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Flora and Fauna in India Narak! My Lord, you are the creator of music If you look around, you will be able to find in the world of Lepchas...

Flora and Fauna in India Narak! My Lord, you are the creator of music If you look around, you will be able to find in the world of Lepchas that there are some animals and plants which Oh Narak! My Lord, let me dedicate are unique in your area. In fact, India is myself to you one of the world’s richest countries in terms Let me gather your music from the of its vast array of biological diversity. This springs, the rivers, the mountains, the forests, is possibly twice or thrice the number yet the insects and the animals to be discovered. You have already studied Let me gather your music from the sweet in detail about the extent and variety of breeze and offer it to you forest and wildlife resources in India. You may have realised the importance of Source: Lepcha folk song from northern part of these resources in our daily life. These West Bengal diverse flora and fauna are so well integrated in our daily life that we take these for granted. But, lately, they are We share this planet with millions of other under great stress mainy due to insensitivity living beings, starting from micro-organisms to our environment. and bacteria, lichens to banyan trees, elephants and blue whales. This entire habitat that we live in has immense Find out stories prevalent in your region biodiversity. We humans along with all living which are about the harmonious relationship organisms form a complex web of ecological between human beings and nature. system in which we are only a part and very much dependent on this system for Conservation of Forest and Wildlife in India our own existence. For example, the plants, animals and micro-organisms re-create the Conservation in the background of rapid quality of the air we breathe, the water we decline in wildlife population and forestry has drink and the soil that produces our food become essential. But why do we need to without which we cannot survive. Forests conserve our forests and wildlife? play a key role in the ecological system as Conservation preserves the ecological diversity these are also the primary producers on and our life support systems – water, air and which all other living beings depend. soil. It also preserves the genetic diversity of plants and animals for better growth of species and breeding. For example, in agriculture, we are still dependent on traditional crop Biodiversity or Biological Diversity is varieties. Fisheries too are heavily dependent immensely rich in wildlife and cultivated on the maintenance of aquatic biodiversity. species, diverse in form and function but In the 1960s and 1970s, conservationists closely integrated in a system through demanded a national wildlife protection multiple network of interdependencies. programme. The Indian Wildlife (Protection) Rationalised-2023-24  Tribal girls using bamboo saplings in a nursery at Mukhali near Silent Valley Tribal women selling minor forest produce Leaf litter collection by women folk Fig. 2.1 Act was implemented in 1972, with various Project Tiger provisions for protecting habitats. An all- Tiger is one of the key wildlife species in India list of protected species was also the faunal web. In 1973, the authorities published. The thrust of the programme was realised that the tiger population had towards protecting the remaining population dwindled to 1,827 from an estimated of certain endangered species by banning 55,000 at the turn of the century. The major hunting, giving legal protection to their threats to tiger population are numerous, habitats, and restricting trade in wildlife. such as poaching for trade, shrinking Subsequently, central and many state habitat, depletion of prey base species, governments established national parks and growing human population, etc. The trade wildlife sanctuaries about which you have of tiger skins and the use of their bones in already studied. The central government also traditional medicines, especially in the announced several projects for protecting Asian countries left the tiger population on specific animals, which were gravely the verge of extinction. Since India and threatened, including the tiger, the one- Nepal provide habitat to about two-thirds horned rhinoceros, the Kashmir stag or of the surviving tiger population in the hangul, three types of crocodiles – fresh world, these two nations became prime water crocodile, saltwater crocodile and the targets for poaching and illegal trading. Gharial, the Asiatic lion, and others. Most “Project Tiger ”, one of the well- recently, the Indian elephant, black buck publicised wildlife campaigns in the world, (chinkara), the great Indian bustard was launched in 1973. Tiger conservation (godawan) and the snow leopard, etc. have has been viewed not only as an effort to been given full or partial legal protection save an endangered species, but with against hunting and trade throughout India. 14 CONTEMPORARY INDIA – II Rationalised-2023-24  Fig. 2.2: Rhino and deer in Kaziranga National Park equal importance as a means of much of its forest and wildlife resources are preserving biotypes of sizeable magnitude. either owned or managed by the government Corbett National Park in Uttarakhand, through the Forest Department or other Sunderbans National Park in West Bengal, government departments. These are classified Bandhavgarh National Park in Madhya under the following categories. Pradesh, Sariska Wildlife Sanctuary in (i) Reserved Forests: More than half of the Rajasthan, Manas Tiger Reserve in Assam total forest land has been declared and Periyar Tiger Reserve in Kerala are reserved forests. Reserved forests are some of the tiger reserves of India. regarded as the most valuable as far as the conservation of forest and wildlife resources are concerned. The conservation projects are now focusing on biodiversity rather than on a few of its (ii) Protected Forests: Almost one-third of the components. There is now a more intensive total forest area is protected forest, as search for different conservation measures. declared by the Forest Department. This Increasingly, even insects are beginning to find forest land are protected from any further a place in conservation planning. In the depletion. notification under Wildlife Act of 1980 and (iii) Unclassed Forests: These are other 1986, several hundred butterflies, moths, forests and wastelands belonging to beetles, and one dragonfly have been added to both government and private individuals