Ecological & Environmental Importance of Forest.
Forest:
The forest is a complex ecosystem consisting mainly of trees that buffer the earth and support a myriad of life forms. The trees help create a special environment which, in turn, affects the kinds of animals and plants that can exist in the forest. Trees are an important component of the environment. They clean the air, cool it on hot days, conserve heat at night, and act as excellent sound absorbers.
Plants provide a protective canopy that lessens the impact of raindrops on the soil, thereby reducing soil erosion. The layer of leaves that fall around the tree prevents runoff and allows the water to percolate into the soil. Roots help to hold the soil in place. Dead plants decompose to form humus, organic matter that holds the water and provides nutrients to the soil. Plants provide habitat to different types of organisms. Birds build their nests on the branches of trees, animals and birds live in the hollows, insects and other organisms live in various parts of the plant. They produce large quantities of oxygen and take in carbon dioxide. Transpiration from the forests affects the relative humidity and precipitation in a place.
The FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) has defined forest as land with tree crown cover (or equivalent stocking level) of more than 10% and area of more than 0.5 hectares. The trees should be able to reach a minimum height of 5 m at maturity in situ. Forests are further subdivided into plantations and natural forests. Natural forests are forests composed mainly of indigenous trees not deliberately planted. Plantations are forest stands established by planting or seeding, or both, in the process of afforestation or reforestation.
Forests can develop wherever the average temperature is greater than 10 °C in the warmest month and rainfall exceeds 200 mm annually. In any area having conditions above this range, there exists a variety of tree species grouped into a number of forest types that are determined by the specific conditions of the environment there, including the climate, soil, geology, and biotic activity. Forests can be broadly classified into types such as the taiga (consisting of pines, spruce, etc.), the mixed temperate forests (with both coniferous and deciduous trees), the temperate forests, the sub-tropical forests, the tropical forests, and the equatorial rainforests. The six major groups of forest in India are moist tropical, dry tropical, montane sub-tropical, montane temperate, subalpine, and alpine. These are subdivided into 16 major types of forests.
India has a long history of traditional conservation and forest management practices. Under British rule, forest management systems were set in place mainly to exploit forests. Nonetheless, there were some attempts to conserve forests and meet the needs of local communities. The Indian National Forest Policy of 1894 provided the impetus to conserve India’s forests wealth with the prime objectives of maintaining environmental stability and meeting the basic needs of the fringe forests user-groups. Consequently, forests were classified into four broad categories, namely forests for the preservation of environmental stability, forests for providing timber supplies, forests for minor forest produce, and pasture lands. While the first two categories were declared as reserve forests, the rest were designated as protected forests and managed in the interests of the local communities.
Soon after independence, rapid development and progress saw large forest tracts fragmented by roads, canals, and townships. There was an increase in the exploitation of forest wealth. In 1950 the Government of India began the annual festival of tree planting called the Vanamahotsava. Gujarat was the first state to implement it. However, it was only in the 1970s that greater impetus was given to the conservation of India's forests and wildlife. India was one of the first countries in the world to have introduced a social forestry programme to introduce trees in non-forested areas along roadsides, canals, and railway lines.
Ecology:
Forests account for 75% of the gross primary productivity of the Earth's biosphere, and contain 80% of the Earth's plant biomass. Forest ecosystems can be found in all regions capable of sustaining tree growth, at altitudes up to the tree line, except where natural fire frequency or other disturbance is too high, or where the environment has been altered by human activity.
The latitudes 10° north and south of the equator are mostly covered in tropical rainforest, and the latitudes between 53°N and 67°N have boreal forest. As a general rule, forests dominated by angiosperms (broadleaf forests) are more species-rich than those dominated by gymnosperms (conifer, montane, or needleleaf forests), although exceptions exist.
Forests sometimes contain many tree species within a small area (as in tropical rain and temperate deciduous forests), or relatively few species over large areas (e.g., taiga and arid montane coniferous forests). Forests are often home to many animal and plant species, and biomass per unit area is high compared to other vegetation communities. Much of this biomass occurs below ground in the root systems and as partially decomposed plant detritus. The woody component of a forest contains lignin, which is relatively slow to decompose compared with other organic materials such as cellulose or carbohydrate.
