Main Problems Faced by the Indian Forestry

The distribution of forest areas over various states is highly uneven. The proportion of forest land varies from 11 per cent in the north-west to about 44 per cent in the central region.Forests are most scarce in the areas where they are most needed, as in the densely populated and intensely cultivated Indo-Gangetic Plains. In states with similar conditions, like Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Bihar, the amount of cow-dung used as fuel is probably the highest in India, due to non-availability of fuel-wood.

Indian forests face a number of problems which are both natural and manmade.

 Main Problems Faced by the Indian Forestry are

1.Deforestation: Deforestation and forest degradation are the biggest threats to forests worldwide.Over half of the tropical forests worldwide have been destroyed since the 1960s, and every second, more than one hectare of tropical forests is destroyed or drastically degraded.The degradation and loss of forests threatens the survival of many species, and reduces the ability of forests to provide essential services.Deforestation and forest degradation impact the lives of 1.6 billion people whose livelihoods depend on forests. One billion of them are among the world’s poorest.Nature-based Solutions such as forest landscape restoration (FLR) can reverse the effects of deforestation and degradation and regain the ecological, social, climatic and economic benefits of forests.

2. Overgrazing: Overgrazing is a big factor which is responsible for serious damage to forests. India possesses a livestock population of over 412 million of which 270 million are bovine animals, about one-tenth of which graze in the forests. Whenever forests are easily accessible, the livestock entirely depends on grazing in them.

3.Low Productivity of Forests:Productivity of Indian forests is very low as compared to some other countries. For example, annual productivity of Indian forest is only 0.5 cubic metre per hectare while it is 1.25 cubic metre per hectare in the USA

4.Lack of Transport Facilities:One of the biggest problems faced by the Indian forests is the lack of proper transport facilities. About 16 per cent of the forest land in India is inaccessible and does not have proper transport facilities.

5.Forest Fires:Fires are a major cause of forest degradation and have wide ranging adverse ecological, economic and social impacts, including: loss of valuable timber resources. degradation of catchment areas. loss of biodiversity and extinction of plants and animals.

6.Plant Diseases, Insects and Pests: Insects are responsible for two major kinds of damage to growing crops. First is direct injury done to the plant by the feeding insect, which eats leaves or burrows in stems, fruit, or roots.

7.Lack of Commercial Forests:In India most of the forests are meant for protective purposes and commercial forests are badly lacking.

8.Unscientific economic activities: Unscientific economic activities like slash and burn manner of agriculture which destroy the fragile forest cover of slopes

source : icun,your articles