Q 1 – What is natural vegetation?
Ans. Natural vegetation means a plant community that has been left undisturbed over a long period of time, so as to allow its species to adjust themselves to climate and soil conditions as fully as possible. Natural vegetation is found in mountain regions,
Q 2 – How many types the natural vegetation in India can be classified into?
Ans. Based on the structure, physiognomy and florists nature of the | plants, the natural vegetation in India can be divided into:
- Tropical evergreen forests
- Tropical dry deciduous and evergreen forests
- Semi-desert and desert vegetation
- Wetlands littoral and swamp forests
- Montane vegetation
- The grasses
Q 3 – What is boreal?
Ans. The species which are brought from outside are known as exotic and about 40% of the plant species in India are found to be exotic. The plant species which are brought from the Sino-Tibetan area are known as ‘boreal’.
Q 4 – Describe the vegetation in central parts of the plateau.
Ans. In the central part of the Indian plateau dry tropical or deciduous
and thorny vegetation is found. This region receives less than 70 cm. rainfall and is covered with thorn forest type of vegetation. This part! presents vast undulating poor grassland. Summer is very long and dry,
the landscape changes to the pale carpet of grasses with grey stone surfaces.
Q 5 – Give any three characteristic features of tropical deciduous forests.
Ans.
- They are found on foot hill so Himalayas and many parts of peninsular plateau.
- During the dry season, they shed their leaves. Teak, Shisham, sal, rosewood are the main species.
- They have important economical significance.
Q 6 – What do you mean by biosphere reserve? Where and when was the first biosphere reserve of India developed?
Ans. The vast areas which have been reserved for the preservation and protection of flora and fauna of the country in their natural form are known as bio-reserves. In these areas, the plants and animals are kept to protect for the future generation. The first Biosphere in India was developed at Nilgiri.
Q 7– Describe the location and characteristic features of Kaziranga National Park.
Ans. Kaziranga National Park is located in Nagaon and Gola ghat districts on the southern bank of Brahmaputra river at the foot of Mikir hills. It lies in the flood plains of the Brahmaputra river. The riverine habitat consists primarily of tall, dense grasslands interspersed with open forests. One homed rhinoceros and elephants are the main inhabitants of this park.
Q 8 – Write a short note on Sundarbans Biosphere Reserve.
Ans. It is located in the swampy delta of the two great Indian rivers the Brahmaputra and the Ganga in West Bengal. It extends over a vast area of mangrove forest, swamps and forested islands, covering over 1300 sq. km. Sunderban is the home of nearly 200 Royal Bengal Tigers. Adapting themself to the saline and freshwater environment, the tigers at the park are good swimmers.
Q 9 – How can we utilise our forests resources for the future? Give three methods.
Ans.
- We have to stop the reckless cutting of forests.
- To reduce the pressure on forests, the substituent of timber should be found out.
- To fulfil the basic needs of fuel and fodder of the people, social forestry and farmer forestry should be introduced.
- More and more trees should be planted.
Q 10 – Name the various Bio-reserves in India.
Ans.
- Nilgiri (Karnataka)
- Nanda Devi (Uttranchal)
- No Krek (Meghalaya)
- Andaman Nicobar
- Valley of flowers (Uttranchal)
- Gulf of Mannar (Tamil Nadu)
- Rann of Kutchh (Gujarat)
- Kaziranga National Park (Assam)
Q 11 – What are the characteristic features of the tropical evergreen forests?
Ans.
- There is a dense growth of vegetation which causes difficulty. of accessibility. A number of species are very large.
- There is a lack of pure stands.
- High temperature and heavy rainfall make conditions unsuitable for living.
Q 12 – What is the difference between National parks and Sanctuaries?
