We share this planet with millions of otherliving beings, starting from micro-organismsand bacteria, lichens to banyan trees,elephants and blue whales. This entirehabitat that we live in has immensebiodiversity. We humans along with all livingorganisms form a complex web of ecologicalsystem in which we are only a part andvery much dependent on this system forour own existence. For example, the plants,animals and micro-organisms re-create thequality of the air we breathe, the water wedrink and the soil that produces our foodwithout which we cannot survive. Forestsplay a key role in the ecological system asthese are also the primary producers onwhich all other living beings depend.

Flora and Fauna in India

If you look around, you will be able to findthat there are some animals and plants whichare unique in your area. In fact, India isone of the world’s richest countries in termsof its vast array of biological diversity. Thisis possibly twice or thrice the number yetto be discovered. You have already studiedin detail about the extent and variety offorest and wildlife resources in India. Youmay have realised the importance ofthese resources in our daily life. Thesediverse f lora and fauna are so wel lintegrated in our daily life that we takethese for granted. But, lately, they areunder great stress mainy due to insensitivityto our environment.

Narak! My Lord, you are the creator of music

in the world of Lepchas

Oh Narak! My Lord, let me dedicate

myself to you

Let me gather your music from the

springs, the rivers, the mountains, the forests,

the insects and the animals

Let me gather your music from the sweet

breeze and offer it to you

Source: Lepcha folk song from northern part of

West Bengal

Biodiversity or Biological Diversity isimmensely rich in wildlife and cultivatedspecies, diverse in form and function butclosely integrated in a system throughmultiple network of interdependencies.

Find out stories prevalent in your regionwhich are about the harmonious relationshipbetween human beings and nature.

Some estimates suggest that at least10 per cent of India’s recorded wild floraand 20 per cent of its mammals are onthe threatened list. Many of these wouldnow be categorised as ‘critical’, that is onthe verge of extinction like the cheetah,pink-headed duck, mountain quail, forestspotted owlet, and plants like madhuca

insignis (a wild variety of mahua) andhubbardia heptaneuron, (a species ofgrass). In fact, no one can say how manyspecies may have already been lost. Today,we only talk of the larger and more visibleanimals and plants that have becomeextinct but what about smaller animalslike insects and plants?

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Let us now understand the different

categories of existing plants and animal

species. Based on the International Union

for Conservation of Nature and NaturalResources (IUCN), we can classify as

follows –

Normal Species: Species whose population

levels are considered to be normal fortheir survival, such as cattle, sal, pine,

rodents, etc.

Endangered Species: These are species

which are in danger of extinction. Thesurvival of such species is difficult if the

negative factors that have led to a decline

in their population continue to operate. The

examples of such species are black buck,crocodile, Indian wild ass, Indian rhino, lion

tailed macaque, sangai (brow anter deer in

Manipur), etc.

Vanishing Forests

The dimensions of deforestation in India arestaggering. The forest and tree cover in thecountry is estimated at 79.42 million hectare,which is 24.16 per cent of the totalgeographical area (dense forest 12.2 per cent;open forest 9.14 per cent; and mangrove0.14 per cent). According to the State of ForestReport (2015), the dense forest cover hasincreased by 3,775 sq km since 2013.However, this apparent increase in the forestcover is due to conservation measures,management interventions and plantation,etc., by different agencies.

15FOREST AND WILDLIFE RESOURCES

Fig. 2.1

Vulnerable Species: These are species

whose population has declined to levels fromwhere it is likely to move into the endangered

category in the near future if the negative

factors continue to operate. The examples

of such species are blue sheep, Asiaticelephant, Gangetic dolphin, etc.

Rare Species: Species with small

population may move into the endangered

or vulnerable category if the negative factorsaffecting them continue to operate. The

examples of such species are the Himalayan

brown bear, wild Asiatic buffalo, desert fox

and hornbill, etc.

Endemic Species: These are species which

are only found in some particular areas

usually isolated by natural or geographical

barriers. Examples of such species are theAndaman teal, Nicobar pigeon, Andaman

wild pig, mithun in Arunachal Pradesh.

