Monday March 18, 2013, 10:34 am
Photo Image: Living Green.com

Deforestation is indeed a serious issue, and there will be no exaggeration in saying that since 1990 the jungle areas have been declining at a fast pace. India once had 14.8 billion acres of land that was forested, but now has dwindled to just 8.6 billion acres.

Even in such a worsening condition, there are people who are unable to comprehend that deforestation has produced enormous problems that are getting treacherous for endurance.

Forests are chopped basically for two reasons – basic necessities and maintaining the lifestyle. It is true that reason for cutting down of trees is justified to an extent, but, while razing people do not realize that they are diminishing the existence of flora and fauna, and becoming egocentric.

Here are some human activities that lead to deforestation.

Agriculture. With raise in the demands for agricultural products, forests are being destroyed to render space for cultivating crops and building farms, where especially cultivators are encouraged by the government to work on the areas. Moreover, the planters use fire in the development, which leads to the emission of large amounts of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide in an environment that creates a pessimistic blow on the biology.

Wood Harvesting. Trees are cut down for attaining lumber or timber that is a wood used for constructing houses and making furniture. It is the most significant cause of deforestation.

Grazing Land. Forests are also cleared for cattle grazing, which have made them one of the most heavily exploited.

Mining. Excavating a diamond or coal means clearing of all woodland cover with the help of trucks and many other types of equipment. It is another main cause of deforestation.

Palm Oil. Palm oil has been in great demands in the market and its intensifying costs making it more priceless. Therefore, farmers are exploiting acres of land of forests to reap it.

Deforestation has bestowed serious trouble to the nature, and also many species of birds and animals are on the verge of extinction. But what they have done? Living a simple life among the emerald greenery with their cubs, is this is a crime? It is a high time that people should start taking the actions because the consequences of deforestation are threatening.

Consequences of Deforestation

Undernourishment leading to death. Since herbivorous animals depend on plants for their survival, hence cutting down of forest could make them malnourished that lead to their death. In addition, there are carnivorous animals who are dependent on other animals are undergoing the problem of malnourishment.

Shifting of scores of wildlife animals to urban areas. Huge scale deforestations make wild animals to spread to the urban and rural areas, which lead to their death due to human-carnivore encounters. The number of attacks by lions and leopards on the human has been increased in past ten years. Many times, these encounters are accidental when wild animals take shelter in the sugarcane field. Besides, animosity between human and wild animals is also due to the loss of livestock.

Green house effect. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, which let heat from the sun to protrude and hinders its escape from the atmosphere, which is required for maintaining a warm temperature on earth. However, the burning of fossil fuels and other activities are increasing greenhouse gases which are further raising the temperature of the earth, and this is called as the greenhouse effect.

Forests are biosphere’s vital part for controlling atmospheric carbon dioxide by utilizing it for photosynthesis. However, people are clearing the forests for monetary reasons, which have led to an increase of carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere.

Many nature and wildlife lovers have started taking efforts to save the various wild organisms on the verge of annihilation and the world from running out if its verdant vegetation. One has to understand the importance of wildlife, enriching the natural exquisiteness of the geography. It would really be an ignominy for anybody destroying their home.
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By: Jessica Frei | Living Green Magazine | livinggreen.com

Monday March 18, 2013, 10:36 am

We all know this is but one example of deforestation. We can build homes with recycled steel, and stop using our trees. We also need to think of building UP and not OUT, to allow for open spaces, and wild habitats.

Monday March 18, 2013, 12:29 pm
I agree with you 100% Kit, thank you for posting!

Monday March 18, 2013, 1:01 pm
Brilliant post Kit! I too agree with you all the way. People are choosing to be ignorant so as to avoid taking responsibility for their own actions. When they can no longer breath, then what?

Monday March 18, 2013, 3:24 pm
The words "India" and "wildlife" no longer have any connection! There may be a few animals left in reserves, but everything else is long gone or hanging on by hooves and claws.

It's a terrible shame....

Monday March 18, 2013, 4:14 pm
The consequence of greed from too many people... :(

Monday March 18, 2013, 4:19 pm
It's sickening!! Thanks for the post Kit

Monday March 18, 2013, 4:36 pm
Thank You for the share

Monday March 18, 2013, 5:23 pm
This is the human myopia that Maslow speaks about in his Hierarchy of Needs. For those not struggling to just eke out a living and survive it is arrogance and just plain old greed.

