Deforestation 2

There were Kudos for the conscientious people of Kerala when they initiated the programme of ‘Smrithivanam' in the early nineties. They started planting trees in the memory of the dead. It is a living graveyard helping the ecology to improve.
Even an ordinary man knows that forests invite water laid clouds, provide timber, are a source of natural nitrogenous manure, preserve soil from erosion, suck the subterranean water and provide shade and safety to small plants. Forests have also been providing a number of fruits including pineapple, coconut and charauli. They have now come under regular plantation.
It is because of the absence of trees that Rajasthan is more or less a desert area. Still people, contractors and even government agencies have been denuding forests. The Chipko movement of Uttar Kashi and Almora and Apiko movement of Kanara in Karnataka have not stopped killing the benevolent creation of nature that saves environment.
The denudation of hill forests in Doon valley in UP, Shimla in Himachal Pradesh, Mahabaleshwar in Maharashtra and Mahendragiri in the South have brought a havoc in these areas. The trees are felled for commercial mining and in the name of tourism. Vast areas in Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh have been brought under cultivation after felling the trees. Huge dams have cleared a number of forest regions in Punjab, Orissa and the South. Sardar Sarovar Narmada Project is not the last nail in the coffin of forests.
Because of the rise in population the axe has fallen on forest areas for residential needs and for procuring agricultural needs. Forest wealth has already depleted in Bihar-Bengal-Orissa border belt because of coal mining.
No efforts have yet been made to rehabilitate the consumed area with trees. With the rise in population in the Indian sub-continent there is a general rise in the defence forces in India too to face the danger from Pakistan, Bangladesh and the foreign forces beyond the North Eastern region of the seven...