Ans.
| National parks | Sanctuaries |
| (1) This is an area of multi ecosystems. | (1) The area of wildlife sanctuaries are also dedicated to protecting wildlife and species. |
| (2) This area has not been materially altered by human occu¬pation. | (2) There is no entry without permission. |
| (3) This is dedicated to protecting wildlife. | (3) Hunting and grazing are prohibited. |
| (4) Plant and animal species, for scientific education, recreation and geomorphological sites are present. | (4) Man’s activity is allowed in the sanctuaries. |
Q 13 – How vegetation is different from forests?
Ans. Vegetation is not limited to forests only. It is something more than the forests. Vegetation includes trees, grasses, shrubs, etc. Vegetation gives a distinct type of landscape to the region as grassland, woodland.
Forests are all type of vegetation. It refers to the society of trees in close growth. Forests are very useful for mankind.
Q 14 – Define reafforestation and afforestation.
Ans. Reafforestation is the saplings of two plants which are planted to replace every felled tree. It is practised to avoid the evils of Jumping.
Afforestation is the planting of one sapling to get one tree. It is practised to bring more area under forest.
Q 15 – Why have certain species of animals become extinct in our country? What is being done to preserve wildlife?
Ans. Wildlife has a very important role for mankind. But we have depleted its habitat, the forests, very fast. We have hunted wild animals and poached them indiscriminately. The result is that many of these wild animals face the danger of extinction. The major animals which face extinction are antelopes, lion, tigers, blackbuck, bustard, etc. Hence, to see the future need, there is an urgent need to conserve them.
Steps to be taken to preserve wild-life:
- Hunting and poaching of wild animals have been banned.
- Strict and severe punishment is accorded to defaulters.
- National parks, zoos, sanctuaries and biosphere reserves have been set up more and more in number all over the country.
- Maintenance of the existing trees.
- More and more birds and animals are being declared national birds and animals.
- ‘Project Tiger’ and ‘Project Elephant’ programmes have been ‘ launched to preserve and conserve wildlife.
Q 16 – Describe the various regions of concentration of forests in varying degrees in India.
Ans. On the basis of the percentage of the actual forest cover, the states have been grouped into four regions. They are:
- The region of high concentration
- The region of medium concentration
- The region of low concentration
- The region of very low concentration
- The region of the high concentration – This region includes the states where the percentage cover of the forest is more than 40%. All the eastern states except Assam fall in this category. Favourable climate, especially rainfall and temperature, is responsible for the high concentration of forests. There is variation in forest cover in the region. In the states of Mizoram, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh and in the Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, forests occupy more than 80% of the geographical area. Manipur Meghalaya, Tripura, Sikkim and Dadra and Nagar Haveli have a percentage of forest between 40 and 80.
- The region of moderate concentration – It includes the states of Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Goa, Kerala, Assam and Himachal Pradesh. Goa has the lightest (33.79)% of the actual forest followed by Orissa and Assam. Rest of the states have less than 30% of their area.
- The region of low concentration – This region is also not continuous. The states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu form peninsular sub-region while those of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar form the northern sub-region.
- The region of very low concentration – The northwestern part of India falls in this category. The states included are Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, Chandigarh and Delhi. West Bengal in the east also comes under this region. Physical and human factors have been responsible for a very low concentration of forests in these areas.
Q 17 – Write a short note on the strange creatures of India.
Ans. The strange creatures of India are Gangetic dolphin, Civets, Indian Pangolin, Great lndian Her bill, Indian giant squirrel, mouse, deer and flying-fox.
Gangetic Dolphin – It lives in the Ganga river. It is born blind and lives sightless for the rest of its life.
Civets – It is a cat I like creature, lives solitary, comes out at night to hunt small birds, mammals and reptiles. It remains hiding during the day.
Indian pangolin – It has a scaly body. As protection against predators, it rolls itself into a ball and raises its sharp scales.
Great Indian Hornbill – It is a large bird with strange nesting habits; the female seal herself into d hollow in a tree and the male dutifully brings her food during the entire period of incubation.