Extinct Species: These are species which

are not found after searches of known orlikely areas where they may occur. A species

may be extinct from a local area, region,

country, continent or the entire earth.

Examples of such species are the Asiaticcheetah, pink head duck.

Asiatic Cheetah: where did they go?

The world’s fastest land mammal, thecheetah (Acinonyx jubantus), is a unique andspecialised member of the cat family andcan move at the speed of 112 km./hr. Thecheetah is often mistaken for a leopard. Itsdistinguishing marks are the long teardrop-shaped lines on each side of the nose fromthe corner of its eyes to its mouth. Prior tothe 20th century, cheetahs were widelydistributed throughout Africa and Asia.Today, the Asian cheetah is nearly extinctdue to a decline of available habitat andprey. The species was declared extinct inIndia long back in 1952.

What are the negative factors that cause suchfearful depletion of the flora and fauna?

If you look around, you will be able tofind out how we have transformed nature into

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16 CONTEMPORARY INDIA – II

through the ironically-termed “enrichmentplantation”, in which a single commerciallyvaluable species was extensively plantedand other species eliminated. For instance,teak monoculture has damaged the naturalforest in South India and Chir Pine (Pinusroxburghii) plantations in the Himalayashave replaced the Himalayan oak (Querciusspp.) and Rhododendron forests.

Large-scale development projects have alsocontributed significantly to the loss of forests.

Since 1951, over 5,000 sq km of forest was

cleared for river valley projects. Clearing of

forests is still continuing with projects likethe Narmada Sagar Project in Madhya

Pradesh, which would inundate 40,000

hectares of forest. Mining is another important

factor behind deforestation. The Buxa TigerReserve in West Bengal is seriously threatened

by the ongoing dolomite mining. It has

disturbed the natural habitat of many species

and blocked the migration route of severalothers, including the great Indian elephant.

Fig. 2.2: A few extinct, rare and endangered species

a resource obtaining directly and indirectlyfrom the forests and wildlife – wood, barks,leaves, rubber, medicines, dyes, food, fuel,fodder, manure, etc. So it is we ourselves whohave depleted our forests and wildlife. Thegreatest damage inflicted on Indian forestswas during the colonial period due to theexpansion of the railways, agriculture,commercial and scientific forestry and miningactivities. Even after Independence,agricultural expansion continues to be one ofthe major causes of depletion of forestresources. Between 1951 and 1980, accordingto the Forest Survey of India, over 26,200 sq.km. of forest area was converted intoagricultural land all over India. Substantialparts of the tribal belts, especially in the north-eastern and central India, have been deforestedor degraded by shifting cultivation (jhum), atype of ‘slash and burn’ agriculture.

Are colonial forest policiesto be blamed?

Some of our environmental activists say thatthe promotion of a few favoured species, inmany parts of India, has been carried

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17FOREST AND WILDLIFE RESOURCES

Many foresters and environmentalists holdthe view that the greatest degrading factorsbehind the depletion of forest resources aregrazing and fuel-wood collection. Though,there may be some substance in theirargument, yet, the fact remains that asubstantial part of the fuel-fodder demand ismet by lopping rather than by felling entiretrees. The forest ecosystems are repositoriesof some of the country’s most valuable forestproducts, minerals and other resources thatmeet the demands of the rapidly expandingindustrial-urban economy. These protectedareas, thus mean different things to differentpeople, and therein lies the fertile groundfor conflicts.

