Lecture-5

Introduction and natural resources

(Deforestation: Causes and impacts due
to mining, dam building on
environment, forests, biodiversity and
tribal populations)

1
 Learning outcomes

After completing this lecture

• Student will get knowledge about
importance and benefits of forest.

• Student will understand the

Deforestation and their impact on biotic
components.
2
Forest Resources: A Renewable Resource

3
Forest Resources
A forest, a biotic community with predominance of trees is an
important Renewable natural resource.

It is highly complex, changing environment made up of a living and

non living things. Living things include trees, shrubs, wildlife etc. and
non-living things include water, nutrients, rocks, sunlight and air.

4
 Forest Resources

• The word forest is derived from a Latin word “ Foris” means

Outside

• Forests are the dominant terrestrial ecosystem of Earth, and are

distributed across the globe.

• Forests account for 75% of the gross primary productivity of

the Earth's biosphere, and contain 80% of the Earth's plant
biomass

• Forest are one of the most important natural resources of the

earth.

• Tree forests cover approximately 9.4 percent of the Earth's

surface (or 30 percent of total land area i.e., Approximately
1/3rd of the earth’s total land area ).
 Temperate rainforest in Mixed deciduous forest in Stara
Tasmania‘s Planina,Serbia
Hellyer Gorge

A conifer forest in the Swiss Amazon Rainforest in Brazil

Alps
6
 Indian Scenario
• In India forest cover Overall, 21.34% of the country's
geographical area is now under green cover (as per 2009*
data) The total forest cover in India is 6,90,899 km2.
• Forest cover in India is defined as all lands, more than one
hectare in area with a tree canopy density of more than 10%.
• Forest Canopy Density (FCD) refers to the proportion of an
area in the field/ground that is covered by the crown of trees
and is expressed in percentage of the total area.

7
Benefits of Forests

Protective Function
Forest Provide protection against Soil erosion, Droughts,
floods, noise, radiations

Productive Function
Forest Provide various products like, gum resins, medicines,
Katha, honey, pulp, bamboo, timber, and fruits

Regulative Function
The Forest regulates the level of Oxygen and carbon dioxide
in atmosphere. The forests also help in regulating temperature
conditions

Accessory Function
Forest provides aesthetics, habitat to various flora and fauna
besides that it also has an recreational value 8
 Uses of Forests
• The uses of forest may broadly classified into following
categories
• Commercial uses
• Ecological uses
– Oxygen production
– Reduce global warming (the long-term heating of
Earth's climate system observed since the pre-industrial
period (between 1850 and 1900) due to human activities,
primarily fossil fuel burning, which increases heat-trapping
greenhouse gas levels in Earth's atmosphere.)

9
 Uses of Forests
– Wildlife habitat
– Hydrological regulation (maintenance if ground water
table )
– Soil conservation (prevent soil erosion and drought)
– Pollution moderators (absorb oxide of carbon and
radiation etc.)
– Driving energy flow and nutrient cycling (interactions of
animals through food chain and return of nutrients by the
action of Bactria and fungi; decomposing )

10
 Commercial Importance of Forest

• Timber: Wood used for commercial purposes

like for making furniture and other items like
boats, bridges and other day to day uses.

• Fuel Wood: The wood is used as fuel for

cooking and other purposes by poor people.

• Raw material for wood based industries: forest

provide raw material for various wood based
industries like paper and pulp, sports goods,
furniture, match boxes etc.

11
• Food: Fruits, roots, leaves of plants and trees along with the
meat of forest animals provide the food to the tribal people.

• Miscellaneous Products: Miscellaneous products like, resin,

gums, oils, medicines, honey are provided by forests

12
 Products from forest/trees

• Forest Provide various products like, gum resins, medicines,

honey, pulp, bamboo, timber, Vegetables and fruits.

13
 Ecological Uses: Functions of trees/forest: The functions of forest
may broadly classified into following categories

• Soil Conservation
Droughts
• Forest Provide protection against
• Soil erosion
• Droughts (prolonged shortages in
the water supply, whether Floods
atmospheric (below-average
precipitation), surface water or
ground water)
• Floods (A flood is an overflow of
water that submerges land that is
usually dry. In the sense of
"flowing water", the word may also Soil erosion
be applied to the inflow of the tide) 14
 Regulative Functions (Oxygen production)

• The Forest regulates the level of

Oxygen and carbon dioxide in
atmosphere.

• .The forests also help in

regulating temperature
conditions

15
16
17
 Accessory Function
• Forest provides aesthetics, habitat to various flora and fauna
besides that it also has an recreational value.

