8/4/2019 Project Indian Forest

1/2

India has an area of 633400 square kilometres notified as forests, representing some19.27% of geographic area. India is one of the few countries which have a forest policysince 1894 , revised in 1952 and again in 1988 . The main plank of the current policy is

protection, preservation and development of forests.

India's unique topography, terrain, climate and vegetation, brings out naturaldiversity that cannot be witnessed anywhere else in the world. One suchvariation is also present in India's wild forested regions.

Tropical forests in India's east present a total contrast with the pine andconiferous woodland of the Western Himalayas. The natural cover of India varieswith high altitudes and these evergreen forests are bounded with high alpinemeadows nearer to the snowline and temperate forests of short stout trees in thelower elevations. In the Himalayan foothills are decidious trees, with shrubs,Bamboos, fern and grass.

The Varied Indian Forest RangeIndia's northern plains, the course of the holy rivers Ganga and the Yamuna; theGreat Thar Desert in the west; the Sundarbans, the marshy swamplands, in thedelta of the Ganga and the Brahmaputra, in the east; the Deccan Plateau, lyingin the rain shadow of the hills and the Western Ghats with their dense; luxuriantforests - all provide fascinating variations in habitats. These forests sustain 350species of mammals, 2, 100 kinds of birds - local and migratory, nearly 350species of reptile and countless insects.

Preserving India's Forest HeritageThe need for conservation of the environment and the forests has excercised the

minds of Indian rulers from the earliest of times. In recent times,it was theadministrators and princely rulers who demarcated and reserved forests asprivate preserves. Today many of the forested regions form the nucleus of India'swildlife sanctuaries and parks.

Indian's Only RainforestThe state of Arunachal Pardesh is gifted with enormous wealth of wildlife andforested land. But once the whole of India was blessed with wealth. Increasingpopulation, hunting and encroachments has resulted in the destruction of India'sforest lands. Today the North eastern states of India, have become the onlyregion where Rainforest wealth of India survives, but for how long, that's a bigquestion.

The rainforests of the northeast state of Assam are facing fast depletion due toignorance and negligence of the state authorities and the community people,residing within the the forest Areas. In the recent survey it has been discoveredand that there is a continuous stretch of 800-sq-kms of virgin rainforests in upper Assam that spills over to Arunachal Pradesh is present in the Northeasternregion of India.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1894http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1952http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1988http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1988http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1894http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1952http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1988

8/4/2019 Project Indian Forest

2/2

The newly discovered Joydihing -wildlife sanctuary, comprises the Joypur reserve forest, Dirak reserve forest and Dihing reserve forest. It houses 32species of mammals, more than 300 species of birds and several other rare andendemic wild species. A critical aspect of this forest zone is that of the 15 species

of non-human primates found in India, seven inhabit in this belt. They includeRhesus Macaque, Assamese Macaque, slow Loris, capped Langurs, pig-tailedMacaque, stam-tailed Macaque and Hoolock Gibbons. This rainforest stretch isalso one of the largest elephant zone in India, through which more than 2,000elephants migrate to Arunachal Pradesh every year.

Facts About Rainforests More than half of the world's estimated 10 million species of plants, animalsand insects live in the tropical rainforests.

Rainforest plants are rich in secondary metabolites, particularly alkaloids.

Biochemists believe alkaloids protect plants from disease and insect attacks.Many alkaloids from higher plants have proven to be of medicinal value andbenefit.

Currently, 121 prescription drugs currently sold worldwide come from plant-derived sources. And while 25% of Western pharmaceuticals are derived fromrainforest ingredients, less than 1% of these tropical trees and plants have beentested by scientists.

Promoting the use of these sustainable and renewable sources could stop thedestruction of the Rainforests. By creating a new source of income harvesting the

medicinal plants, fruits nuts, oil and other sustainable resources, the rainforestsis be more valuable alive than cut and burned.

Sufficient demand of sustainable and ecologically harvested Rainforestproducts is necessary for preservation efforts to succeed.