forest

This  essay “Importance of forests” is for the college and school students to get an overall idea about this

Forests are gifts of nature. Human evolution itself has taken place in the forests. A large part of humanity still lives deep inside forests, particularly in the tropical and the equatorial regions of the earth. Yet with the spread of civilization man has not only spurned the forests but has been ruthlessly destroying them. It is on historical record that the vast Sahara desert of today once used to be full of thick forests. But the men of ancient civilizations hacked at these forests with a vengeance inviting doom for themselves. The scenario today is not much different, alas. And in our country the situation is much worse.
India’s forest area is hardly 23 per cent of the total land area which is at least 10 per cent less than the world average. It has been estimated that India has lost around 4 millions hectares of forests land since its independence. Fortunately, under Nehru’s dynamic leadership, the regressive trend was arrested with the formulation of a National Forest policy in 1952, under which the forest area in the country was to be steadily raised to at least a third of the total land area. The government has been taking more and more steps towards the conservation of forests, and through social forestry systematic a forestation has been going on in all parts of the country.
Why is conservation of forests and wild-life so important? The destruction of the forests and the wild-life in them will mean the gravest hazard to the ecological balance. The forests and wild-life are almost inextricably bound up with each other. The flora and the fauna are mutually linked up for their existence. They constitute a cycle of nature which if distributed if in any segment will spell doom for the natural world, and hence for man. If we keep on cutting the forests and killing the wild animals, we will only be seriously undermining the ecological balance which is so vital for our own survival. In fact, the forest, the wild animal and man constitute the fundamental triangle of nature, with forests as the baseline. Break any of the sides of this triangle of nature and the whole system will ultimately collapse.
Deforestation leads to denudation and erosion which in turn brings about infertility of soil and failure of rains. It creates a vicious circle. If you destroy vegetation, you accelerate erosion, which leads to desertification, therefore no more rains, and no more vegetation. The whole system of ecological functioning is so complex and intertwined with vegetation, bio-mass and wild-life that so separate them from one another is just impossible. And man’s survival is vitally bound up with the maintenance of this ecological balance.
We cannot over-emphasize the importance of the forests in maintaining the ecological balance of nature. They conserve the soil, regulate the rainfall and the floods and maintain the eco-system of the flora and the fauna. They provide us with forest products in the form of wood, leaves, herbs, gums, resin and a thousand other useful materials, providing livelihood to thousands of people. They protect and sustain the lives of millions and millions of wild-life creatures, from the tiniest insects to the mightiest pachyderms.