18
Regulation of global climate and temperature

 Forest play a crucial role in regulation of global climate and

temperature as forest cover absorb the solar radiations that would
otherwise be reflected back into the atmosphere by bare surface of
the earth.

 Transpiration of plants increases the atmosphere humidity which

affects the rainfall, cools the atmosphere and thus regulate the
hydrological cycle

19
Reduction of Global Warming

The main green house gas CO2 is used by forests for

photosynthesis process the forest act as a sink for co2 there by
reducing the green house effect due to CO2.

20
 Absorption of air pollutants
(Pollutant moderators)
• Forest absorbs many toxic gasses and air pollutants and can
help in keeping air pure.

21
Driving energy flow and nutrient cycling

22
 Over-exploitation of Forests
Deforestation

• The permanent destruction of

forest is called deforestation

• Forest are exploited since early

times for humans to meet human
demand

23
 Causes of Deforestation

• Fuel requirement
• Raw material for industrial use
• Development projects
• Expansion of cities
• Construction of dams, canal &
highways
• Growing food needs
• Overgrazing

24
 Causes of Deforestation
• Shifting Cultivation (an agricultural
system in which a person uses a
piece of land, only to abandon or
alter the initial use a short time later.
This system often involves clearing
of a piece of land followed by
several years of wood harvesting or
farming until the soil loses fertility.)
• Forest fire
• Leaching is the loss or extraction of
certain materials from a carrier into
a liquid

25
Other causes
•Mining (Mining is the extraction of valuable
minerals or other geological materials from
the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode,
vein, seam, reef or placer deposit)
• River valley projects (hydroelectricity etc.)
•Natural forces (natural calamities like
earthquake)

26
 Effects of Deforestation

• Threatens the existence of wildlife

• Biodiversity (variation among the living)
and genetic diversity (variation among the
living due to variation in genes) loss
• Effect of hydrological cycle (water cycle)
• Soil erosion
• Land slides on higher altitudes
• Air pollution and global warming

27
Other consequences

• Loss of habitat
• Inc. intensity and frequency of flood
• Land degradation (loss in the quality of
land usually less fit or not for agriculture)
• Loss of forest products
• Change in climatic condition
• Siltation (deposition of eroded soil in water bodies)
of rivers and lakes
• Loss of revenue
• Change in water cycle
• Reduced rainfall
• Expansion of deserts

28
 Afforestation
“conversion of bare or cultivated land into forest”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E52bdc8ltQg
29
 Afforestation

The conservation measure against the deforestation is

afforestation. The development of forest by planting trees on
waste land is called afforestation

The main objective of afforestation:

• To control the deforestation
• To prevent soil erosion
• To regulate rainfall (rain water harvesting and its use during
drought condition) and maintain temperature
• To control atmospheric condition by keeping it clean
• To promote planned uses of wasteland (land not suitable for
agricultural practice)
• To Protect forest ecosystem and to get benefits of forest products.

30
 Dams and their effects on Forest and Tribal People

• Dams: Temples of modern India

• When a dam is constructed across any river a huge artificial
lake is developed in the catchment area of that dam. It is also
known as back waters. The backwaters covering a large
surface area. Create a lot of ill-effects on the living
environment. They are as follows:

31
32
A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several
factors including war, inflation, crop failure, population
imbalance, or government policies.

Waterlogging is the saturation of soil with water.

Salinity is the saltiness or amount of salt dissolved in a body of

water

Seismicity is a measure encompassing earthquake occurrences,

mechanisms, and magnitude at a given geographical location.

33
•It creates the loss of forest which are submerged under the back
waters of the dam.
•It creates danger to the habitat of the wild life. The wild life are
forced to migrate.
•It also affects the land under cultivation, in the catchment area as
the crops get submerged under water.
•The roads, already in existence are put under water after the
construction of dam. So the road network is damaged.

34
 Important Web Links

http://www.newagepublishers.com/samplechapter/00
0964.pdf
http://www.newagepublishers.com/samplechapter/00
1426.pdf
http://ecoursesonline.iasri.res.in/mod/page/view.php
?id=89582
https://www.livescience.com/27692-
deforestation.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHpnyRHRVg4

35
Acknowledgment
Some images, animation, and material have been
taken from the following sources:

Textbooks: PERSPECTIVE IN
ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES by ANUBHA
KAUSHIK, C P KAUSHIK, NEW AGE
INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHERS

References Book: TEXTBOOK OF

ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES by D. DAVE
AND S. S. KATEWA, CENGAGE LEARNING

All slides can be used for reading purpose only

36