DEFORESTATION

Deforestation is the removal of a forest or stand of trees where the land is thereafter
converted to a non – forest use.Example of deforestation include conversion of forestland to
farms, ranches or urban use.Deforestation occurs for many reason: trees are cut down to be
used or sold as a fuel or timber.If there is not a proper reforestation then it is resulted to
damage to habitat.
Growing rate of Deforestation in India:
Dense forests once covered India. According to Food and Agriculture Organisation of the
united Nation in 2002 estimates that India forest cover to be about 64 million hectare or
19.5% of the country area.India forests type are tropical evergreens, tropical deciduous,
swamps, mangroves, sub-tropical, montane, scrub, alpine forests .Forest area reduced from
14.8 billion acres to 8.6 billion acres from early 1990s to 2012.Deforestation is a serious issue
to India because cutting of trees are performed at a high rate.
DPSIR Framework on Deforestation in in India:

What is DPSIR Framework?

It is a casual framework to describe interaction between society and environment. Human
impact or environment impact on human because of interdependence of the components. The
DPSIR framework assumes a chain of causal links starting with ‘driving forces’ (economic
sectors, human activities) through ‘pressures’ (emissions, waste) to ‘states’ (physical,
chemical and biological) and ‘impacts’ on ecosystems, human health and functions,
eventually leading to political ‘responses’ (prioritisation, target setting, indicators).
 Driving Forces

Agriculture: To keep pace with a growing global population, that use of land is expected
to expand further, putting pressure on vulnerable tropical forests and grasslands. Conversion
of forests to agricultural land to feed growing needs of people. There are an estimated 300
million people living as shifting cultivators who practice slash and burn agriculture and are
supposed to clear more than 5 lakh ha of forests for shifting cultivation annually. In India, we
have this practice in North-east and to some extend in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and M.P. which
contribute to nearly half of the forest clearing annually.

Wood Harvesting: (Which supplies the world market with woods such as teak,
mahogany and ebony) destroys trees as well as opening up forest for agriculture. Also cutting
of trees for fire wood and building material.

Grazing Land: When Plants are exposed for grazing for a long period of time and proper
recovery is not performed then there is loss in usefulness and productivity of land.

Mining: Mining of coal by clearing of all woods by means of equipment results in the main
cause of deforestation.

Increase in Population: When population is increased then there is also increase in

demand for land, and products so to meet their need there is cutting of trees are happens
which causes deforestation.
Forest Fire: Forest fires also causes deforestation because forest fire is spreading too
quickly and causes intensive damage to forest

Urbanization and Industrialization: It needed more land to grow and develop so

clearing of forests performed at higher rate and also it disturb the ecosystem balance.
 Pressure
Pressure is defined as the result on resources on the cost of meeting a need there are mainly
three types :
1. Chances in land use.
2. Excessive use of enviromental resources.
3. Emission to air, water,soil.
Declining source of natural medicine.Uneven balance in the natural cycle.Change in
climate.CO2 balance is disturbed because trees absorbs CO2 and release O2, if trees are cut
then CO2 in atmosphere rises and O2 decreases.Undernourishment for wildlife animals
causes to death because forests is like a home to wild animals.Also there are increase in
pollution.

State
State is the condition of the system at a specific time and is represented by a set of descriptors
of system attributes that are affected by pressures and the type, degree and rate of land
degradation. As a result of pressures, the ‘state’ of the environment is affected; that is, the
quality of the various environmental compartments (air, water, soil, etc.) in relation to the
functions that these compartments fulfill .The ‘state of the environment’ is thus the
combination of the physical, chemical and biological conditions. At this specific time period
the state of forest are: Loss and decrease in the biodiversity. Decrease in forest area and
cover.Forest is degrading at alarming rate still the government is not paying any attention for
the protection of this forest. Deforestation causes Green house effect causes increase in
temperature of earth.Deforestation causes poor ecological status.It causes uneven
rainfall.Deforestation causes soil erosion and decline in productivity due to degradation of land
and if this causes for a continuous long period of time then desertification also occur.

Impact
Impact is the change in the state as a result as a result of meeting a need. The changes in the
physical, chemical or biological state of the environment determine the quality of ecosystems
and the welfare of human beings. In other words changes in the state may have environmental
or economic ‘impacts’ on the functioning of ecosystems, their life supporting abilities, and
ultimately on human health and on the economic and social performance of society.
Impact related to the degradation and deforestation of forest in India are:

Destruction in the forest quality. Decline in Health of local community and communities
depend directly on forests facing threat and causes driven of people from their original land.
Loss of forest ecosystem function and services. Human wildlife conflicts due to interference
of humans into the forests. Change and alternation on forest constituent .Degradation of
forest and agriculture land area .Enviromental degradation causes ozone depletion and
greenhouse effect. Decline in health of local community living and also it causes change in
climate which causes uneven rainfall and rising of sea levels. Loss of unique ecosystem and
species also it results to desertification.

Responses
A ‘response’ by society or policy makers is the result of an undesired impact and can affect
any part of the chain between driving forces and impacts. An example of a response related
are:

The government national action plan on climate change involves expanding forest cover from
23% to 33%. Support campaign like plantation of trees. Afforestation of 6 million hectares of
degraded forest land. Options for alternatives of timber lead to reduce deforestation. Wildlife
conservation and anti-poaching unit. Awareness, trainings and education about NTFP’s
management training, forest management training, nursery management monitoring unit. There
are methods which improve farming to improve land productivity and by doing this there is
decrease in demand for more land for agriculture. Other movements include international
program like: TFAP( Tropical forestry action plan ), ITTO ( International Timber Trade
Organisation) .

Land Ethics

"A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic
community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise."- Aldo Leopold

Formulated by Aldo Leopold a US ecologist and Forester.

There are 3 fundamental principles of land ethic:
1. Existing ethical theories deal with the individual as a member of a community.
2. The boundaries of the community should be enlarged to include the land.
3. We have to change from conquerors of the land community to plain member and citizen
of it.

Afforestation, Promotion of cyclic agriculture, Implementation of Integrated social forestry

program and national forestry policy resolution, supportive campaigns regarding plantation,
Wildlife conservation and anti-poaching unit, Private forest encouragement program, forest
management, plantation and forest restoration, Training and skill enhancement program,
Alternate energy promotion these are the responses formulated while keeping the principles
of land ethics in mind .
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