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GEOGRAPHY | RESOURCES

Forest Resources in India – UPSC

By Lotus Arise May 19, 2021 1 Comment

In this article You will read Major and Minor Forest Resources in India – for
UPSC IAS.

Forest Resources
Forests provide an array of bene?ts to human societies above and
beyond their pivotal roles as habitat and environmental regulators in
natural ecosystems.
These beneJts are often described as resources that people can draw upon
for fuel, lumber, and recreational or commercial purposes. The
perception that forests provide resources for people has been a prominent
factor in spurring efforts to preserve forests.
Growing awareness on the part of governments and the general public,
in India and around the world, of the beneJts of forests to humans, has
given rise to government agencies and a thriving industry devoted to
forest resource management.
The mission of forest resource management is to develop, protect, and
manage the multiple resources of forests through professional
stewardship, enhancing the quality of life for the public while ensuring the
conservation and sustainability of these resources.
Forest is important renewable resources. Forest vary in composition and
diversity and can contribute substantially to the economic development of
any country .Plants along with trees cover large areas, produce variety of
products and provide food for living organisms, and also important to save
the environment.
It is estimated that about 30% of world area is covered by forest whereas
26% by pastures. Among all continents, Africa has largest forested area
 (33%) followed by Latin America (25%), whereas in North America forest
cover is only 11%. Asia and former USSR has 14% area under forest.
European countries have only 3% area under forest cover. India’s Forest
Cover accounts for 21.67% of the total geographical area of the country
as of 2019.

Terminologies
CLEAR-CUT: A parcel of forest that has been denuded of trees.
Clear-cutting can be destructive of forests, particularly when the cycle
of reforestation is slow and the processes of wind and water erosion of
deforested land make it inhospitable to reforestation.
However, it can also be a tool for increasing the biodiversity of forests
that have been protected from forest Jres for many years.
DEFORESTATION: A reduction in the area of a forest resulting from
human activity.
ECOLOGICAL SERVICES: The bene?ts to human communities that stem
from healthy forest ecosystems, such as clean water, stable soil, and clean
air.
FOREST MONOCULTURE: The development of a forest that is dominated
by a single species of tree and which lacks the ecological diversity to
withstand disease and parasites over the long term.
SUSTAINABILITY: Practices that preserve the balance between human
needs and the environment, as well as between current and future
human requirements.

Major forest products

Major forest products consist of timber, softwood, and fuelwood
including charcoal. Indian forests produce numerous species of wood,
90% of which are commercially valuable.
Hard woods include teak, mahogany, logwood, iron-wood, ebony, sal,
greenheart, kikar, semal, etc, which used for furniture, wagons, tools, and
other commercial products.
Softwood includes deodar, poplar, pine, ?r, cedar, balsam, etc. They are
light, strong, durable, and easy to work on and are useful for construction
work and the production of paper pulp.
70% of hardwood is burnt as fuel and only 30% used in industries, while
 30% of softwood is used as fuel while 70% is used in industries.
J&K is the largest producer of timber, closely followed by Punjab and MP
whereas Karnataka is the largest producer of fuelwood, followed by WB,
Maharashtra.

Minor forests products

Grasses, Bamboos and Canes:

Grasses like sabai, bhabar, and elephant grass are used for papermaking.
Sabai grass is the most important raw material for the paper industry
It is a perennial grass that grows on the bare slopes of the sub-Himalayan
tract and in Bihar, Odisha, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, and the
western part of Himachal Pradesh.
The roots of khus grass are used for making cooling screens. Munj, tall
grass is used for making chicks, stools, chairs, etc. and the leaves are
twisted into strings.
Bamboo belongs to grass family but grows like a tree. It is woody,
perennial, and tall There are more than 100 species
The bulk of production comes from Andhra Pradesh, Telangana,
Tripura, Rajasthan, Mizoram, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat,
Karnataka, Kerala, Manipur, Punjab, Nagaland, and Andaman and
Nicobar Islands.
Bamboo is called the poor man’s timber as it provides cheap material for
rooJng, walling, ^ooring, matting, basketry, cordage, carthoods, and a host
of other things.
Cane grows abundantly in moist forests of Andaman and Nicobar
Islands, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra, Nagaland,
Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, and Mizoram. These are major producers of
cane in India. Some parts of Assam, West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu,
Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, and Odisha are also suitable for the growth of
cane. It is mainly used for making strings, ropes, mats, bags, baskets,
furniture, walking sticks, umbrella handles, sports goods, etc.

