Forests and Wildlife Resources

The second important natural resource is forests. Forests have a lot of significance in our lives. We get a wide variety of things from forests and wild animals also live in them.

But due to many reasons like increasing human population, setting up of industries, building houses, traffic, forests are being cut. As a result of this, the number of forests as well as wildlife is ever decreasing.

Forests are natural areas, which include naturally grown trees and freely living wildlife. Forests can be replanted. This means that forests are renewable resources. Forests serve as a producer as well as a protector. Forests prevent flooding.

We get many useful substances from forests. For example, wood, lac, tendu leaf, different kinds of medicines, gum, rhizomes, perfume, etc.

Deforestation (cutting down forests)

Nowadays due to increase in human population, there has been a problem of places for people to live, which has become a very common cause to cut forests. Cutting trees and forests in this way is called deforestation. There are many reasons for deforestation, some of which are:

For construction of road, dam and rail tracks.
For mining and quarrying process.
To obtain raw material for industries.
To meet the demand of increasing land for farming.
To meet the increasing demand for fuel and timber.

Conservation of Forests

Why do we need to conserve forests? Forests are our natural resources. It is a place for many animals to live. Forests are not only an important part of our environment, but they also contribute to our economic condition. Forests prevent soil erosion and air pollution and provide shelter to wildlife. If you eliminate the place of living of wildlife, then the number of wildlife will decrease, due to which the natural balance deteriorates. Therefore, there is a need to save forests and to plant new forests.

Wildlife Resources

Wild animals are animals that are not directly used by humans in general. These include thousands of species of mammals, reptiles, birds, fish and amphibians. Indian wildlife includes lion, cheetah, elephant, deer, reindeer, duck, leopard, rhinoceros, son bird, crocodile, tortoise etc.

National park is the place where all types of wildlife get protection. But apart from the forest area, the area or place where wild animals and birds are kept in their natural environment (atmosphere) is called wildlife sanctuary.