Environmental Importance of Forest:
We depend on forests for our survival, from the air we breathe to the wood we use. Besides providing habitats for animals and livelihoods for humans, forests also offer watershed protection, prevent soil erosion and mitigate climate change. Yet, despite our dependence on forests, we are still allowing them to disappear.
Forests provide us with shelter, livelihoods, water, food and fuel security. All these activities directly or indirectly involve forests. Some are easy to figure out - fruits, paper and wood from trees, and so on. Others are less obvious, such as by-products that go into everyday items like medicines, cosmetics and detergents.
Looking at it beyond our narrow, human – not to mention urban – perspective, forests provide habitats to diverse animal species. They are home to 80% of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity, and they also form the source of livelihood for many different human settlements, including 60 million indigenous people.
In addition, 300 million people live in forests, including 60 million indigenous people. Yet, we are losing them. Between 1990 and 2015, the world lost some 129 million ha of forest, an area the size of South Africa. When we take away the forest, it is not just the trees that go. The entire ecosystem begins to fall apart, with dire consequences for all of us.
After Oceans, Forests are the world’s largest storehouses of carbon.
They provide ecosystem services that are critical to human welfare. These include:
Absorbing harmful greenhouse gasses that produce climate change. In tropical forests alone, a quarter of a trillion tons of carbon is stored in above and below-ground biomass.
Providing clean water for drinking, bathing, and other household needs.
Protecting watersheds and reducing or slowing the amount of erosion and chemicals that reach waterways.
Providing food and medicine.
Serving as a buffer in natural disasters like flood and rainfalls.
Providing habitat to more than half of the world’s land-based species.
Economic Importance of Forests:
Trees have a rightful place in the general economy of the country. Forestry is not a mere handmaid of agriculture but an inexhaustible reserve for providing subsistence to our growing millions. For, “Trees mean water, water means bread, and bread is life.” The Puranas, rightly said that, “One tree is equal to ten sons. And what a son! he gives moisture to land, gives breeze and shade; saves land from erosion, gives dry leaves for compost and rich fruits for food – What a son! he wants care and water but for five years, wants no milk, no nurse.”
Forests are indispensable for the national development and fully grown-up civilisation. “Indeed, civilisation has been nursed, nourished and grown to manhood in the regions of temperate natural vegetation.” A Fresh proverb rightly says, “Forests precede civilisation but deserts succeed them.”
To an agricultural country like India, their importance can hardly be exaggerated. It has been observed in the tenth Five-Year Plan that forests meet nearly 40 per cent of the country’s energy needs and 30 per cent of the fodder needs. It is estimated that about 270 million tonnes of fuel wood, 280 million tonnes of fodder, over 12 million cubic metre of timber and countless non-wood forest product are removed from the forest annually.
Benefits of Forests:
Direct Benefits:
- Although the productive functions of forests in India are not prima facie, as important as the protective functions, still they are not negligible. Contribution of forestry towards national income is increasing gradually. Forest wealth of India contributed about 0.86 per cent towards the Gross Domestic production in 1970-71. The contribution of Forestry increased to 1.8 per cent in 1990-91. The upward trend is due to the planned management of the forest produce.
- The reported value of forests was only 1.4 per cent in national counts towards net domestic product during 2000-01. It has been observed that it is an underestimate of the contribution of the forests as the value of environmental services provided by the forests are not yet considered. A study reveals that forests in India represent a huge resource in economic terms. It’s all direct benefits are accounted for forest resources, contribute around 2.9 per cent to the adjusted Net Domestic Product for the country as a whole.
- They provide fodder for about 179 million cattle, 58 million buffaloes and 120 million other livestock. They are the homes of 500 types of animals. They provide edible fruits and roots of which the poor readily avail themselves.
