Tag: sustainability of natural resources

In India 6, 77,088 square kilometer of land is under forest cover. The figure was 30 percent at the beginning of 20th century. About 24% of Indian land is covered by forest.The 2013 Forest Survey of India states its forest cover increased to 69.8 million hectares by 2012.

Forests have three important types of function as following :

1. Productive functions (or economic uses) - Forests provide a number of articles of economic use e.g : wood, resins, alkaloids etc.
2. Protective functions (or ecological uses) - Forest provide protection from radiation, heat, noise, besides providing protection against pollution and soil erosion.
3. Regulative functions - Forests helps maintain ecological balance by participating in biogeochemical cycles, checking flood and droughts etc.

India has three biodiversity hot spots Indo Burma, Western Ghats and Himalaya. Western Ghats occur along the western coast of India for a distance of about 1600 kilometers in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala extending over to Sri lanka. At low elevation up to 500 meters above sea level, the area contains tropical evergreen rain forests, while semi evergreen forests occur at a level of 500 meter to 1500 meters. Major centers of biodiversity are Agasthyamalai Hills, Silent Valley and Amambalam reserve. There is a high degree of endemism of rare plants and animals as well as richness of species of flowering plants, amphibians, reptiles, some mammals and butterflies.

Forests have following important types of function-

1. Productive functions- forests provide a number of articles of economic use e.g., wood, resins, alkaloids, medicines etc.
2. Protective functions- forest provide protection from radiation, heat, noise, besides providing protection against pollution and soil erosion, maintaining food chains and webs and thus maintaining ecological balance.
3. Regulative functions- forests helps maintain ecological balance by participating in biogeochemical cycles, checking flood and droughts etc. 

Joint forest management or JFM is a programme launched by Government of India in 1988 and guidelines issued in 1990. It aims at establishing partnership between local communities and state forest departments. It is practised in 10.25 million hectares of degraded forests through 36,075 village forest protection committees. It is useful to local and tribal people as they become partners in conservation of forests.

Wildlife is an exhaustible natural resource. They are present in limited numbers and some are already extinct. 

The 'United Nations Conference on Environment and Development' (UNCED), also known as the 'Rio Summit', was a major United Nations conference held in Rio de Janeiro from 3 to 14 June 1992.

Sacred groves of India are forest fragments of varying sizes, which are communally protected, and which usually have a significant religious connotation for the protecting community. Hunting and logging are usually strictly prohibited within these patches. Other forms of forest usage like honey collection and deadwood collection are sometimes allowed on a sustainable basis. Traditionally, and in some cases even today, members of the community take turns to protect the grove. 

The Sundarbans is a natural region in West Bengal and Bangladesh. It is the largest single block of tidal halophytic mangrove forest in the world. The Sundarbans covers approximately 10,000 square kilometres (3,900 sq mi) of which 60 percent is in Bangladesh with the remainder in India. The Sundarbans is a UNESCO world heritage site.

Tropical rainforests of India are found in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the Western Ghats, which fringe the Arabian Sea, the coastline of peninsular India, and the greater Assam region in the north-east.