Tans & dyes:

Tannins are secretion products of plant tissues. Tanning materials are

 used in the leather industry.
The most commonly used tanning materials are mangrove, amla, oak,
hemlock, anwal, wattle, myrobalans, ratanjot, aowers of dhawri, babul,
avaram, etc.
Some of the important dyes are obtained from red sander (bright red),
Khair (chocolate), aowers of Palas, fruits of Mallotus phillipensis, bark of
wattle, and roots of Morinda tinctoria. About two lakh tones of tans and
dyes are produced every year in India.

Oils:

Oils are obtained from sandalwood, lemongrass, khus and eucalyptus

globules, etc. They are used for soaps, cosmetics, confectionery, pharma,
etc.

Gums and resins:

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Gum is exuded from the stems or other parts of different trees partly as a
natural phenomenon and partly by injury to the bark or wood of blazing
the tree.
They are used in textiles, cosmetics, confectionery, medicines, inks, etc.
the largest producer are MP followed by Maharashtra and Andhra
Pradesh. It is exported to the USA, UK, and France.
Resins are obtained mainly from Chir Pine which grows from the
Himalayan region in Arunachal, Uttarakhand, HP, J&K.
The crude resin consists of two principal constituents; a liquid known as
oil of turpentine (25%) and a solid called resin (75%).
Turpentine is mainly used as a solvent for paints and varnish, synthecic
camphor, pine oil, disinfectants, pharmaceutical preparations, wax, boot
polish, and industrial perfumes.
Resin is an important raw material for several industries of which paper,
paint, varnish, soap, rubber, waterprooJng, linoleum, oils, greases, adhesive
tape, phenyl, plastic, etc. are important.

Fiber and aosses:

 Fibers are obtained from the tissues of some trees. Most of such Jbers
are coarse and are used for rope making. However, the ?bers of Ak
(Calotropis spp.) is ?ne, strong, and silky which is used for making
?shing nets.
Flosses are obtained from certain fruits and are used for stuf?ng pillows,
mattresses, etc.

Leaves:

Different types of leaves are obtained from the trees and are used for
different purposes, the most important being the tendu leaves used as
wrappers for bidis.
The tendu tree grows in large numbers in Madhya Pradesh, Andhra
Pradesh, Telangana, Bihar, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Karnataka,
and Uttar Pradesh. About 6 lakh tonnes of tendu leaves are produced
every year in India.
With 246 thousand tonnes, Madhya Pradesh is the largest producer in
India. Bihar with 53.5 thousand tonnes is the second-largest producer,
Andhra Pradesh and Telangana (51,2 thousand tonnes), Maharashtra (33
thousand tonnes) and Gujarat (12.9 thousand tonnes) are also important
producers.
Some quantity of leaves is also produced in Rajasthan, Karnataka, and
West Bengal. Tendu leaves and bidis are exported to Pakistan,
Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and some other Asian and African countries.

Drugs, spices and poisons:

Drugs are obtained from different parts of trees. Quinine is the most
important drug.
Spices include cinnamon or dalchini, cardamom or elaichi, etc.
Some poisonous substances which taken in small, regular doses have
medicinal value e.g. strychnine, aconite, datura, ganja, etc.

Edible products:

Fruits, aowers, leaves or roots of various species provide edible products.

Animal products:

Lac is the most important animal product obtained from Indian forests.
It is secreted by a minute insect that feeds on the saps of a large variety
of trees like Palash, peepal, Kusum, etc
They are used for medicines, plastic, electrical insulation material, dyeing
silk, bangles, etc.
India accounts for 85% of the total world production of lac.
The main producing states are Jharkhand (40%), Chhattisgarh (30%), W.
Bengal (15%), Maharashtra (5%), Gujarat, UP., Odisha, and Assam.
About 95% of total production is exported to countries like the USA,
Russia, Germany, and the UK.
Other animal products are honey, wax, silk moths, horns and hides of
dead animals, ivory, antlers of deer, etc.

About 3.5 million persons are engaged in different forest activities and
about 2% of total government revenue comes from forests. Foreign
exchange is also earned.
Indirect uses of forests
Prevention and control of soil erosion
The reckless destruction of forests in Shivalik Hills, Western Ghats,
Chota Nagpur plateau has resulted in the serious problem of soil
erosion.
Forests play a signiJcant role in the prevention and control of soil
erosion by water and wind.
Flood control
Roots of trees absorb much of the rainwater and thus regulate the
aow of water and help in controlling the aoods, acting as rain holder
and a rain banker.
Trees also act like millions of tiny dams and check the ^ow of water like
a barrage.
 Checks on spreads of deserts
Sand particles are blown away by strong winds in the deserts and
are carried over long distances resulting in the spread of deserts
roots bind the sand particles.
The roots of trees and plants bind the sand particles and do not permit
their easy transportation by the wind.
Increase of soil fertility:
The fallen leaves of trees add humus to the soil after their
‘decomposition. Thus forests help in increasing the fertility of the soil.
Fallen leaves of plants add humus to the soil.
Effect of climate:
Forests ameliorate the extremes of climate by reducing the heat in
summer and cold in winter. They also in^uence the amount of rainfall
by lowering the temperature of moisture-laden winds and increase the
RH by transpiration.
They reduce the surface velocity of the winds and retard the process
of evaporation.