- They provide whole time daily employment to about 15 lakh persons engaged as wood-cutters, sawyers, carters, and craftsmen and in other related forest industries.
- They are also the homes of India’s submerged humanity—the tribal numbering 38 lakhs. They are ecologically and economically a part and parcel of the forest environment.
- Indian flora is rich in composition and value. India has 5,000 species of wood, of which about 450 are commercially valuable and are used for extracting acetic acid, acetone, methyl alcohol, certain oils, creosote and valuable drags like sulphonamide and chloroform. The total standing volume of timber in the country is 85,696 m. cu metres of which 93 per cent are non-coniferous and 7 per cent are coniferous. India’s forests provided annually about 192 lakh cu. metres of timber and firewood valued at Rs59 crores in 1964-65; 228 lakh cu. metres valued at Rs.91 crores in 1970-71; 229 lakh cu. metres valued at Rs.122 crores in 1972-73 and 165 lakh cu. metres valued at Rs.179 crores in 1974-75.
- Forests provide raw materials for a number of industries, viz. broom making, silk worm rearing, lac, toy making, leaf plate making, sawmills, match, plywood, paper and pulp, pencil making, tea chest, fibre board, chipboard, etc.
- They also provide major and minor forest produce, such as, timber, round wood, pulp-wood, charcoal, fire-wood and minor produce like bamboos, canes, drugs, spices, edible fruits and vegetables, fibres and flosses, fodder and grazing grasses, gums and resins, rubber and latex, incense and perfume woods, dyeing and tanning materials, bidileaves, vegetable oils and oil-seeds, sandal wood, oil, lac, ivory, honey, bees-wax, myrobolans, cutch and kutha, essential aromatic oil grasses like lemon grass, rosha grass, munj grass, khas, tiger grass, etc. Medicinal herbs like atropa, sarsaparila, chinchona mentha-rauvofolia, Shinali Mingli, datura, colchicum luteum, ephedra, physochlainapaelia, Japanese mint, belladona, nux vomica, aconite, tyoscyamens etc. value of minor produce exceed Rs.50 crores per year.
The most important varieties of timber produced in the forests are- semal, kikar, babul, deodar, sissoo, sal, chir pine, blue pine, mango, teak, haldu, mulberry, etc.
Exploitation of forest produce has increased at a very fast rate during the plan period. Major forest products of the country are timber, round wood, pulp and matchwood, fuel-wood and charcoal wood. Quantity of major forest products was 15,791 thousand cubic metres in 1950-51. It increased to 21,481 thousand cubic metres in 1979-80.
The woods of India cover almost every commercial use, aeroplane, agricultural implements, axe and tool handles, bentwood articles, boat and ship building, bobbins, boot laces, brushes, buildings, carts and carriages, construction and general joinery work, co-operage, electric transmission poles, engraving and printing marine piles and harbour work, match splints and boxes, mathematical instruments, packing cases and boxes, pencils and penholders, picker arms, picture framing, plywood and lamin boards, railway carriages and railway keys and brake blocks, railway sleepers, rifle parts and gunstocks, road-paving blocks, shuttles, sports goods, tent poles and tent pegs, turnery, umbrella, pen and walking sticks.
Forests are the source of various major and minor forest produce. It has been estimated that withdrawal of forest products are much beyond the carrying capacity of our forests. The current annual withdrawal of fuel wood is estimated at 235 million cubic meters against a sustainable capacity of about 48 million cubic metres. The annual demand for industrial wood is about 28 million cubic metres against the production capacity of 12 million cubic metres.
Table given below shows quantity of timber and other major forest produce in India:
In 1950-51 the forests provided major produce worth Rs.190.9 million, in 1960-61 it was worth Rs.495.0 million. Value of the major forest produce increased to about Rs.3,276 million in 1979-80. There has been continuous increase in the value of minor forest produce. In 1950-51 the forests provided minor produce worth Rs.69.2 million, the value of minor forest produce increased to Rs.1363.4 in 1979-80. Total forest produce including major and minor produce increased from Rs.260.1 million to Rs.5131.5 million during 1950-51 to 1979-80.