Habitat destruction, hunting, poaching,over-exploitation, environmental pollution,poisoning and forest fires are factors, whichhave led to the decline in India’s biodiversity.Other important causes of environmentaldestruction are unequal access, inequitableconsumption of resources and differentialsharing of responsibility for environmentalwell-being. Over-population in third worldcountries is often cited as the cause ofenvironmental degradation. However, anaverage American consumes 40 times moreresources than an average Somalian. Similarly,the richest five per cent of Indian societyprobably cause more ecological damagebecause of the amount they consume than

Fig. 2.3

The Himalayan Yew in trouble

The Himalayan Yew (Taxus wallachiana) isa medicinal plant found in various parts ofHimachal Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh.A chemical compound called ‘taxol’ isextracted from the bark, needles, twigs androots of this tree, and it has been successfully

Tribal girls using bamboo saplings in anursery at Mukhali near Silent Valley

Tribal women selling minor forest produce Leaf litter collection by women folk

used to treat some cancers – the drug is nowthe biggest selling anti-cancer drug in theworld. The species is under great threat dueto over-exploitation. In the last one decade,thousands of yew trees have dried up invarious parts of Himachal Pradesh andArunachal Pradesh.

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18 CONTEMPORARY INDIA – II

Project Tiger

Tiger is one of the key wildlife species inthe faunal web. In 1973, the authoritiesrealised that the tiger population had

the poorest 25 per cent. The former sharesminimum responsibilities for environmentalwell-being. The question is: who is consumingwhat, from where and how much?

subcontinent. It is imperative to adapt tosound forest and wildlife conservationstrategies.

Conservation of Forest and Wildlife inIndia

Conservation in the background of rapiddecline in wildlife population and forestry hasbecome essential. But why do we need toconserve our forests and wildlife?Conservation preserves the ecological diversityand our life support systems – water, air andsoil. It also preserves the genetic diversity ofplants and animals for better growth of speciesand breeding. For example, in agriculture,we are still dependent on traditional cropvarieties. Fisheries too are heavily dependenton the maintenance of aquatic biodiversity.

In the 1960s and 1970s, conservationistsdemanded a national wildlife protectionprogramme. The Indian Wildlife (Protection)Act was implemented in 1972, with variousprovisions for protecting habitats. An all-India list of protected species was alsopublished. The thrust of the programme wastowards protecting the remaining populationof certain endangered species by banninghunting, giving legal protection to theirhabitats, and restricting trade in wildlife.Subsequently, central and many stategovernments established national parks andwildlife sanctuaries about which you havealready studied. The central government alsoannounced several projects for protectingspecific animals, which were gravelythreatened, including the tiger, the one-horned rhinoceros, the Kashmir stag orhangul, three types of crocodiles – freshwater crocodile, saltwater crocodile and theGharial, the Asiatic lion, and others. Mostrecently, the Indian elephant, black buck(chinkara), the great Indian bustard(godawan) and the snow leopard, etc. havebeen given full or partial legal protectionagainst hunting and trade throughout India.

Do you know that over half of India’snatural forests are gone, one-third of itswetlands drained out, 70 per cent of itssurface water bodies polluted, 40 percent of its mangroves wiped out, andwith continued hunting and trade of wildanimals and commercially valuableplants, thousands of plant and animalspecies are heading towards extinction?

The destruction of forests and wildlife isnot just a biological issue. The biological lossis strongly correlated with the loss of culturaldiversity. Such losses have increasinglymarginalised and impoverished manyindigenous and other forest-dependentcommunities, who directly depend on variouscomponents of the forest and wildlife for food,drink, medicine, culture, spirituality, etc.Within the poor, women are affected morethan men. In many societies, women bearthe major responsibility of collection of fuel,fodder, water and other basic subsistenceneeds. As these resources are depleted, thedrudgery of women increases and sometimesthey have to walk for more than 10 km tocollect these resources. This causes serioushealth problems for women and negligenceof home and children because of the increasedhours of work, which often has serious socialimplications. The indirect impact ofdegradation such as severe drought ordeforestation-induced floods, etc. also hits thepoor the hardest. Poverty in these cases is adirect outcome of environmental destruction.Therefore, forest and wildlife, are vital to thequality of life and environment in the

Have you noticed any activity which leadsto the loss of biodiversity around you? Writea note on it and suggest some measures toprevent it.

