Effects of deforestation on the environment:
Deforestation is defined as cutting of trees and plants without planting new ones in place of them. As we all know tress and plants are helpful in keeping our environment clean as they absorb carbon dioxide and exhale oxygen resulting in reducing percentage of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere rather controlling the amount of it in the atmosphere. It is said that the earth was covered 90% with plants and trees once but its really hard to believe it now as we don’t see them today in that quantity. There are plenty of reasons why we don’t see them in that quantity that they used to be in the past:
A)Demand of Land: Most prominent of all the reasons is demand of land which has increased and has been increasing day by day and for that we human being are cutting tress to make our own homes on the land without knowing the after effects of it. Moreover the land is required for agriculture for which forests are cut and the land is used for agriculture.
B)Need for firewood: People who live in rural areas still cut trees for using wood of theirs for firework. As there is scarcity of gas and electricity in the rural areas so the wood is major source of heat energy there.
C)Other needs include making of furniture, paper, building material etc for which trees are to be cut.
Though all the above needs are compulsory but we should know what are the effects of cutting trees at least so that if we understand it we may be able to control it for our own uses. Below are the effects of deforestation:
- Soil erosion: Roots of trees hold soil tightly but once they are cut soil gets carried away by wind and water. This may result in losing of fertile soil having nutrients and soil micro organisms which are helpful in productivity.
- Destruction of animal habitat: Forests are the main habitat of animals there are lot of species which dwell in the forests but by cutting tress we make them homeless. Not only home these forests provide them food too so ultimately we kill animals by cutting forests. There are many species on the earth which have been extinct due to rapid cutting of forests. Even there are small micro organism which we may not be able to see but they live in the forest but by cutting them we kill them.
- Green house effect: As we all know that trees absorb Carbon Dia oxide and releases Oxygen in return. But we don’t know that Carbon Dia oxide absorbs heat and make the atmosphere more hot. And recently due to cutting of trees in large number we have made the situation that percentage of Carbon Dia oxide has increased by the normal percentage which is resulting in global warming.
All the things are important then what should we do for it then?
We should educate people more and more about the disadvantages of cutting trees. There should be a strict law against cutting of trees which should be strictly followed. We must try to plant if we cut one. We should reduce our dependency on wood as a source of energy and should replace it with solar and wind energy.
We should keep in mind that this earth is not only for us it is for the next generation too which has yet to come on the earth and the way we are destroying it we won’t be able to give them the privilege to live on this beautiful earth.
With this article I would request you all not to cut trees and try to plant at least one in your area if can. Report to police if you see some cutting trees as these day cutting of a tree is seen as equivalent to killing a human being.
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