Healthy forests mean healthy people. Forests provide everyone with health benefits, including fresh air, nutritious foods, clean water, and space for recreation. Worldwide, around 1 billion people dep...
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Deforestation and Forest Degradation: Challenges Facing the World's Forests in India
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Region: India
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 human demand. India is home to a diverse range of forests—moist and dry tropical forests, temperate and subtropical montane forests, alpine forests, and scrub forests. It is one of the 17 “megadiverse” countries and is home to 8% of the world’s known flora and fauna. In addition, Indian forests support the livelihood of nearly 275 million people, who are dependent on forests for food, fuelwood, fodder, and other forest products.
In India from 2001 to 2021, 2.8% of tree cover loss occurred in areas where the dominant drivers of loss resulted in deforestation. Forest loss impacts India’s carbon emissions. FSI estimates show that India has a carbon stock of 7.1 gigatons that has been increasing over the years with net tree cover gain. In India, forest resources have been found to be depleted at a pace that is much high. Rapid industrialization, urbanization, and over-exploitation have resulted not only in decline but also in the permanent loss of forest cover at an alarming rate. The major driver behind all these factors is the uncontrolled population growth of humans which leads to the dramatic increase in the demand for wood and forest products. The over-exploitation of forest resources has taken place beyond the sustained yields to fulfill the needs of humans, thus bringing a change in the net forest cover. With the current rate of population explosion, the world population could be expected to increase from 7.6 billion to about 10 billion in the next 30 to 35 years. The growing demand for food can be expected to rise by 50% in the given period, and it is a matter of serious concern. Forest areas around the world are majorly cleared for agriculture, logging, mining, and large-scale developmental projects. Large-scale land use changes, such as conversion of forests into agricultural land and urbanization, have contributed to deforestation and forest degradation in India.
The value and functions of forests are immense and diverse. Similarly, the impacts of deforestation are global and commune the whole forest community. Various ecological services provided by the forests have been lost due to deforestation which in turn has immediate effects on the local communities dependent on these services for their daily needs.
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