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19FOREST AND WILDLIFE RESOURCES

The conservation projects are nowfocusing on biodiversity rather than on a fewof its components. There is now a moreintensive search for different conservationmeasures. Increasingly, even insects are

Fig. 2.4: Rhino and deer in Kaziranga National Park

dwindled to 1,827 from an estimated55,000 at the turn of the century. The majorthreats to tiger population are numerous,such as poaching for trade, shrinkinghabitat, depletion of prey base species,growing human population, etc. The tradeof tiger skins and the use of their bones intraditional medicines, especially in theAsian countries left the tiger population onthe verge of extinction. Since India andNepal provide habitat to about two-thirdsof the surviving tiger population in theworld, these two nations became primetargets for poaching and illegal trading.

“Project Tiger”, one of the well-publicised wildlife campaigns in the world,was launched in 1973. Tiger conservationhas been viewed not only as an effort tosave an endangered species, but withequal importance as a means ofpreserving biotypes of sizeable magnitude.Corbett National Park in Uttarakhand,Sunderbans National Park in West Bengal,Bandhavgarh National Park in MadhyaPradesh, Sariska Wildlife Sanctuary inRajasthan, Manas Tiger Reserve in Assamand Periyar Tiger Reserve in Kerala aresome of the tiger reserves of India.

beginning to find a place in conservationplanning. In the notification under WildlifeAct of 1980 and 1986, several hundredbutterflies, moths, beetles, and one dragonflyhave been added to the list of protectedspecies. In 1991, for the first time plants werealso added to the list, starting with six species.

Types and Distribution of Forest andWildlife Resources

Even if we want to conserve our vast forestand wildlife resources, it is rather difficult tomanage, control and regulate them. In India,much of its forest and wildlife resources areeither owned or managed by the governmentthrough the Forest Department or othergovernment departments. These are classifiedunder the following categories.

(i) Reserved Forests: More than half of thetotal forest land has been declaredreserved forests. Reserved forests areregarded as the most valuable as far asthe conservation of forest and wildliferesources are concerned.

(ii) Protected Forests: Almost one-third ofthe total forest area is protected forest, asdeclared by the Forest Department. Thisforest land are protected from any furtherdepletion.

Collect more information on the wildlifesanctuaries and national parks of India andcite their locations on the map of India.

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20 CONTEMPORARY INDIA – II

(iii) Unclassed Forests: These are otherforests and wastelands belonging toboth government and private individualsand communities.

Reserved and protected forests are alsoreferred to as permanent forest estatesmaintained for the purpose of producingtimber and other forest produce, and forprotective reasons. Madhya Pradesh has thelargest area under permanent forests,constituting 75 per cent of its total forest area.Jammu and Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh,Uttarakhand, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, WestBengal, and Maharashtra have largepercentages of reserved forests of its total forestarea whereas Bihar, Haryana, Punjab,Himachal Pradesh, Odisha and Rajasthanhave a bulk of it under protected forests. AllNorth-eastern states and parts of Gujarat havea very high percentage of their forests asunclassed forests managed by localcommunities.

Community and Conservation

Conservation strategies are not new in our

country. We often ignore that in India, forests

are also home to some of the traditional

communities. In some areas of India, localcommunities are struggling to conserve these

habitats along with government officials,

recognising that only this will secure their

own long-term livelihood. In Sariska TigerReserve, Rajasthan, villagers have fought

against mining by citing the Wildlife Protection

Act. In many areas, villagers themselves are

protecting habitats and explicitly rejectinggovernment involvement. The inhabitants of

five villages in the Alwar district of Rajasthan

have declared 1,200 hectares of forest as the

Bhairodev Dakav ‘Sonchuri’, declaring theirown set of rules and regulations which do

not allow hunting, and are protecting the

wildlife against any outside encroachments.

Can you find out the reasons for the above mentioned problems?

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21FOREST AND WILDLIFE RESOURCES

Sacred groves - a wealth of diverseand rare species

Nature worship is an age old tribal beliefbased on the premise that all creations ofnature have to be protected. Such beliefshave preserved several virgin forests inpristine form called Sacred Groves (theforests of God and Goddesses). Thesepatches of forest or parts of large forests havebeen left untouched by the local people andany interference with them is banned.