Problems of Indian forestry

Inadequate and dwindling forest cover:
The biggest problem of the Indian forests is the inadequate and fast
dwindling forest cover. It has already been mentioned that forest
cover is only 20.6 percent of the area against the required coverage of
33 percent.
A large part of our achievements made by virtue of afforestation are
neutralized by diversion of forest land for non-forest use.
Low productivity: The productivity of Indian forests is very low as
compared to some other countries, For example, the annual productivity
of Indian forests is only 0.5 cubic meters per hectare while it is 1.25 cubic
meters per hectare in the USA.
Nature of forests and their uneconomical utilization
The forests are thick, inaccessible, slow-growing, and lack in
gregarious stands in many parts of the country. Some of them are very
thin and comprise only of thorny bushes.
These factors make their utilization uneconomical because there is a
good deal of wastage and this makes it very expensive in spite of the
cheap labor available in India.
Lack of Transport Facilities:
One of the biggest problems faced by the Indian forests is the lack of
proper transport facilities, About 16 percent of the forest land in India is
inaccessible and does not have proper transport facilities.
It must be remembered that the major product of the forests is timber
which is a cheap and bulky commodity. As such it cannot afford high
freights charged by the railways and roadways, Therefore, Indian
forests cannot be economically exploited without the availability of
cheap and efJcient transport facilities.
Unfortunately, in India, the railways serve thickly populated areas only
and are not of much use to forests. All-weather roads in the forest
areas are badly lacking, Water transport has only limited scope.
Considering these facts, we can easily say that transport with reference
to forests is inadequate in India.
Plant Diseases, Insects, and Pests:
Large tracts of forest cover suffer from plant diseases, insects, and
pests which lead to considerable loss of forest wealth. For example,
thousands of hectares of sal forests in Madhya Pradesh and
Chhattisgarh are being threatened by sal borer for which no remedial
measures have been adopted so far.
Forest ofJcials are only using the primitive methods of hiring the tribal
to catch and kill the insects.
Obsolete Methods of Lumbering and Sawing.
In most of the Indian forests, obsolete methods of lumbering, sawing,
etc. are practiced. This system leads to a lot of wastage and low
forest productivity.
Large quantities of inferior wood which could be put to better use
through seasoning and preservation treatment remain unutilized or
go waste. Sawmills use old obsolete machinery and do not get proper
power supply,
Lack of Commercial Forests
In India, most of the forests are meant for protective Purposes and
commercial forests are badly lacking.
Growing awareness about environmental degradation has forced us to
look at forest wealth as a protective agent for the environment rather
than treating it as a commercial commodity,
Lack of Scienti?c Techniques
ScientiJc techniques of growing forests are also lacking in India. The
 only natural growth of forests takes place in India whereas in many
developed countries new scientiJc techniques are being used through
which tree growth is quickened.
A large number of trees are malformed or consist of species which are
slow-growing and poor yielders.
Undue Concessions to Tribal and Local People
In vast forest tracts, tribal and local people have been granted
customary rights and concessions for free grazing as well as removing
timber fuel and minor forest products.
They are also allowed to continue with age-old shifting cultivation.
These practices have led to the reduction in forest yield, In addition,
there has been encroachment on these forests by the village people
inhabiting the peripheral areas,
Effects of dams on forests and tribal people
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru referred to dam and valley projects as
“Temples of modern India”. These big dams and rivers valley projects
have multi-purpose uses. However, these dams are also responsible
for the destruction of forests. They are responsible for the
degradation of catchment areas, loss of ^ora and fauna, an increase of
water-borne diseases, disturbance in forest ecosystems, rehabilitation,
and resettlement of tribal peoples.

Mining
Mining from shallow deposits is done by surface mining while that
from deep deposits is done by sub-surface mining. It leads to the
degradation of lands and loss of topsoil. It is estimated that about
eighty thousands hectare land is under the stress of mining
activities in India
Mining leads to drying up perennial sources of water sources like
springs and streams in the mountainous area.
Mining and other associated activities remove vegetation along with
the underlying soil mantle, which results in the destruction of
topography and landscape in the area. Large-scale deforestation has
been reported in Mussorie and Dehradun valley due to
indiscriminating mining.
The forested area has declined at an average rate of 33% and the
increase in the non-forest area due to mining activities has resulted in
 relatively unstable zones leading to landslides.
Indiscriminate mining in forests of Goa since 1961 has destroyed
more than 50000 ha of forest land. Coal mining in Jharia, Raniganj,
and Singrauli areas has caused extensive deforestation in
Jharkhand.
Mining of magnetite and soapstone have destroyed 14 ha of forest in
hilly slopes of Khirakot, Kosi valley, and Almora.
Mining of radioactive minerals in Kerala, Tamilnadu, and Karnataka
are posing similar threats of deforestation.
The rich forests of Western Ghats are also facing the same threat
due to mining projects for excavation of copper, chromites, bauxite,
and magnetite.