Indian giant squirrel – It is a large nocturnal rodent which lives in the upper canopy of trees. It flaps between its body and its extremities act like parachutes and enable the large mammal to glide from tree to tree.
Mouse deer – This is a deer of 30 cm. in height. To evade predators, it hides beneath the low bushes and vegetation.
Flying fox – It is one of the world’s largest bats and is found all over India. Its wingspan is more than 1.5 m. and can fly over 220 km.
Q 18 – What is a Biosphere reserve? How many Biospheres are found in India? Describe in short.
Ans. A Biosphere Reserve is a unique and representative ecosystem of terrestrial and coastal areas which are internationally recognized within the framework of UNESCO’S Man and Biosphere Programme.
There are 4 biosphere reserves in India. Four biosphere reserves namely
- Nilgiri,
- Nanda Devi,
- Sunderbans,
- Gulf of Mannar has been recognised by UNESCO on world network.
1. Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve – It is the first of the fourteen biosphere reserves of India and was established in September 1986. The total area of the biosphere reserve is around 5520 sq. km. Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve possesses different habitat types, unspoilt areas of natural vegetation types with several dry and moist deciduous, semi-evergreen and wet evergreen forests, evergreen sholes, grasslands and swamps. It includes the largest known population of two endangered animal species, namely the Nilgiri Tahr and the Lion-tailed Macaque. About 80% of the flowering plants reported from the Western Ghats occur in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve.
2. Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve – It is situated in Uttranchal, includes parts of Chamoli, Almora, Pithoragarh and Bageshwar districts. The major type of the reserve is temperate forest. A few important species are silverweed, orchids, Latifolie and rhododendron. The biosphere reserve has a rich fauna, for example, snow leopard, black bear, brown bear, musk deer, snow-cock, golden eagle.
3. Sundarban Biosphere Reserve – This reserve is located in the swampy delta of the river Ganga in West Bengal. It spreads over a vast area of 9,630 sq. km and consists of mangrove forests, swamps and s- forested islands. It is a home of nearly 200 Royal Bengal Tigers.
4. Gulf of Mannar Biosphere Reserve – It covers an area of 1,05,000 hectares on the south-east coast of India from Sri-Lanka. The biosphere reserve comprises 21 islands with estuaries, beaches, forests of the nearshore environment, seagrass, coral reefs and mangroves.
Q 19 – Describe the importance of social forestry in India.
Ans. The social forestry was used for the first time by the National Commission on Agriculture in 1976 to denote tree raising programmes to supply firewood, small hunters and minor forest produce to the rural population. Ambitious social forestry programmes have been launched by several state governments. The forest departments in most states have set up separate social forestry wings.
Social forestry programmes have mainly three components viz., farm forestry, wood lots and community wood lots. Farm forestry encourages farmers to plant trees on their own farmer; wood lots are planted by the forest departments for the needs of the community especially along roadsides, canal banks and other such public lands, and community wood lots are planted by the community themselves on community lands, to be shared equally by them.
Q 20 – Name important trees of tropical evergreen forests.
Ans. Important trees of tropical evergreen forests include rosewood, mahogany, aini, ebony, etc.
Q 21 – Name important trees of tropical deciduous forests.
Ans. Teak, sal, shisham, hurra, mahua, amla, semul, kusum, and sandalwood etc. are the main species of tropical deciduous forests
Q 22 – Which state has highest and lowest percentage of forests?
Ans. Mizoram has highest forests and Haryana has lowest forests.
Q 23 – Which union territory has highest and lowest percentage of forests?
Ans. Lakshadweep islands and Andaman and Nicobar has largest number of trees with 85.91% and 84.01% respectively. Pondicherry and Chandigarh have lowest percentage of forest cover with 7.45% and 7.51% respectively.
Q 24 – On the basis of actual forest cover, in how many categories have Indian states been divided?
Ans. On the basis of the percentage of the actual forest cover, the states have been grouped into four regions:
- The region of high concentration > 40
- The region of medium concentration 20-40
- The region of low concentration 10-20
- The region of very low concentration < 10.