Certain societies revere a particular treewhich they have preserved from timeimmemorial. The Mundas and the Santhal ofChota Nagpur region worship mahua (Bassialatifolia) and kadamba (Anthocaphaluscadamba) trees, and the tribals of Odisha andBihar worship the tamarind (Tamarindusindica) and mango (Mangifera indica) treesduring weddings. To many of us, peepal andbanyan trees are considered sacred.

Indian society comprises severalcultures, each with its own set of traditionalmethods of conserving nature and itscreations. Sacred qualities are oftenascribed to springs, mountain peaks, plantsand animals which are closely protected. Youwill find troops of macaques and langursaround many temples. They are fed dailyand treated as a part of temple devotees. Inand around Bishnoi villages in Rajasthan,herds of blackbuck, (chinkara), nilgai andpeacocks can be seen as an integral part ofthe community and nobody harms them.

The famous Chipko movement in theHimalayas has not only successfully resisteddeforestation in several areas but has alsoshown that community afforestation withindigenous species can be enormouslysuccessful. Attempts to revive the traditionalconservation methods or developing newmethods of ecological farming are nowwidespread. Farmers and citizen’s groups likethe Beej Bachao Andolan in Tehri andNavdanya have shown that adequate levelsof diversified crop production without the useof synthetic chemicals are possible andeconomically viable.

In India joint forest management (JFM)programme furnishes a good example forinvolving local communities in themanagement and restoration of degradedforests. The programme has been in formalexistence since 1988 when the state of Odishapassed the first resolution for joint forestmanagement. JFM depends on the formationof local (village) institutions that undertakeprotection activities mostly on degraded forestland managed by the forest department. Inreturn, the members of these communitiesare entitled to intermediary benefits like non-timber forest produces and share in the timberharvested by ‘successful protection’.

The clear lesson from the dynamics ofboth environmental destruction andreconstruction in India is that localcommunities everywhere have to be involvedin some kind of natural resourcemanagement. But there is still a long way togo before local communities are at the centre-stage in decision-making. Accept only thoseeconomic or developmental activities, that arepeople centric, environment-friendly andeconomically rewarding.

“The tree is a peculiar organism of unlimited kindness and benevolence andmakes no demand for its sustenance, and extends generously the products of itslife activity. It affords protection to all beings, offering shade even to the axemenwho destroy it”.

Gautama Buddha (487 B.C.)

Write a short essay on any practices whichyou may have observed and practised inyour everyday lives that conserve and protectthe environment around you.

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EXERCISES EXERCISES EXERCISES EXERCISES EXERCISES

1. Multiple choice questions.

(i) Which of these statements is not a valid reason for the depletion of floraand fauna?

(a) Agricultural expansion.

(b) Large scale developmental projects.

(c) Grazing and fuel wood collection.

(d) Rapid industrialisation and urbanisation.

(ii) Which of the following conservation strategies do not directly involvecommunity participation?

(a) Joint forest management (c) Chipko Movement

(b) Beej Bachao Andolan (d) Demarcation of Wildlife sanctuaries

2. Match the following animals with their category of existence.

Animals/Plants Category of existence

Black buck Extinct

Asiatic elephant Rare

Andaman wild pig Endangered

Himalayan brown bear Vulnerable

Pink head duck Endemic

3. Match the following.

Reserved forests other forests and wastelands belonging to bothgovernment and private individuals andcommunities

Protected forests forests are regarded as most valuable as far as theconservation of forest and wildlife resources

Unclassed forests forest lands are protected from any furtherdepletion

4. Answer the following questions in about 30 words.

(i) What is biodiversity? Why is biodiversity important for human lives?

(ii) How have human activities affected the depletion of flora and fauna? Explain.

5. Answer the following questions in about 120 words.

(i) Describe how communities have conserved and protected forests and wildlifein India?

(ii) Write a note on good practices towards conserving forest and wildlife.

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