Forest conservation
Forests are aptly termed as an index of the prosperity of a nation.
Increasing deforestation is causing heavy erosion of the topsoil, erratic
rainfall, and frequent devastating ^oods which is causing a chain reaction.
The saying that “man ?nds forests but leaves deserts”, is true for India.
Reports of the national remote sensing agency indicate that India is
losing about 1.3 million ha of forest cover each year.
Forest conservation does not mean the denial of use, but rather the
proper use without causing any adverse effect on our economy or
environment.

Various measures of forest conservation

Afforestation: Intensive programs need to be launched with an emphasis
on fuelwood, timber, grasses, etc. There should be the plantation of trees
along the roads, railway lines, rivers and banks, and lakes and ponds.
Development of green-belts in the urban areas and plantation of trees on
community lands, plantation of community forests on gram-sabha lands.
Encroachment of agriculture in forests should be made punishable. On
the same lines, shifting cultivation should be gradually replaced by
terraced farming, orchards development, and silviculture.
Rural population should be provided alternate sources of fuel. The
customary rights and concessions were given to tribals and local people
should not be allowed to exceed the carrying capacity of the land.
 Developmental projects should be planned to have minimal damage to
forests and the environment. Mining constructs should have a mandatory
clause of reforestation when the process of mining is over. Industries
should adopt anti-pollution devices and must develop and compensate for
the forest loss by new plantations.
Tribal and local people should be directly involved in the protection,
regeneration, and management of forests. People should be encouraged
to participate in the van Mahotsava and should be made aware of the
Chipko movement. People’s participation can be further encouraged by
giving loan assistance to villagers who want to revive degraded lands.
Scienti?c methods should be adopted to check and contain forest ?re
diseases and pests. Research on forestry should be encouraged in
universities and appropriate funding should be provided for this purpose.
Mental outlook of people should be changed and awareness about
conservation should be spread. There should be special programs,
demonstrations, seminars, and workshops to develop awareness among
the people about the social relevance of the forests.

Case studies
Jhum cultivation
Jhum Agriculture or shifting agriculture has destroyed the large
number of hectares of forest tracts in North-Eastern states and
Orissa. Jhum agriculture is subsidence agriculture in which a tract of
forest land is cleared by cutting trees and it is used for cultivation.
After few years, when the productivity of the land decreases,
cultivators abandon the land and clear the next tract. As a result of this
practice, combined with the increasing population there is rapid
deforestation as more and more cultivators clear forest to cultivate
the land. Also, with the increase in population, there is cultivators
are forced to return to previous tracts of land in relatively shorter
durations, not allowing the land to regain its productivity.
Chipko movement
The Chipko movement or Chipko Andolan is a social-ecological
movement that practiced the Gandhian methods of satyagraha and
non-violent resistance, through the act of hugging trees to protect
 them from being felled. The modern Chipko movement started in the
early 1970s in the Garhwal Himalayas of Uttarakhand, with growing
awareness towards rapid deforestation. The landmark event in this
struggle took place on March 26, 1974, when a group of peasant
women in Reni village, Hemwalghati, in Chamoli district,
Uttarakhand, India, acted to prevent the cutting of trees and reclaim
their traditional forest rights that were threatened by the contractor
system of the state Forest Department. Their actions inspired
hundreds of such actions at the grassroots level throughout the
region. By the 1980s the movement had spread throughout India and
led to the formulation of people-sensitive forest policies, which put a
stop to the open felling of trees in regions as far-reaching as Vindhyas
and the Western Ghats.
Western Himalayan region.
Over the last decade, there has been widespread destruction and
degradation of forest resources in the Himalayas, especially the
western Himalayas. This has resulted in various problems such as
erosion of topsoil, irregular rainfall, changing weather patterns, and
^oods. Construction of roads on hilly slopes has not only undermined
their stability but also damaged protective vegetation and forest cover.
Tribes in these areas are increasingly facing a shortage of ?rewood
and timber, due to large-scale tree cutting. Increased trafJc volumes
on these roads lead to increased pollution in the area.
forest resources in india upsc

India State of Forest Report

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1 COMMENT ! " Oldest #

Rahul Sharma
! 4 months ago

Like the content as it helped me in my exam and cleared the concept.

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