Social Studies Question-Answer [1M - GEOGRAPHY]

Madhya Pradesh.

Today, the Asian cheetah is nearly extinct due to a decline of available habitat and prey. The species was declared extinct in India long back in 1952.

Cheetah, pink-headed duck, mountain quail, forest spotted owlet, and plants like madhuca insignis (a wild variety of mahua) and hubbardia heptaneuron, (a species of grass).

These are species whose population has declined to levels from where it is likely to move into the endangered category in the near future if the negative factors continue to operate.

Species whose population levels are considered to be normal for their survival, such as cattle, sal, pine, rodents, etc.

In the notification under Wildlife Act of 1980 and 1986, several hundred butterflies, moths, beetles, and one dragonfly have been added to the list of protected species.

Almost one-third of the total forest area is protected forest, as declared by the Forest Department. This forest land are protected from any further depletion.

More than half of the total forest land has been declared reserved forests.

These are other forests and wastelands belonging to both government and private individuals and communities.

Habitat destruction, hunting, poaching, over-exploitation, environmental pollution, poisoning and forest fires are factors, which have led to the decline in India’s biodiversity.

Bihar, Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Orissa and Rajasthan have a bulk of it under protected forests.

The main aim of the Chipko Movement or Chipko Andolan was to protect the trees of the forests to be cut. It was basically a forest conservation movement.

Forests play a key role in the ecological system as these are also the primary producers on which all other living beings depend.

We share this planet with millions of other living beings, starting from micro-organisms and bacteria, lichens to banyan trees, elephants and blue whales. This entire habitat that we live in has immense biodiversity.
Biodiversity or Biological Diversity is immensely rich in wildlife and cultivated species, diverse in form and function but closely integrated in a system through multiple network of interdependencies.

Chipko movement, also called Chipko andolan, nonviolent social and ecological movement by rural villagers, particularly women, in India in the 1970s, aimed at protecting trees and forests slated for government-backed logging.

The world’s fastest land mammal, the cheetah (Acinonyx jubantus), is a unique and specialised member of the cat family and can move at the speed of 112km/ hr.

Joint forest management (JFM) programme furnishes a good example for involving local communities in the management and restoration of degraded forests.

Important causes of environmental destruction are unequal access, inequitable consumption of resources and differential sharing of responsibility for environmental well-being.

Nature worship is an age old tribal belief based on the premise that all creations of nature have to be protected. Such beliefs have preserved several virgin forests in pristine form called Sacred Groves (the forests of God and Goddesses).

Species with small population may move into the endangered or vulnerable category if the negative factors affecting them continue to operate.

These are species which are only found in some particular areas usually isolated by natural or geographical barriers.

Lopping means cutting and feeling of branches and trees.

All North-eastern states and parts of Gujarat have a very high percentage of their forests as un-classed forests managed by local communities.

The examples of such species are blue sheep, Asiatic elephant, Gangetic dolphin, etc.

Orissa.

The examples of such species are black buck, crocodile, Indian wild ass, Indian rhino, lion tailed macaque, sangai (brow anter deer in Manipur), etc.

Mithun is the species endemic to Arunachal Pradesh.

Himalayan brown bear, wild Asiatic buffalo, desert fox and hornbill, etc.

International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

These are classified under the following categories:

1. Reserved Forests.
2. Protected Forests.
3. Unclassed Forests.

Jammu and Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and Maharashtra have large percentages of reserved forests of its total forest area.

Substantial parts of the tribal belts, especially in the northeastern and central India, have been deforested or degraded by shifting cultivation (jhum), a type of ‘slash and burn’ agriculture.

The greatest damage inflicted on Indian forests was during the colonial period due to the expansion of the railways, agriculture, commercial and scientific forestry and mining activities.

In Sariska Tiger Reserve, Rajasthan, villagers have fought against mining by citing the Wildlife Protection Act. In many areas, villagers themselves are protecting habitats and explicitly rejecting government involvement.

Madhy pradesh has the highest percentage area (75%) covered by forests.

Joint Forest Management in 1988.