Table above shows the value of major and minor forest produce.
Non-Timber Forest Produce-NTFP:
NTFPs are very important gift of the forest wealth. Almost all important-NTFPs such as bamboo, sal seeds, tendu leaves are nationalised. These can be sold to government agencies. Nationalisation of NTFP was done in different states during 1960-70. The basic objective of nationalisation on NTFP was to help the poor. But the policy was much beneficial for the poor’s because it reduces the number of legal buyers. It creates obstacle in free flow of goods.
Indirect Benefits:
Forests offer many indirect benefits to the country such as:
- They render the climate more equable and increase the relative humidity of the atmosphere and increase the precipitation of the moisture.
- They regulate water supply, produce a sustained feeding of springs and tend to reduce the violent floods and make the flow of water in the rivers continuous.
- Defending the land against the evil of erosion, aridity and climate excesses, forests perform services no less valuable and no more expressible in terms of money than those rendered by the defence force of a country.
- Forests are homes of rich and varied wild life. They provide natural habitat for hill and mountain fauna. About 500 types of mammals live in Indian Forest. Lion, tiger, wild ass, panthers, barasingha, sambhar, nilgai, elephant, cheeta, chinkara, wild buffaloes, one horned rhinoceros, black buck, musk deer, different types of birds, snakes, etc., abound in Indian forests. In these forests exist national parks (Corbett, Kanha, Taroba, Palamau, and Hazaribagh), while notable sanctuaries are Kaziranga, Manas, Jaldaparara, Sirisha, Gir, Jai Samudra, Periyar and Dachigam.
- Numerous worms, insects and minute organisms feed on the humus and tunnel in the soil, thus making it suitable as a food for the plants.
- Decomposing leaves of trees increase the permeability of soil and improve its chemical and physical characteristics.
- Forests serve as strong line of defence and as a cover against aerial reconnaissance and attack. Use of artillery at close range and a free operation of mechanical units becomes extremely difficult in forests.
In brief “the trees have a great place in the economy of Nature. They hold up the mountains, they cushion the rain and storm, they discipline the rivers, they control the floods, they maintain the springs, they break the winds, they foster the birds, they keep the air cool and clean, they are the guardians of the perennial springs of water, they are the natural defenders of dust storms, they prevent erosion, they provide the fuel and timber. They make the hydro-electric scheme possible and they give us a host of other products. ”
Woytinsky and Woytinsky have rightly observed- “the protection forests afford in retarding the water run-off, in distributing rainfall, preventing erosion, reducing wind damage and safeguarding water supplies is often valued more than their output of woods.”
Forests, thus, constitute one of the most renewable natural resources.
Low Productivity of Forests and its Causes:
Indian forests are rich in varied resources but their productivity is very low. For example, in productive areas in well maintained forests, yield of about 2.75 tons per acre per annum is obtained of sal; of 4.10 tons of deodar and 1.30 tons of chir. The average per hectare production per annum of forests in India is estimated at about 0.53 cu. metres as against the world average of 2 cu. m.
Further, on an average the growing stock per capita of the forest, in use is only 5.2 cu. metres as against 12.3 cu. metres for Asia. 24.0 cu. metres for Europe. 320 cu. metres for U. S. S. R. 94.2 cu. metres for U.S.A. and 46.7 cu. metres for the world. Per hectare, the growing stock is only 28 cu. metres and the average annual increment is only 0.5 cu. metre per hectare against the world average of 2.0 cu. metres and our estimated potential of 5.0 cu. metres.
Table given above shows the gap between supply and demand for the forest produce in the country.
This requires extensive and intensive development programme for the development of the forest wealth in the country.
The revenue from India’s forests has so far been very negligible. The national average gross revenue per hectare from India’s productive forests is only Rs.21.50. The income from India’s forest land, when compared with that in other countries of the world, will appear to be dismally low as is evident from the table.
Our productivity is about one-twentieth of that in the European countries and about one-tenth less of our potential productivity.
