Pic - : India's Contribution to the World in the sector of " FOREST "
Forests in India : A
“ PATHETIC ” contribution to the Indian “ GDP ”
When one thinks
and notices the vast forest that covers about 28% of the land of India, one
feels and gets to think that with such a vast and a huge reservoir of forest
Indian would be the greatest and one of the best of the world when it comes to
the contribution of the forest to the Indian economy.
However the
actual picture is very far from thr truth. It is so pitiable and it is so horrifying to note and say that India stands
no-where either in the world in terms of contributing to the GDP of the WORLD
or within the country, India hardly gets anything worth from the forest to it’s
contribution to the national GDP from the forest.
The contribution
from the forest to the Indian GDP even does not stands amongst the first three
in terms of the contributor.
Pic :: The Sector
Contribution Of The Industry To The Indian GDP
Here from the
above picture one could easily visualize that the sector contribution of the forest to
the overall Indian GDP is nothing as it hardly contributes anything worth to
the Indian GDP .
It is so
intriguing that a country whose 28% is densely covered by the tress and the
shrubs hardly contributes anything to the Indian GDP.The contribution of the
forest to the Indian GDP per annum ought to be 3% of the entire GDP growth of
India but it hardly stands at 2% and even less that that. Actually it is said that
the contribution from the forest to the Indian GDP is less than even 1.5%.
Indian Forest : Rich In
Diversity
India’s
forests are rich in diversity and nature, ranging from the dry alpine forests
of Ladakh in the north to the tropical moist rain forests of Kerala in the
south and from the thorny forests of the desert tracts in the west to the wet
evergreen forests of north-east India.
The land
science of India aided by the changing environment that ranges in India from the nook to the corners
of the lands that belongs to India, is responsible for different kind of tress
and plants as well as different kind of shrubs that grows on the land of India.
This is one reason that the different part of India has different vegetation .and
because of this there are different kind of zoological and botanical beings
that are found in different part of the country.It is because of this that the
species found in one part of the country or at one place is not found in the
other place. Thus India is a different kind of a diversified country.
Pic - :: Forest Recycle Of India
The above
picture in brief and inscribed here tells the actual cycle that ought to be
followed while preserving and conserving the forest and it’s natural resources
but in India, it hardly does anything of
that nature. The forest as a natural source has failed to sustain the supply
and it’s factor and there is neither any committee that stands at the village
to keep the cycle of the forest produce
and it’s availability in terms of it’s distribution and the village committee
in terms of it’s action to maintain the cyclic resources again to put it on the
pipleline for the cycle to keep on sustaining it’s process that can be found
out to be existing and alive at India.
The “ endemic” and the “ epidemic
” :: Plant Wealth is 12 %
Over 40,000 plant species are
found in these forests of which 7000 are endemic. India is
the home of about 3000 trees.
The plant wealth of India represents about 12
per cent of that of the entire world. The total geographical area of
India is 32, 87,263 sq km, of
which about 6, 75,500 sq km—equal to
22.50 per cent—is under forests.
Pic - :: Forest land Diverted For
Industrial produce
According
to the National Forest Policy (1952) about 33 per cent of the geographical area
should be under forest. However, the existing forest area is much below the
desired level. The areas under forest cover in India have been shown here and the
Himalayan mountains, Bhabhar and Tarai, Western Chats, Eastern Ghats,
Bundelkhand, Beghelkhand, Chotanagpur Plateau, Nilgiris, and the hills of
Peninsular India are the main areas of Indian forests. Unfortunately, about 5
to 6 per cent of the total forest area of the country is under the category of
degraded forests.
The reason
why the 33 % of the forest land does not seems to exist is because of the fact
that at many places the forest has been deforested in terms of the actual
forest land being diverted to the one’s who wanted to start the industrial business
or to them who wanted to lay the residential areas over those land. That is one
of the basic reason about why in this country the forest land has shrinked and
decreased to the size.
The forest
areas in India is much below the world average of 34.5 per cent as compared to
some other countries and the names of the some that have a large area of it’s
land under the forest are, and that of
Brazil (57 per cent), Sweden (58 per cent), USA (42 per cent), Germany (41 per
cent), and Canada (36 per cent).Similarly, the per head forest area in
India is only 0.07 hectares as against the world average of 1.10 hectares,
Canada at 23 hectares, Brazil 8.6 hectares, Australia 5 hectares, Sweden 4
hectares, and USA 3.5 hectares per head of population.
What could
be the other reason in India for the forest land to see it’s shortage and the
shrinkage. There are many reason that
can be attributed but the main one’s are as follow-:
- As population and urbanisation
increase, forests in India are under pressure. Yet the country has tried
to maintain its forests and has been striving towards its long-term goal
of 33 percent area under forest cover.