Q 25 – What is a national park?
Ans. A national park is an area which is strictly reserved for the protection of the wildlife and where activities such as forestry, grazing or cultivation are not allowed.
Q 26 – What is social forestry?
Ans. Social forestry means the management and protection of forests and afforestation on barren lands with the purpose of helping in the environmental, social and rural development.
Q 27 – When was the new forest policy implemented?
Ans. The new forest policy was adopted in 1952 and was further modified in 1988.
Q 28 – Explain the three categories of social forestry?
Ans. Social forestry is classified into three categories Urban forestry:
It pertains to the raising and management of trees on public and privately owned land such as green belts, parts, roadside avenues, industrial and commercial green belts etc.
Rural forestry:
- It is divided into agro-forestry and community.
- Agro-forestry is the raising of trees and agriculture crops on the same land inclusive of the waste patches.
- Community forestry involves the raising of trees on public or community land such as the village pasture and temple land, roadside, canal bank, strips, along railway lines and schools, etc. providing benefits to the community as a whole.
Farm forestry:
- It is a term applied to the process under which farmers grow trees for commercial and non-commercial purposes on their farm lands.
- Commercial purposes-Forest department of various states distribute seedlings of trees free of cost to small and medium farmers. Several land such as the margins of agricultural fields grasslands and pastures, land around homes and cow sheds may be used for raising trees under non-commercial farm forestry.
Q 29 – The percent of forest cover varies state to state. Substantiate.
Ans. According to state records, the forest area covers 23.28 per cent of the total land area of the country. According to India State of Forest Report 2011, the actual forest cover in India is only 21.05 per cent. Both forest area and forest cover vary from state to state.
- Lakshadweep has zero per cent open forest area; Andaman and Nicobar Islands have 86.93 per cent.
- Most of the states with less than 10 per cent of the forest area lie im th# nprth and north-western part of %• country. These are Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi.
- States with 10-20 p#r cent |jrea are Tamil Nadu and West ^Ungfl.
- In Peninsular India, exciting Trnnil Nadu, Dadra and Nagar Hav^i %jad ^pa, the area under forest cover is 20-30 per cent.
- The north-eastern states have :yppe than 30 per cent of the land u^#r fjrtst. Hilly topography and lg}*vy |re
good for forest growth. - There are 15 states where the forest cover is more than one-third of t]p t^al area, which is the basic requirement for maintaining the ecological balance.
Q 30 – What objectives have been determined for the conservation of forests according to national forest policy?
Ans. Objectives of new forest policy art:
- Bringing 33% of the geographical areas under forest cover.
- Maintaining environmental stability and to restore forests where ecological balance was disturbed.
- Conserving the natural heritage of the country.
- Its biological diversity and gentle pool.
- Checks soil erosion extension of the deserts land and reduction of floods and droughts.
- Increasing the forest cover through social forestry and afforestation on degraded lands.
- Increasing the productivity of forest to make timber, fuel, fodder and food available to rural population dependent on forests and encourage the substitution of wood.
- Creating massive people’s movement involving women to encourage planting of trees, stop felling of trees and thus, reduce pressure on the existing forest.
Q 31 – Write down the important features of thorn forest?
Ans.
- Tropical thorn forest occurs in the areas which receive rainfall less than 50 cm and consist of variety of grasses and shrubs.
- It includes semi-arid areas of south-west Punjab, Haryana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
- In these forests, plants remain leafless for most part of the year and give an expression of scrub vegetation.
- Important species found are babool, khair, neem, kherjiri, palas, etc.
- Tussocky grass grows upto a height of 2m as the under growth and cactus is an important plant of these forests.
- Its main features are that they have sukleen stems which help in retaining moisture.
- They have roots which go underground upto 1 km.
- Leaves are reduced into thorn, spines which reduce transpiration.