This is due to a number of factors such as:
- Large area of unclassed State forests and the former private forests, acquired by the Government after the abolition of zamindari, are under-stocked and require to be rehabilitated. The difficulty in organizing the commercial exploitation of these products arise from their erratic distribution. Some products like Ephedra, Ratanjot, and Kuth occur at high elevations. Myrobolans are usually dispersed over extensive areas rendering the cost of collection prohibitive. Herbs suffer from the same handicap.
- Customary forest rights and concessions granted to the tribals and forest people for the grazing of their cattle in the forests and removing timber, fuel and manure and minor forest produce have been very liberally exercised by them for a long time and this has led to the reduction of forest yield. Further, in the unreserved forests and the forests managed by the Revenue Department, cultivation has long been permitted and this has heavily encroached upon the forest land.
- The utilisation of forest trees for fuel and charcoal is a wasteful method and leaves much to be desired.
- The large animal population reduces the possibility of efficient forest management, preservation and expansion through afforestation.
- Some of the forest (about 43 per cent) have yet been opened up sufficiently and therefore, only the most valuable trees can be extracted economically, others go to waste. Besides very few types in Indian forests are gregarious to enable their economical exploitation.
- An appreciable proportion of trees are malformed or consist of species which are slow-growing and poor yielders.
- Antiquated transport and lack of proper bridle paths-rope ways and the road system in the forest areas are other bottlenecks in the full utilization of resources.
- The methods of felling, fashioning and slow means of transportation entail much wastage and the costs are also high.
- Large quantities of inferior woods which could be put to economic use through seasoning and preservation treatment remain only partially utilised.
- There are no commercial forests and most of the forests are meant for protective purposes. Reserved forests represent 48 per cent- Protected forests 32 per cent and unclassified forests 20 per cent. Protected and unclassified forests are forests in name only.
- The yield from the forest is low because static conservancy (or natural growth of forests) is even now practised. This has its importance when scientific management had just begun. But now it is not suitable.
- There are over one million hectares of over-aged inaccessible forests in H. P. and U. P. in remote areas which are deteriorating and await immediate exploitation.
- The stands in these forest areas are good and valuable, they need good management practices.
- Many aspects of wood possess such defects as excessive sharpness, heaviness, twisted grains, brittleness, presence of oils or abrasive materials, poor seasoning ability and impregnation qualities which have rendered them economically useless.
- Lastly, inadequate protection against fire, plant diseases, insects, lack of complete information regarding timber supplies and other forest resources, inadequate research facilities and insufficiency of trained personnel are other factors which militate against full production.
The obvious requirement, therefore, is to undertake silvicultural operations on a much wider scale.
Increased output can be obtained from year to year through:
- Adoption of intensive development schemes including the planting of quick growing, suitable and high yielding species-indigenous or exotic in compact blocks in suitable locations.
- Selection of high yield areas,
- Introduction of improved techniques of logging and extraction; anisotropic,
- Development of forest communications for opening the hitherto inaccessible forests,
- Increased use of preservation and seasoning processes by establishing preservation plant and seasoning kilns in the heart of the forest area,
- The linking of forest programme with the schemes of industrial development,
- Protecting forests from depleting forces fires, adopting quarantine measures air dusting and spraying; and,
- Undertaking a reliable inventory of forest resources, their extent, location, volume, composition, standing wood volume, rate of growth and the quantities of various products, at which these could be procured by industries, statistics of removal, employment opportunities, trade prospects and consumption of forest products.
Forest Management Planning:
Forests are a renewable resource. Forest management and development planning should aim at utilising the available forest resources and simultaneous regenerating the forest of the species, similar to the existing ones or quicker grown, more valuable and suitable for a particular site. An objective of forest management is to ensure at least sustained and generally increasing yields of forest products in perpetuity. For this, it is necessary to safeguard that the site quality of any particular forest does not deteriorate. The other objective is the maximisation of benefits in order to ensure physical protection and simultaneously to produce the most needed species.
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