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Conservation of Forest and Wildlife

Forest are disappearing from our planet. All
around the world, trees are being cut down

too quickly for the Earth to regenerate new

forests. Cutting down of forest is called
deforestation, which is being done to get more
and more land for farming, building houses,

road and bridges, and so on. Deforestation

leads to soil erosion. Landslides and floods are common in deforested areas.
Deforestation also leads to reduction in the animal population. It is important for
us to save our forests by preventing trees from being cut, and planting more trees.

In 1974, villagers in the hills of Uttarakhand started a novel
method of preventing deforestation.

They put their arms around trees, hugged them tightly
and refused to move. This movement was led by Sunderlal

Bahuguna. It was known as the Chipko Movement.

The government encourage people to plant trees in various
ways, such as celebrating Vana Mahotsavas in the beginning

of the rainy season. Similarly, under the social forestry scheme
of the government, rural people are encouraged to plant more

trees for wood, fuel fodder and timber.

To prevent deforestation and conserve wildlife, the government has declared

several area as Reserve forest. Cutting of trees and killing of wildlife in these forests
is not permitted. They are known as Wildlife Sanctuaries and National park. Some

of them are as follows:

• Jim Corbett National Park, Uttarakhand
• Kaziranga National Park, Assam

• Sundarbans Tiger Reserve, West Bengal

• Gir National Park, Gujarat
• Kanha National Park, Madhya Pradesh

• Bandipur National Park, Karnataka

• Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary, Kerala

• Chilika Lake Bird Sanctuary, Odisha

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