Changes introduced due to human activities in the forest biomes?
Forests have been considered as one of the peculiar and obvious examples of biomes. They are not only about thick cover of trees but also scrub vegetation and grassland. It is a peculiar organism of unlimited kindness and extends generously the products of its life activity and affords protection to all beings, offering shade even to the axe man, who destroys it. In the midst of a developmental strategy we happen to forget that forests are also important for psychological reasons. In retrospective, it’s like returning back to ones origin in cosmological terms.
The cycle explains that for centuries forests and the people living in its ambience have complemented each other. The latter derived their livelihood from the farmers who in turn took the responsibility of maintaining the ecological balance and environmental quality. They provided for the conservation of soil and water.
There is also a significant level of difference between those living in the forests and those in places away far away. While the hill people utilize their traditional knowledge to use forest resources without destroying them, the people from places afar have no other way out other than utilizing the resources and leaving them to the hands of destruction.
The forest protects us from any natural calamity. They provide us with fuel for cooking, fodder for their cattle, fruit, and timber for building houses and medicinal herbs for curing diseases. It also helps in maintaining the flow of perennial springs, in bringing rain, in keeping the soil and water conserved, in preventing landslides etc. It also helps regulate watershed management so as to maintain the fertility of the soil, control droughts and floods, and preserve wildlife.
Gradually the humans began cutting down forests for their selfish interests, especially in the Himalayan region, and this became an important factor in ecological degradation. Mans activities created lot of disturbance as a result of which non-availability of certain species, decline of fodder and wood resources, loss of the habitat of wildlife, soil erosion, recurrent floods and drying-up of springs and seasonal streams and climatic changes came to be the underlying aspect of environment today.
It is the commercial exploitation of trees for timber and other uses that gave birth to the idea of exploitation. Other human efforts include the development of new agricultural fields, over-grazing by animals, coming up of new habitation, building of roads, tourism development, increase in population and other development. This has resulted in an ecological imbalance.
With the advent of these developments the forest has been detached from the villages. It is only recently that a report of scarcity of fuel, fodder and fruit has come in the picture. The extinction of medicinal herbs is likely.
The finest example is that of the deforestation in the villages of Garhwal which has resulted in drought and flood conditions, soil erosion, watershed failure etc.
As a result of this disturbance there have been significant efforts by the people to protect the environment. Some of these efforts include the chipko movement that took place in 1973 in the villages oh jharkhand.
The forest economy has also been deteriorated because of the large-scale replacement of natural forests by the plantation of commercially profitable trees. Forests as these are incapable of working the way the natural forests do for the maintenance of ecological balance. In the forests, the oak tree that is regarded as the farmer’s best friend has been replaced by pine trees because of their commercial use and these do not have the capacity to retain water, eventually resulting into the drying up of springs, creating a scarcity of drinking water etc. with no canopy and no undergrowth it leaves the mountain slopes fully exposed to erosion by rain and wind.
Forest fire is another factor for this ecological imbalance. These include intentional and accidental. Intentional would include the setting of fire by the villagers during summer season while accidental would as a result of man’s carelessness. For instance, forest laborers throwing away burning cigarettes. Other reasons for ecological imbalance by humans would include removal of leaf litter by the villagers for use as fuel which is responsible for soil erosion.
Because of deforestation, soil which is the basis of all terrestrial life, in the absence of vegetal cover is likely to give rise to landslide and siltation when left unattended for a longer period.
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