Contemporary India - II Chapter 2: Forest and Wildlife Resources

Flora and Fauna in India

India is world's one of the richest countries in terms of biological diversity because various types of flora and fauna are found.

Conservation of Forest and Wildlife in India

Why to conserve?

It is essential due to following reasons:

• Rapid decline in the population of wildlife and forestry
• It preserves the ecological diversity and our life support systems like water, air and soil.
• It also preserves the genetic diversity of plants and animals for better growth of species and breeding.

Wildlife Protection Act

Key Points

• The Wildlife Protection Act, was implemented in 1972 with various provisions for protecting habitats.
• Under this act, an all India list of protected species was published.
• The main aim of the programme was to protect the remaining population of certain endangered species by:
  • Banning hunting
  • Giving legal protection to their habitats
  • Restricting trade in wildlife
• Also, central and many state governments established national parks and wildlife sanctuaries.
• The central government also announced several projects for protecting specific animals, which were gravely threatened.
• In the notification under Wildlife Act of 1980 and 1986, several hundred butterflies, moths, beetles, and one dragonfly have been added to the list of protected species.
• In 1991, for the first time plants were also added to the list, starting with six species.

Important Question and Answer

Project Tiger

Need for Project Tiger

In 1973, the population of tigers decreased from an estimated 55,000 to 1827 in a century.

There were numerous reasons for this threat to the tiger population they were as follows:

• Poaching for trade
• Shrinking habitat
• Depletion of prey base species
• Growing human population
• The trade of tiger skins and the use of their bones in traditional medicines, especially in the Asian countries

India and Nepal provide habitat to about two-thirds of the surviving tiger population in the world, so, this two countries became the prime targets for poaching and illegal trading.

Tiger Reserves in India

Types and Distribution of Forest and Wildlife Resources

In India, much of its forest and wildlife resources are either owned or managed by the government through the Forest Department or other government departments. These are classified into following categories:

Reserved Forests

• More than half of the total forest land has been declared reserved forests.
• Reserved forests are regarded as the most valuable in terms of the conservation of forest and wildlife resources.
• Jammu and Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and Maharashtra have large percentages of reserved forests of its total forest area.

Protected Forests

• Almost one-third of the total forest area is protected forest, as declared by the Forest Department.
• This forest land are protected from any further depletion.
• Local people are allowed here to Bihar, Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha and Rajasthan have a bulk of it under protected forests.

Permanent Forest

• Reserved and protected forests are also referred to as permanent forest estates maintained for the purpose of producing timber and other forest produce, and for protective reasons.
• Madhya Pradesh has the largest area under permanent forests, constituting 75 per cent of its total forest area. [MCQ]

Unclassed Forests

• These are other forests and wastelands belonging to both government and private individuals and communities.
• All North-Eastern states and parts of Gujarat have a very high percentage of their forests as unclassed forests managed by local communities.

Community and Conservation [VERY IMPORTANT SECTION]

• In Sariska Tiger Reserve, Rajasthan, villagers have fought against mining by citing the Wildlife Protection Act.
• The inhabitants of five villages in the Alwar district of Rajasthan have declared 1,200 hectares of forest as the Bhairodev Dakav 'Sonchuri', declaring their own set of rules and regulations which do not allow hunting, and are protecting the wildlife against any outside involvement.
• The famous Chipko movement in the Himalayas has not only successfully resisted deforestation in several areas but has also shown that community Afforestation with indigenous species can be enormously successful.
• The Beej Bachao Andolan in Tehri and Navdanya have shown that adequate levels of diversified crop production without the use of synthetic chemicals are possible and economically viable.

Joint Forest Management Programme (JFM)

• A good example of involving local communities in the management and restoration of degraded forests.
• The programme has been in formal existence since 1988 when the state of Odisha passed the first resolution for joint forest management. [MCQ]
• JFM depends on the formation of local (village) institutions that undertake protection activities mostly on degraded forest land managed by the forest department.
• In return, the members of these communities get a share on non-timber forest produces and share in the timber harvested by 'successful protection'.