Q 32 – Explain about mountain forests.
Ans. The Himalayan ranges show a succession of vegetation from the tropical to the tundra, which change in with the altitude.
Mountain forests can be classified into two types, the northern mountain forests and the southern mountain forests. Deciduous forests are found in the foothills of the Himalayas. It is succeeded by the wet temperate type of forests between an altitude of 1,000-2,000 m. In the higher hill ranges of northeastern India, hilly areas of West Bengal and Uttaranchal, evergreen broad leaf trees such as oak and chestnut are predominant. Between 1,500-1,750 m, pine forests are also well-developed in this zone, with Chir Pine as a very useful commercial tree. Deodar, a highly valued endemic species grows mainly in the western part of the Himalayan range. Blue pine and spruce appear at altitudes of 2,225-3,048 m. At many places in this zone, temperate grasslands are also found. But in the higher reaches there is a transition to Alpine forests and pastures. Silver firs, junipers, pines, birch and rhododendrons, etc. occur between 3,000-4,000 m.
Q 33 – In how many groups has wetland been divided in our country?
Ans. The country’s wetlands have been grouped into eight categories. These are:
- The reservoirs of the Deccan Plateau in the south together with the lagoons and other wetlands of the southern west coast;
- The vast saline expanses of Rajasthan, Gujarat and the Gulf of Kachchh;
- Freshwater lakes and reservoirs from Gujarat eastwards through Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh;
- The delta wetlands and lagoons of India’s east coast;
- The freshwater marshes of the Gangetic Plain;
- The floodplains of the Brahmaputra; the marshes and swamps in the hills of northeast India and the Himalayan foothills;
- The lakes and rivers of the montane region of Kashmir and Ladakh; and
- The mangrove forest and other wetlands of the island arcs of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Q 34 – “Natural vegetation is an outcome of climate.” Substantiate the statement by taking example of Indian vegetation.
Ans. India is a land of great variety of natural vegetation. Himalayan heights are marked with temperate vegetation; the Western Ghats and the Andaman Nicobar Islands have tropical rain forests.
- Tropical evergreen forests are found in warm and humid areas with an annual precipitation of over 200 cm and mean annual temperature above 22°C. In these forests, trees reach at great heights up to 60 m or above. The semi¬evergreen forests are found in the less rainy parts of these regions.
- Tropical deciduous forests are spread over regions which receive rainfall between 70-200 cm.
- The moist deciduous forests are more pronounced in the regions which record rainfall between 100-200 cm. Dry deciduous forest covers vast areas of the country, where rainfall ranges between 70-100 cm.
- Tropical thorn forests occur in the areas which receive rainfall less than 50 cm. In mountainous areas, the decrease in temperature with increasing altitude leads to a corresponding change in natural vegetation.
- The Himalayan ranges show a succession of vegetation from the tropical to the tundra, with change in the altitude. Deciduous forests are found in the foothills of the Himalayas. It is succeeded by the wet temperate type of forests between an altitude of 1,000-2,000 m. In the higher hill ranges of north-eastern India, hilly areas of West Bengal and Uttarakhand, evergreen broad leaf trees such as oak and chestnut are predominant. Between 1,500-1,750 m, pine forests are also well-developed in this zone, with Chir Pine as a very useful commercial tree.
Q 35 – Mention the reasons for the decline of wildlife in India?
Ans. Important reasons for the decline of Wildlife in India are-
- Industrial and technological advancement brought about a rapid increase in the exploitation of forest resources.
- More and more lands were closed for agriculture, human settlement, roads, mining, resources, etc.
- Pressure on forests maintained due to looping for fodder and fuel, wood and removal of small timber by the local people.
- Grazing by domestic cattle caused an adverse effect on wildlife and its habitat.
- Hunting was taken up as a sport by the elite and hundreds of wild animals were killed in a single hunt. Now commercial poaching is rampant.
- Incidence of forest fire.