Monday March 18, 2013, 5:50 pm
Absolutely Kit you are right on target here! We CAN do better, destroying our environment tree by tree, is NOT an answer. It's shameful what's been happening. Deforestation must be seriously addressed, as well as the demand for Palm Oil-we can live without it!!! (Just reported the Spam on this page) Thanks again dear Kit for ALL you do!!!!xoxoxoxo~~

Monday March 18, 2013, 6:11 pm
Also reported spam. From one of my online homes, Tree Nation:
Trees absorb carbon dioxide and are vital carbon sinks. It is estimated that the world’s forests store 283 Giga-tons of carbon in their biomass alone, and that carbon stored in forest biomass, deadwood, litter and soil together is roughly 50 per cent more than the carbon in the atmosphere.
The loss of natural forests around the world contributes more to global emissions each year than the transport sector. Curbing deforestation is a highly cost-effective way to reduce emissions. Other solutions include increased energy efficiency, reduced energy demand, better transport and the use of green energy. Source UNEP
What are the positive effects of tree planting on the environment?

For the environment, the main positive consequences of planting trees are:

• Counteracts climate change
• Fights deforestation
• Stops desertification
• Offsets CO2 levels
• Improves access to water
• Regenerates the soil and increases it's productivity
• Improves animal living conditions and survival


What are the Positive effects of tree planting for the local communities?

For local populations, the main positive consequences of planting trees are:

• Fighting poverty
• Providing fruits for eating and medicinal purposes
• Supplying wood for construction and heating
• Providing for a new source of revenues for the local population
• Increasing the agricultural output at the border of the plantation

Monday March 18, 2013, 6:44 pm
Until the gargantuan problem of human overpopulation in India is addressed.....NOTHING will improve!

Monday March 18, 2013, 7:46 pm
The consequences of deforestation are obvious!, we need empathy with the planet!.

Monday March 18, 2013, 8:05 pm
Good posting, thanks

Monday March 18, 2013, 8:24 pm
A tragedy like in too many other parts of our world. And today NOBODY could say "I didn't know" !
Amazingly in this particular case about India there was no mention of deforestation caused by Big energy like elsewhere so it all looks homemade. No excuse! But it only listed SOME "human activities".
Pam said it- overpopulation.

Monday March 18, 2013, 9:06 pm
I agree with Pam as well. As long as people continue to breed like fruit flies, the Earth is doomed.

Monday March 18, 2013, 9:13 pm

Perhaps it is past time that we demand that people the world over be taught to understand that over population is the greatest single cause of poverty. That if they want a better life for themselves and their children, than all must stop at one child, every man and woman. One child, because we have long passed the point of Zero Population Growth. Free and safe birth control, that's a start.

Monday March 18, 2013, 9:19 pm
Thanks Kit

Monday March 18, 2013, 9:51 pm
Very sad

Monday March 18, 2013, 10:11 pm
Tragic

Monday March 18, 2013, 10:58 pm
Thank you for the info Kit !

Monday March 18, 2013, 11:41 pm
There is only a small percentage (5-10%) of wildlife left in zones of deforestation, where forests have been declared endangered by Conservation International. It is so important to stop this trend. We can plant more trees, but we can't really restore what has been lost. Thanks Kit.

Tuesday March 19, 2013, 4:52 am
How horrible for the animals, including those living! Animals are psychic. They know.

Tuesday March 19, 2013, 5:24 am
So much of this destruction world wide serves to feed our life style in the west. We have raised the bar for what we feel we deserve to enjoy a good life, to a point where as so-called emerging nations attempt to catch up the earth's resources are being used/destroyed at an exponential pace. It is quite possible our generation may live to witness the devastating impact of ecosystems beginning to fail. at a catastrophic pace.
How sad that it will likely take such an occurrence before the majority of us really take any notice.
I sure hope I am wrong in this but I sadly doubt it.

Tuesday March 19, 2013, 5:28 am
Urban sprawl is a problem.

Tuesday March 19, 2013, 5:56 am
Cree Prophecy
When all the trees have been cut down,
When all the animals have been hunted,
When all the waters are polluted,
When all the air is unsafe to breathe,
Only then will you discover
you cannot eat money.

Tuesday March 19, 2013, 7:42 am
This is so sad and so stupid - at the very least, replanting (anywhere and everywhere) should be mandatory. I've read that *wind* is going to become a huge part of climate change - certainly seems a possibility.

Tuesday March 19, 2013, 9:09 am
noted thanks

Tuesday March 19, 2013, 9:24 am
what a sad picture, but true story......greed, selfishness, laziness, over-population are all awful to our home.



there is no planet b, we must learn how to save our world from ourselves.....

Tuesday March 19, 2013, 10:21 am
Noted! Very sad!

Tuesday March 19, 2013, 10:44 am
Thank You for the share

Tuesday March 19, 2013, 6:25 pm
Thanks Kit. I looked at the picture with your post and something inside of me just cried and I am so tired of most of we humans. All the living beings lost - extinct - for human consumptions. We have become a new hybrid of life form. Combinations of virus, parasite, small amounts of symbiotic, other universal ancestors, connected to an intelligence that took and takes some very wrong turns, but had/has so much promise.

