Forest and Wildlife Resources

This is Chapter 2 of Contemporary India – II: 6 pages (13–18). Its parts: flora and fauna in India; conservation of forest and wildlife in India (with the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 and a box on Project Tiger); types and distribution of forest and wildlife resources (reserved, protected and unclassed forests); community and conservation (Chipko, Beej Bachao Andolan, Navdanya, Joint Forest Management, and a box on sacred groves). It has a Lepcha folk song, photographs of forest work and of Kaziranga, a page of newspaper clippings on the gharial and on bird deaths in the Yamuna, three activities and an exercise of 1 MCQ, a match-the-following and 4 written questions. Numbers are recomputed; our additions are marked †.

• Builds on the Class 9 chapter on natural vegetation and wildlife (‘which you have already studied’), and on kegy105 (forest types, the forest goal, protected areas) and kegy214 (biodiversity, hotspots, IUCN categories) in the Class 11 books.
• Pairs with jess101 (land use: forests are 23.41% of the reporting area against a 33% goal) and keec107 (environment and sustainable development, including Chipko). Leads into jess103 (water) and jess105 (minerals — mining in forest regions).
• Society: tribal communities and forests return in the sociology books (lesy103) and in legy206 (planning and sustainable development).
• UPSC, honestly: Prelims asks about wildlife laws, tiger reserves and species almost every year, but most questions test current facts (a species' status, a park's location) that this short chapter only introduces. It does teach Chipko (1979), Project Tiger's success (1991), which named areas are tiger reserves (1985, 2012), what the Wild Life Act protects (2017, 2022) and where the Asiatic lion and one-horned rhino live (2019); Mains GS1 asked about the status of India's forests (2020). We link eight and leave species-status questions to kegy214.

• Biodiversity = rich, diverse wild and cultivated species linked by networks of interdependence. Forests are primary producers.
• Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972: all-India list of protected species; bans hunting, protects habitats, restricts trade.
• Project Tiger, 1973: 55,000 (c. 1900, est.) → 1,827. Reserves named: Corbett (Uttarakhand), Sunderbans (WB), Bandhavgarh (MP), Sariska (Rajasthan), Manas (Assam), Periyar (Kerala).
• Insects protected in 1980 and 1986; plants first added in 1991 (six species).
• Reserved > ½ of forest land (most valuable), protected ≈ ⅓, unclassed the rest; MP has the largest permanent forest area (75% of its forests); the North-east is largely unclassed.
• Community: Sariska villagers, Bhairodev Dakav ‘Sonchuri’ (1,200 ha, Alwar), Chipko, Beej Bachao Andolan (Tehri), Navdanya, sacred groves, Bishnois; JFM since 1988 (Odisha).

We share the planet with millions of living beings, from micro-organisms, bacteria and lichens to banyan trees, elephants and blue whales. Humans and all other organisms form a complex web of ecological systems in which we are only a part and on which we depend: plants, animals and micro-organisms re-create the quality of the air we breathe, the water we drink and the soil that produces our food. Forests play a key role because they are the primary producers on which all other living beings depend.

India is one of the world's richest countries in biological diversity, and many species are probably still undiscovered. Flora and fauna are so woven into daily life that we take them for granted, but they are now under great stress, mainly because of insensitivity to the environment.

Conservation has become essential because wildlife and forests are declining fast. It preserves ecological diversity and our life-support systems — water, air and soil — and the genetic diversity of plants and animals for better growth and breeding: agriculture still depends on traditional crop varieties, and fisheries depend on aquatic biodiversity.

In the 1960s and 1970s conservationists demanded a national wildlife protection programme. The Wild Life (Protection) Act was implemented in 1972, with provisions for protecting habitats, and an all-India list of protected species was published. Its thrust: protect the remaining populations of certain endangered species by banning hunting, giving legal protection to their habitats and restricting trade in wildlife. The central and many state governments then set up national parks and wildlife sanctuaries, and the Centre announced projects for gravely threatened animals: the tiger, the one-horned rhinoceros, the Kashmir stag (hangul), three crocodiles — freshwater, saltwater and the gharial — the Asiatic lion and others. More recently the Indian elephant, blackbuck, great Indian bustard (godawan) and snow leopard have been given full or partial legal protection against hunting and trade throughout India.