the list of protected species. In 1991, for the and communities. first time plants were also added to the list, Reserved and protected forests are also starting with six species. referred to as permanent forest estates maintained for the purpose of producing timber and other forest produce, and for Collect more information on the wildlife protective reasons. Madhya Pradesh has the sanctuaries and national parks of India and largest area under permanent forests, cite their locations on the map of India. constituting 75 per cent of its total forest area. Jammu and Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Types and Distribution of Forest and Bengal, and Maharashtra have large Wildlife Resources percentages of reserved forests of its total forest Even if we want to conserve our vast forest and area whereas Bihar, Haryana, Punjab, wildlife resources, it is rather difficult to Himachal Pradesh, Odisha and Rajasthan have manage, control and regulate them. In India, a bulk of it under protected forests. All North- FOREST AND WILDLIFE RESOURCES 15 Rationalised-2023-24  Can you find out the reasons for the above mentioned problems? eastern states and parts of Gujarat have a very own set of rules and regulations which do not high percentage of their forests as unclassed allow hunting, and are protecting the wildlife forests managed by local communities. against any outside encroachments. The famous Chipko movement in the Community and Conservation Himalayas has not only successfully resisted Conservation strategies are not new in our deforestation in several areas but has also country. We often ignore that in India, forests shown that community afforestation with are also home to some of the traditional indigenous species can be enormously communities. In some areas of India, local successful. Attempts to revive the traditional communities are struggling to conserve these conservation methods or developing new habitats along with government officials, methods of ecological farming are now recognising that only this will secure their widespread. Farmers and citizen’s groups like own long-term livelihood. In Sariska Tiger the Beej Bachao Andolan in Tehri and Reserve, Rajasthan, villagers have fought Navdanya have shown that adequate levels of against mining by citing the Wildlife Protection diversified crop production without the use of Act. In many areas, villagers themselves are synthetic chemicals are possible and protecting habitats and explicitly rejecting economically viable. government involvement. The inhabitants of In India joint forest management (JFM) five villages in the Alwar district of Rajasthan programme furnishes a good example for have declared 1,200 hectares of forest as the involving local communities in the Bhairodev Dakav ‘Sonchuri’, declaring their management and restoration of degraded 16 CONTEMPORARY INDIA – II Rationalised-2023-24  Sacred groves - a wealth of diverse and rare forests. The programme has been in formal species existence since 1988 when the state of Nature worship is an age old tribal belief based on Odisha passed the first resolution for joint the premise that all creations of nature have to be forest management. JFM depends on the protected. Such beliefs have preserved several virgin formation of local (village) institutions that forests in pristine form called Sacred Groves (the undertake protection activities mostly on forests of God and Goddesses). These patches of degraded forest land managed by the forest forest or parts of large forests have been left department. In return, the members of untouched by the local people and any interference these communities are entitled to with them is banned. intermediary benefits like non-timber Certain societies revere a particular tree which forest produces and share in the timber they have preserved from time immemorial. The harvested by ‘successful protection’. Mundas and the Santhal of Chota Nagpur region The clear lesson from the dynamics of worship mahua (Bassia latifolia) and kadamba both environmental destruction and (Anthocaphalus cadamba) trees, and the tribals of reconstruction in India is that local Odisha and Bihar worship the tamarind (Tamarindus communities everywhere have to be indica) and mango (Mangifera indica) trees during involved in some kind of natural resource weddings. To many of us, peepal and banyan trees management. But there is still a long way are considered sacred. to go before local communities are at the Indian society comprises several cultures, each centre-stage in decision-making. Accept with its own set of traditional methods of conserving only those economic or developmental nature and its creations. Sacred qualities are often activities, that are people centric, ascribed to springs, mountain peaks, plants and environment-friendly and economically animals which are closely protected. You will find rewarding. troops of macaques and langurs around many temples. They are fed daily and treated as a part of temple devotees. In and around Bishnoi villages in Write a short essay on any practices Rajasthan, herds of blackbuck, (chinkara), nilgai and which you may have observed and peacocks can be seen as an integral part of the practised in your everyday lives that community and nobody harms them. conserve and protect the environment around you. “The tree is a peculiar organism of unlimited kindness and benevolence and makes no demand for its sustenance, and extends generously the products of its life activity. It affords protection to all beings, offering shade even to the axemen who destroy it”. Gautama Buddha (487 B.C.) FOREST AND WILDLIFE RESOURCES 17 Rationalised-2023-24  EXERCISES EXERCISES EXERCISES EXERCISES EXERCISES 1. Multiple choice questions (i) Which of the following conservation strategies do not directly involve community participation? (a) Joint forest management (c) Chipko Movement (b) Beej Bachao Andolan (d) Demarcation of Wildlife sanctuaries 2. Match the following. Reserved forests other forests and wastelands belonging to both government and private individuals and communities Protected forests forests are regarded as most valuable as far as the conservation of forest and wildlife resources Unclassed forests forest lands are protected from any further depletion 3. 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. 4. Answer the following questions in about 120 words. (i) Describe how communities have conserved and protected forests and wildlife in India? (ii) Write a note on good practices towards conserving forest and wildlife. 18 CONTEMPORARY INDIA – II Rationalised-2023-24