- Data highlighted in successive
government reports show that forests in the north-eastern region and in
tribal districts have been under constant pressure.
- Since 1950, India has diverted about 5.7 million
hectares of forest area for non-forestry purposes like mining, river
valley projects, roads, highways etc.
From covering 640,819 square kilometres (19.49 percent) of India’s total
land area in 1987 to covering
712,249 sq. km. (21.67 percent)
of the country’s geographical area in 2019, India’s forest sector has had a
roller coaster journey with many twists and turns.
This has had it’s bearing on the
Indian GDP as such and overall the Indian GDP too has witnessed a fall.It’s
contribution to the world GDP also has sen a fall in steep and this is one
reason that the two world body that controls the funding of the money to the underdevelop
countries, has for most of it’s time did not find India as a country to spend
it’s money on the underprivileged because the contribution to the
underprivelegd through the forest in India is as good as nothing. The picture
here would reveal all about the fall of India contribution to the World
economy.
India’s
contribution to the World Economy/GDP -:
The last 32-year-long journey witnessed the rise
of little over two percent of forest cover despite an increase in the
population of the country, rapid urbanisation and tremendous pressure on
resources like forests.
Pressure
On The Forest - ::
One fact consistently noted by the
ISFR ( Indian State Of Forest Report ) reports
is that there has been a constant pressure on forests in north-eastern India
and in the tribal districts. According to the report, northeast India includes
eight states – Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland,
Tripura and Sikkim. Though the data in the ISFRs since 1987 may show an actual
increase in the forests in the region in the last 32 years, nearly every ISFR
noted a decrease of forest compared to the previous one leaving aside a couple
of examples. The forest department officials of the government explain the
anomaly to better data in the latest ISFRs.
In the ISFR 1993, the then
environment minister Kamal Nath had said that the “data for the north-eastern
region gives us cause for concern.” “ While efforts at forest conservation and
development all over the country have to be pursued vigorously, special emphasis needs to
be given to the northeast with regard to policy reform, strategy formulation
and programme implementation,” said Nath.
Because of these factors and some
other factors the contribution of the Indian forest to the growing and ever
demanding growth of the GDP has fallen vigorously.There use to be a time when
it was envisaged that the Indian forest and the kind of the wealth that it
possesses, it could donate and contribute a great measure to the Indian GDP but the same is not seen and the figure does
not involves that could spark any actuality.
Pics
- : Percentage Contribution to the Indian GDP since the last 65 years
From the figure above it is well
seen and felt that the Indian forest despite of possessing a huge wealth has
failed in it’s purpose to contribute to the national wealth in terms of
contributing to the Indian GDP . It has NOT given anything as such in terms of
any importance that could be considered to contribute to the Indian GDP.
In 1987, when the first ISFR report
was released, the then environment minister of the country, Z.R. Ansari, had
said that that there are inadequacies in the report but noted that bringing out
this first report itself had been a major effort. Ansari had set the stage at
the time, when he had emphasised that the future editions will cover “ substantially
the same ground but looked at from a different perspective, highlighting a new
theme every time on selected topical issues such as social forestry, wasteland
development, eucalyptus planting or wildlife.”
The struggle between protecting forests and their diversion
continues
The
story of India’s forests can never be complete without the discussion around
forest area diverted for non-forestry projects. According to data highlighted
by the central government including the ISFR reports, about 4.238 million
hectares of land was diverted for developmental projects between 1951-1980. In
1980, the central government enacted the Forest Conservation Act 1980 which
made forest diversion
difficult. Since then, 1.5 million hectares of the forest area has been
diverted for such projects.
Pic - :
Forest land Diverted To Other Industries - :
This
means that in the last 70 years, the Indian government has diverted about
57,300 sq. km. of forest area – which is nearly equivalent to 38 times the size
of Delhi.
When asked if the ISFRs in future could look at data regarding
the forest areas diverted for non-forestry purposes in a particular state
against the increase in the forest area, the
FSI’s DG said that is “ definitely a possibility ” to understand the “ trends .”
Deforestation In India :: Consequences and
it’s effect
Deforestation is
one of the most pressing environmental issues that the world is facing
currently. It is the conversion of forested land to non-forested
land by humans. Deforestation occurs when a land dominated by naturally
occurring trees is converted to provide certain services in response to the
human demand. The indiscriminate felling of trees has resulted in a reduction
of 3.16% in the global forest
cover from 1990 to 2015. Although India has seen an increment in the total
forest cover of about 1%, still there are certain regions in the country that
have sought a decrease in the forest cover. The main reasons attributed to the
reduction in forest cover are shifting cultivation, rotational felling,
other biotic pressures, diversion of forest lands for developmental activities,
etc. Continuous illicit cutting of trees has impacted the
microclimatic conditions, hydrological cycle, soil quality, biodiversity, etc.
of the country, thereby making the country more vulnerable for any uneventful
happening
Pic- : Sector Contribution - :
Impacts of deforestation
The value and functions of forests are immense and diverse. Similarly, the impacts of deforestation are global and commune the whole forest community. One of the major constraints in understanding the true impact of desertification on forests is the inadequacy and imprecise form of data.
