Natural Resources

CLASSIFICATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES

NATURAL RESOURCES

Exhaustible natural Inexhaustible natural

resources resources

Conditionally
Inexhaustible
Non- inexhaustible
Renew-
Partly
able renewable
renewable

Sun
Wind Water
Plants Mineral Air
Geothermal
Animals deposits energy
Soil
Tidal energy
Peat
2
 Forest Resources

• The word forest is derived from a Latin word

• “ Foris” means Outside

• Forest are one of the most important natural resources of the earth.

• Approximately 1/3rd of the earth’s total area is covered by forests

 Functions of Forests

• The functions of forest may broadly classified into following categories

• Protective Function

• Productive Function

• Regulative Function

• Accessory Function
 Protective Functions

• Forest Provide protection against Soil erosion, Droughts, floods, noise, radiations

Soil erosion Soil erosion Floods Droughts

 Productive Functions

 Forest Provide various products like, gum resins, medicines, Katha, honey, pulp,
bamboo, timber, and fruits
 Regulative Functions

• The Forest regulates the level of Oxygen and carbon dioxide in atmosphere. The
forests also help in regulating temperature conditions
 Accessory Function

 Forest provides aesthetics, habitat to various flora and fauna besides that it also
has an recreational value.
 Ecological Importance or uses of Forests

Regulation of global climate and temperature

 Forest play a crucial role in regulation of global climate and temperature as forest
cover absorb the solar radiations that would otherwise be reflected back into the
atmosphere by bare surface of the earth.

 Transpiration of plants increases the atmosphere humidity which affects the

rainfall, cools the atmosphere and thus regulate the hydrological cycle
Reduction of Global Warming

 The main green house gas co2 is used by forests for photosynthesis process the
forest act as a sink for co2 there by reducing the green house effect due to co2
 Production of Oxygen

• During Photosynthesis process forest releases oxygen a very important gas for
human survival thereby are called as lungs of earth.
 Conservation of Soil

 They prevent soil erosion by binding the soil particles tightly in their roots. They
also reduce the velocity of wind and rain which are chief agents causing erosion.
 Improvement in fertility of Soil

 The fertility of soil increases due to humans formed by the decay of forest litter

 The forest act as a giant sponge they slow down runoff, absorbing and holding

water that recharges springs, streams, and ground water.

 Habitat to wild life

• They provide the habitat for high wild life species

 Absorption of Noise

 Forest cover absorbs the noise and helps in preventing noise pollution

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 Absorption of air pollutants

 Forest absorbs many toxic gasses and air pollutants and can help in keeping air
pure.
 Economical Importance of Forest

• Timber: Wood used for commercial purposes like for making

furniture and other items like boats, bridges and other day to
day uses.

• Fuel Wood: The wood is used as fuel for cooking and other
purposes by poor people.

• Raw material for wood based industries: forest provide raw

material for various wood based industries like paper and pulp,
sports goods, furniture, match boxes etc.
 Food: Fruits, roots, leaves of plants and trees along with the meat of forest animals
provide the food to the tribal people.

 Miscellaneous Products: Miscellaneous products like, resin, gums, oils, medicines,

Katha, honey are provided by forests
 Types of Forests in India

Moist Tropical Forest

a) Tropical wet evergreen: Western Ghats (Maharashtra, a

Karnataka, Kerala)

b) Tropical semi evergreen: Lower hills of western

Ghats.

c) Tropical moist deciduous: Dehradun, mahableshwar b

d) Damp Forests: Sunder bans, Bengal delta, and

Andaman.

c
d
 a
• Dry Tropical forests:

a) Tropical dry deciduous: Madhya Pradesh, Uttar

Pradesh

b) Tropical thorn forest: Delhi, Punjab, Gujarat

b
c) Tropical dry evergreen: Eastern Ghat

( Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu)

c
 Mountain Sub tropical Forests
a

 Coniferous Forests

a)Subtropical broad: Shillong, Nilgiris

b)Subtropical pine forest: Arunachal Pradesh, Kashmir

b
c)Sub Tropical dry evergreen: Foot Hills of Himalayas.