Gosh, I guess I still have hope in the human species for becoming more symbiotic, reading my past & present tenses in this comment.

Tuesday March 19, 2013, 6:44 pm

The group Mercy Corps is very helpful for countries like India, Haiti and so many others, whose land has been deforested, and alternative ideas for regenerating the land to grow food crops is needed. To protect our wildlife we must learn that housing will have to be apartments, not spread out into needed ecological habitats.

Wednesday March 20, 2013, 8:48 am
Chunks of India contain villages where the residents accept wildlife and the odd depredation by a leopard or a bite by a snake or even elephants eating their crops (although they have discovered that bee hives keep them away a great piece of conservation & protection) that is part of their religion. There are temples dedicated to rats or monkeys as well as other animals. Their religions have a great reverence for life and many gods are depicted as animals.

There are rangers who travel on elephants and the entire village helps. These dedicated men deal with poachers who will shoot to kill. They poach as the person paying will give them up to a year's salary, a wonderful bribe in a poverty stricken country yet peanuts to the purchaser.

Then we look at the reserves. The villagers will live right up to the edge, which they are not supposed to to, and go into the forest to cut timber and hunt non-protected game, the food which leopards and tigers need. The end result is that the young animals are forced out as there is no room for them to set up a territory and go straight into the village where they are frightened and confused. The villagers tend to kill them also from fear or from mercenary reasons.

There have been many stories about this on care2 and on UK TV yet few people seem to care or even understand. I was amazed that a professor of biology at Imperial College told me not to worry about the tigers in India as there were plenty of them, this was just after the announcement of the miscount, not 10,000 but just over 3,000 (they now think 3,200). If such an educated person in that field could get it so wrong, how about those who are not in the field? Perhaps they do not understand the lack of interest by the Indian government in their own natural resources is key. I also know that the rangers are underpaid and the reserves underfunded.

However, there is a movement to run a reserve along the top of 3 countries, including India, to allow tigers to roam more freely for territories, food and breeding. I hope that the plan works.

Interestingly, many villagers rely on wildlife for their nomadic existence. When the elephants move from one part of the country to another, they follow them knowing that the rains are coming.

Kit, that country you loathe and despise for existing, Israel, is working with Third World countries including India and Africa to bring them better methods of agriculture for farmers who farm in drought and with impoverished soil. Any Muslim controlled countries do that? Perhaps you should get your nose out of your backside and support the research and the country providing it for free.

You should also condemn companies such as Coca Cola who use the underground water to manufacture Cola, which is poisonous and dangerous long term, as well as removing water from agriculture. Three times we thought we'd shut the company down but they obviously can bribe well. Or Monsanto who offered wonderful grain and failed to tell the farmers that it needed irrigating. The crops failed and the farmers became heavily in debt and Monsanto took the farm in payment. The farmers then committed suicide leaving their families destitute and husband/fatherless. The sad thing is that the Indian government offer crops that are drought resistant and is heavily subsidised.

I do not know if people are aware that large companies are buying (or "stealing") large tracts of land in countries such as Africa and India for future use. I have heard that the dollar is becoming so unstable that people are investing in land and gold instead. This is a disgusting way of getting land but it is legal and will certainly be adding pressure on "unused" land elsewhere. In many poorer countries slash & burn agriculture is used where the jungle is. This means that a farmer can feed his family for around 3 years. Unfortunately, it destroys the forest and the land becomes useless as it is not fertile. Other problems are cattle and goats. They graze and remove vegetation. This often allows land slip so that trees etc further up the "mountain" are displaced and that land becomes barren. This happened in Uganda, they had a land slip due to goats grazing too high up the mountain.

Wednesday March 20, 2013, 8:57 am

@Gillian - that was a lot of copy and paste to just make your one statement, "Kit, that country you loathe and despise for existing, Israel....

I have not said that I loathe or despise Israel, do not make assumptions about what I think and do not say things about me that are simply a lie. I do not support the government policies of Israel, toward the Palestinian people. Two very different things. Not that I would expect that you could understand the difference.

Wednesday March 20, 2013, 11:24 am
Very interesting article Kit. I am glad I got around to reading it. I had not realized that there was so little jungle left in India.

Wednesday March 20, 2013, 6:41 pm
Noted.

Thursday March 21, 2013, 4:09 am
Thank you sweetie! xx

Friday March 22, 2013, 3:15 pm
Thanks Kit - too much going on in this world - we had no winter here in Colorado - I watered all winter.