Impacts on global climate
What has finally the deforestation and the cutting of the
logs and the woods as well as the tress caused to this country.In relation to it what has the impact that has
taken on thw world that has seen the shrinkage of the jungles and the forest
.One of the disturbing factor was the imbalance of the ecology , the turbulence
that it caused to the climatic conditions and the changes , and the destruction of the vegetations, the
faunas and the floras. In all the environment has seen a plunge and the health
of the beings have been tremendously affected causing so many a death and a
fall in the resrvoirs of the wealth that
the forest could contribute to the national economy.
The GDP growth because of this has suffered the most in many
a countries and the overall health and it’s condition has suffered which has
had it’s bearing on the GDP of the various nation and overall the GDP of the
world at large.
The Figure and the chart as ascribed below will demonstrate
the fall in the GDP growth. Now if the Indian forest which has a capacity of
about 3% of it’s contribution if it had contributed to about say 1% intoto the
GDP growth and it’s curve would have seen and would have described a far better
figure to show, but that is hardly the fact hardly the matter . In India the
average GDP is between 5.0 to 5.5 % per annum. That would have depicted a
better result if the GDP growth would be en in a position to receive something
from the forest and it’s contribution.
Pics- : The GDP
Growth of India as envisaged by the IMF and the World bank
The effect of
large-scale deforestation is global, but it is necessary to assess its impacts
on microclimate, regional climate and
global climate to form a holistic understanding of mechanism. The
association of deforestation with the increased CO2 concentration in the atmosphere and
changes in the mass balances and surface energy can result in climate change at
the local and global level .The change in land use pattern especially the
clearing of forest cover affects both hydrometeorological and global CO2 concentrations
leading to more warming as CO2 readily
absorbs infrared radiation . Clearing
tree cover and vegetation leads to increase in albedo of the region as bare
soil reflects more solar radiation than vegetation, which again is a factor for
altering regional radiation flux .One of the noticeable changes in
regional climates occurs when the cloud formation shifts to higher
elevations from lowland plains as a result of deforestation in the later area .In
a global scale, deforestation leads to warmer and drier weather due to the
synergistic effect of reduced evapotranspiration, increased albedo and CO2 concentration
that triggers desertification, loss in biodiversity and melting of polar ice
caps, ultimately leading to food insecurity. All these effects are successors of extremes in climate variation
that are produced by the large-scale reduction in forest cover .
Here in the picture above it is envisaged by looking into the World Bank and the IMF studies that DESPITE OF THE COVID AND THE CORUNA ATTACK ON THE WORLD IT IS ONLY INDIA THAT CAN ACHIEVE A GDP OF ABOUT 5.5% OG GROWTH BY THE END OF JUNE 2021.
Here It may be marked very clearly and made all the attention to say that the FOREST COULD CONTRIBUTE ABOUT 3% of the contribution if more attention is paid on the same.
Impact on hydrology and soil quality
The global water cycle
depends on the amount and distribution of precipitation for which one of the
influencing factors is evapotranspiration
There is a direct effect on drinking
water on the basis of quality
and quantity, fisheries and aquatic habitats, occurrence of flood and
drought, life of dams on account of increase siltation and agriculture due to
poor quality irrigation and crop yield .
It must be recognized
that the protective role of forests is operative and has a major impact on
urban water resources Forests play an
important role in maintaining the watersheds .The degraded or degrading
watersheds can be recovered by forestation, but once the forest or vegetation
cover is lost, the watershed becomes
vulnerable to erosion. This
erosion leads to siltation in the downstream areas and consequently reduces the
depth of river bed increasing the chances of flood.
The Two Main Effect Of Deforestation ::
There are two main effects of
deforestation that increase the chances of flooding. One is by reducing the tree fountain effect, i.e.
interception and moisture uptake by the trees would cease after deforestation
reducing the moisture holding capacity of soil that leads to greater runoff and
erosion. And other is by the process of soil
compaction and poor soil structure that will lead to reduced organic
matter content of soil devoid of vegetation cover .There are severe long-term effects on soil as a
cause of deforestation. During slash-and-burn or shifting cultivation, an area
of forests clears and exposes the bare soil to weather extremes of high solar
insolation and heavy rainfall .In the absence of the forest cover and organic
matter, soil could not accommodate heavy precipitation, and the fertile layers
of soil used to be easily washed away ultimately reduces the long-term
productivity.