c
 Mountain Temperate Forests

a)Montana Wet temperate: Nilgiri, Palmi Hills

b) Himalayan wet temperate: Assam, Himachal Pradesh

c) Himalayan dry temperate: Kashmir

 Sub Alpine Forests

a)Moist alpine scrub- high Himalayas

b) Dry alpine scrub: Sikkim

 Among the 16 different forest types of the country, the most common is

 Tropical dry deciduous (38.7%)

 Tropical moist deciduous (30.9%)

 Tropical thorn (6.9 %)

 These 3 types of tropical deciduous forests accounts for more than 76.5 % of forest
area in India. Nearly 96 % of forests are owned by government and, 2.6 % by
corporate bodies and rest are in private ownership.
 Deforestation

 Forest are exploited since early times for humans to meet human demand
 The permanent destruction of forest is called deforestation
 Causes of Deforestation

 Population explosion: Population explosion is

the root cause of all the environmental
problems, vast area of forests are cleared for
human settlement

 Shifting Cultivation: It is a traditional

agroforestry system widely practiced in north
eastern region of country in which felling and
burning of forests followed by cultivation of crop
for few years and abandon of cultivation allow
forests for re-growth cause extreme damage to
forest.
• Growing food demand: To meet the food demand of
rapidly growing population more and more forests are
cleared off for agricultural purpose.

• Fire wood: Increasing demand of wood for fuel increases

pressure on forests.

• Raw material for wood based industry:

Increasing demand of wood for making furniture,

plywood, match box etc results into tremendous pressure
on forests.
 Infrastructure development: Massive destruction
of forest occurs for various infrastructure
development like, big dams, highways projects etc.

 Forest fires: Forest fires may be natural or man

made cause a huge loss of forest

 Over grazing: Overgrazing of land by cattle result

into soil erosion, desertification.

 Natural forces: Floods, storms, heavy winds, snow,

lightening are some of the natural forces
 Effects of Deforestation

 Deforestation adversely affects and damages

the environment

 The adverse effect of deforestation are

discussed below:

 Soil erosion: The soil gets washed away with

rain water on sloppy areas in the absence of
trees leading to soil erosion.

 Expansion of deserts: Due to strong winds

laden by rock dust, land mass gradually gets
converted in atmosphere.
 Decrease in rainfall : In the absence of forest, rainfall
declines considerably because forest bring rains due to
high rate of transpiration. It maintains humidity in
atmosphere

 Loss of fertile land: Less rainfall results into loss of

fertile land owing to less natural vegetation growth.

 Effect on climate: Deforestation induces global climate

change. Climate becomes warmer due to lack of
humidity in deforested areas, also pattern of rainfall
changes
 Lowering of Water table: Lack of recharging of
underground reservoir, results into lowering of water
table

 Economic Losses: Deforestation will cause loss of

industrial timber and non timber products

 Loss of biodiversity: Loss of flora and fauna result into

loss of bio-diversity leading to disturbance in ecological
balance world wide.

 Environmental changes: It will lead to increase in

carbon dioxide concentration and other pollutants
which results in Global warming.
 Afforestation

 The conservation measure against the deforestation is

Afforestation. The development of forest by planting
trees on waste land is called Afforestation

 The main objective of Afforestation

 To control the deforestation

 To prevent soil erosion

 To regulate rainfall and maintain temperature

• To control atmospheric condition by keeping it clean

• To promote planned uses of wasteland

• To Protect forest ecosystem and to get benefits of forest products.

 Forest Degradation in India

 At the beginning of 20th century about 30 % of land in India was covered with
forests but by the end of 20th century the forest cover was reduced to 19.4%

 As a result of exploitation, the tropical forest cover in India, is now only reduced to
coastal western Ghats and northern India

 We have a huge population size and a very low precipitate forest area 0.075 Ha per
capita as compared to 0.64 ha/ capita of world forest area
 The National forest policy has recommended 33 % forest area for plains and 67 %
for hills

 The deforestation rate per unit population in India is lowest among the major
tropical countries

 For effective forest management of country we have to take the confidence of

tribal who have been living in forest.