TIMBER EXTRACTION

• Wood used for engineering purposes like building houses, making furniture is called
timber .

• The products derived from timber have been important to many civilizations, and thus
it has acquired value within these civilizations.

•There has always existed a powerful incentive for individuals to capture the wood value
of old growth timber.

•Timber extraction results in deforestation and in the fragmentation of the last

remaining forests.

•It harms valuable species of trees, birds and wild animals. In spite of this, it is
sometimes necessary to extract timber, so as to meet the needs of a developing country.

•During the extraction of timber, cutting, felling and handling should be done selectively,
carefully and in a planned manner, in order to save the remaining forests and
biodiversity.
 Types of Timber extraction:

(i)            Clear felling;

(ii)           Selective logging;
(iii)          Mechanized logging;
(iv)         Hand logging
(v)          Reduced-impact logging.
Clear felling; 
generally means the complete destruction of native forest,
modifying it by harvesting commercial trees to create an even aged
group and removing non-commercial trees, if required. Now,
industrial timber logging is being done through clear felling all over
the world.
 selective logging
• In selective logging, only large individual trees of a few economically
marketable species are harvested.

• The other trees are left untouched till the next harvesting. Although in
selective logging only three to 10 of the tallest trees are targeted per
hectare, the damage done may be as high as 50 per cent of the total forest
areas because of the need to create access routes, dragging cut trees on the
forest floor and lack of planning.

Mechanized logging
• In mechanized logging, heavy machineries are used to pull, lift and
transport the trees. This process can be used in clear felling or selective
logging operations.
 Hand-logging
• Hand-logging takes place in forests that are seasonally flooded or
permanently water logged. In such conditions, heavy machinery cannot be
used and commercial logging operations have to employ hand-logging.

Reduced-impact logging

Reduced-impact logging is now a common feature in industrialized nations

where environmental damage can be minimized through the selection of
site-sensitive techniques of harvesting and logging.
 MINING
• Mining is the process of removing deposits of ores from substantially very
well below the ground level.

• Mining is carried out to remove several minerals including coal.

• These mineral deposits invariably found in the forest region, and any
operation of mining will naturally affect the forests.

• Mining from shallow deposits is done by surface mining while that from
deep deposits is done by sub-surface mining.

• More than 80,000 ha of land of the country are presently under the stress
of mining activities.
 Effects of mining resources

• Mining operation require removal of vegetation along with

underlying soil mantle and overlying rock masses. This results in
destruction of landscape in the area.

• Large scale of deforestation has been reported in Mussorie and

Dehradun valley due to mining of various areas.

• Indiscriminate mining in Goa since 1961 has destroyed more than

50,000 ha of forest land.

• Mining of radioactive mineral in Kerala, Tamilnadu and Karnataka

are posing similar threats of deforestation.
DAMS AND THEIR EFFECTS ON FORESTS AND TRIBAL
PEOPLE
• Big dams and river valley projects have multi-purpose uses and have been
referred to as "Temples of modern India”.

• India has more than 1550 large dams, the maximum being in the state of
Maharashtra (more than 600) followed by Gujarat (more than 250) and
Madhya Pradesh (130).

• The highest one is Tehri dam, on river Bhagirathi in Uttaranchal and the
largest in terms of capacity is Bhakra dam on river Sutlej.
 Effects on Tribal people

• The greatest social cost of big dam is the widespread displacement

of local people.

• It is estimated that the number of people affected directly or

indirectly by all big irrigation projects in India over the past 50
years can be as high as 20 millions.

• The Hirakud dam, one of the largest dams executed in fifties, has
displaced more than 20,000 people residing in 250 villages.
 Effects on forests
• Thousands of hectares of forests have been cleared for executing river
valley projects which breaks the natural ecological balance of the region.
Floods, landslides become more prevalent in such areas.

Eg:
• The Narmada sagar project alone has submerged 3.5 lakh hectares of best
forest comprising of rich teak and bamboo forests.

• The Tehri dam submerged 1000 hectares of forest affecting about 430
species of plants according to the survey carried out by the botanical
survey of India.