What is the forest coverage of India::
Based on satellite data analysis, the biennial assessment –
conducted by the Forest Survey of India (FSI)
and released by the Ministry of
Environment, Forest and
Climate Change (MoEFCC) – has put the total forest and
tree cover at 802,088 square km,
which is 24.39 percent of the
geographical area of the country.
In other words ¼ area
of this country is covered by the forest- it could be dense, it could be
otherwise and it could be within the peripherals of the radius of the city or
outside that.
We have DESTROYED
every essence of forest- first by cutting the trees within and in the peripherals
of the city to enhance rehabilitation of the city, and then we have deeply
uprooted the dense forest that existed in the country for the sale of the
wood-logs and other such things. This has completely uprooted the egological
balance, it has had it’s moronic effect on the rainfall and eco-culture and has
overall played on the nature.
The unusal rainfalls which causes harrows in terms of flood and
disaster to the crops, the malefic effect that it has on agriculture, and the
produce, and overall the lives of the faunas and the floras, it has completely destroyed
the income through the forest that the beings would derive for it’s existence
and the way ot is to preserve and save the disaster from the forest that would
accrue in the future.
It could be envisaged that if there are means and the method
of planting the trees in the forest and save it to grow to yield the
result- WITHIN FIVE YEARS WE WOULD EASILY
EARN IN TERMS OF ABOUT 2% OF OUR NATIONAL INCOME THAT WOULD AND THAT COULD BE ADDED
TO THE GDP.
How are
the Tribal benefitted from the Forest::
Forests are the main source of subsistence for them.
They collect their food from them; use the timber or bamboo to construct their
houses; collect firewood for cooking and in winter to keep warm; use grass for
fodder, brooms and mats; collect leaves for leaf plates; and use harra- behra
for dyeing and tanning
For about 100
million of them, forests are main source for livelihood and
cash income from fuelwood, non-timber forest products (NTFP)
or construction materials. More than half of India's 70
million tribal people, the most disadvantaged section of society, subsist
from forests. India's biodiversity is rich &
unique.
Disaster that is envisaged from the
De-Forestation ::
For once let us first know and learn about what is
disaster and deforestation.Disaster means in ONE stroke slains of
the living being and the exact meaning of the De-Forestation is
given here.
Pic - : Geographical Deforestation since 1990
Deforestation, is an act of clearance, clearcutting or clearing is the
removal of a forest or stand of trees from land which is then converted to a
non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms,
ranches, or urban use. The most concentrated deforestation occurs in
tropical rainforests.
The destruction
of forests is known as deforestation. By felling trees
forest cover is destroyed. When trees are cut on a large scale to
clear a large area of forest cover many trees are lost. This man-made activity
has deleterious effects on the environment and ecology.
The Aftermath of Deforestation and it’s overall
effect
Shrinking of the forests cause wide-reaching problems like soil
erosion, fewer crops, flooding, water cycle disruption, greenhouse gas
emissions, changes in the climatic conditions, and loss of biodiversity.
The FIVE greatest effect of Deforestation
could be explained in short and they are the loss of trees and other vegetation can
cause climate change, desertification, soil erosion, fewer crops, flooding,
increased greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and a host of problems for
indigenous people
Well, that is all that I have to write here about this
article as of now In this regard I shall write one more article on the
importance of planting as many as about NINE
different varieties of trees both within the limit of the moffusils and especially
at the Tribal-Adivasi sites to enhance the source of livelihood and add on to
the GDP and the revenue of
India. It will also have some lines as to how can it save a POSSIBLE disaster that I can
forsee in the days to come.
Regards
Pics
Mr Shyamal Bhattacharjee, the author was born at West Chirimiri Colliery at District Surguja, Chattisgarh on July 6th 1959 He received his early
education at Carmel Convent School Bishrampur and later at Christ Church Boys' Higher Secondary School at Jabalpur. He later joined Hislop College at Nagpur and completed his
graduation in Science and he also added a degree in B A thereafter. He joined
the HITAVADA, a leading dailies of Central India at Nagpur as a Sub-Editor ( Sports ) but gave up to complete
his MBA in 1984 He thereafter added a Diploma In Export Management. He has authored THREE books namely Notable Quotes and Noble Thought published by Pustak Mahal in 2001 Indian Cricket : Faces That Changed It published by Manas Publications in 2009 and Essential Of Office Management published by NBCA, Kolkatta in 2012. He has a experience of about 35 years in Marketing
Signature
of Shyamal Bhattacharjee
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