the eighties had not shown any slow down.

Interestingly, Mr. B.B. Vohra, a leading environmentalist expresses doubt about the revenue records. He says that out of the 67.16 million hectares of forest area in the country, only about 46 million hectares are under good forest.

Perhaps the most significant factor behind continuous deforestation is the grow­ing demand for fuel wood. A majority of the rural household and poorer seg­ments of urban dwellers are fully dependent on fuel wood for meeting their cook­ing energy requirements.

According to India’s National Wasteland Develop­ment Board, the annual requirement of fuel wood in India is around 150 million tonnes. The quantity that can be obtained on a sustainable basis from existing forests, and social forestry programmes is estimated to be only one third of its requirement. The shortfall of 100 million tonnes is being met by illegal felling of trees in protected forests.

Destruction of forests is relentless, transforming mountains and hills into bar­ren landslide zones. However, soil washed down from the barren hill slopes is contributing to increased floods in the plains of North India. Added to this every year 6,000 million tonnes of topsoil equivalent to nutrients to twice the annual production of fertilizers in India is washed away.

This problem assumes serious dimension in the context of the fact that out of a total 45 percent of the cultiva­ble land in India is seriously threatened with erosion and is desperately in need of soil and water conservation measures.

The chipko movement that sprang up in the seventies to prevent deforestation was a spontaneous reaction to the relentless process of forest destruction in the hilly areas of Uttar Pradesh. The philosophy of chipko movement continues to inspire struggles against the forces of deforestation in various parts of India.

The chipko movement leaders have expressed themselves against mono-cultural planting of commercial species under the social forestry programme. There s also a strong plea to involve tribals, who for centuries have been living in forests, in the forest management of the country.

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