The tiger is a key species in the faunal web. In 1973 the authorities found that tiger numbers had fallen to 1,827 from an estimated 55,000 around the turn of the twentieth century. Threats: poaching for trade, shrinking habitat, depletion of prey species, growing human population. Trade in skins and the use of bones in traditional medicines, especially in Asian countries, pushed the tiger to the verge of extinction; since India and Nepal held about two-thirds of the world's surviving tigers, they became prime targets for poachers. Project Tiger, launched in 1973, is one of the world's best-known wildlife campaigns; it was seen both as saving an endangered species and as preserving large biotypes (whole habitats). NCERT names Corbett National Park (Uttarakhand), Sunderbans National Park (West Bengal), Bandhavgarh National Park (Madhya Pradesh), Sariska Wildlife Sanctuary (Rajasthan), Manas Tiger Reserve (Assam) and Periyar Tiger Reserve (Kerala) as tiger reserves.

The widening circle. Conservation projects now focus on biodiversity rather than a few of its parts, and look for many more ways to conserve. Even insects now count: notifications under the Wildlife Act in 1980 and 1986 added several hundred butterflies, moths, beetles and one dragonfly to the protected list. In 1991, for the first time, plants were added — six species to begin with.

Forests and wildlife are hard to manage, control and regulate, so in India much of them is owned or managed by the government through the Forest Department or other departments, under three categories: reserved forests — more than half of all forest land, regarded as the most valuable for conserving forests and wildlife; protected forests — almost one-third, declared by the Forest Department and protected from further depletion; and unclassed forests — other forests and wastelands belonging to government, private individuals and communities. Reserved and protected forests together are permanent forest estates, kept for timber, other forest produce and protection.

Conservation strategies are not new in India, and forests are also home to traditional communities. In some areas, local communities work alongside officials to conserve habitats, knowing their own long-term livelihood depends on it; elsewhere villagers protect habitats themselves and explicitly reject government involvement. NCERT's examples:

Joint Forest Management involves local communities in managing and restoring degraded forests. It has been in formal existence since 1988, when Odisha passed the first JFM resolution. It depends on local (village) institutions that protect mostly degraded forest land managed by the Forest Department; in return, members get intermediary benefits such as non-timber forest produce and a share in the timber harvested through ‘successful protection’.

NCERT's lesson from India's experience of destruction and rebuilding: local communities everywhere have to be involved in natural resource management, though there is still a long way to go before they are at the centre of decision-making. Accept only economic or development activities that are people-centric, environment-friendly and economically rewarding.

Nature worship is an age-old tribal belief that all creations of nature must be protected. Such beliefs have preserved several virgin forests in pristine form as sacred groves — ‘forests of gods and goddesses’ — patches left untouched by local people, where any interference is banned. Some societies revere a particular tree: the Mundas and Santhals of the Chota Nagpur region worship mahua and kadamba; tribal people of Odisha and Bihar worship tamarind and mango trees during weddings; many regard peepal and banyan as sacred. Springs, mountain peaks, plants and animals are often held sacred and protected: troops of macaques and langurs are fed at temples; in and around Bishnoi villages in Rajasthan, herds of blackbuck, chinkara, nilgai and peacocks live as part of the community and no one harms them.

Three activities and one question in the text. Outlines below.

One MCQ, a matching question, two 30-word and two 120-word questions. Try first, then open.

Numbers

One-liners

• Forests are primary producers; the rest of life depends on them.
• Conservation protects life-support systems and genetic diversity.
• The 1972 Act lists species, bans hunting, protects habitats and limits trade.
• Saving the tiger means saving its whole habitat.
• Protection has widened from a few big animals to insects, plants and biodiversity.
• Reserved forests are the most valuable; unclassed forests are often community-run.
• Communities conserve — sometimes with the state, sometimes despite it.
• JFM pays villages in forest produce for protecting degraded forest.
• Sacred groves survive because belief guards them.

Traps to avoid

• Blackbuck and chinkara are two different animals.
• Demarcating sanctuaries is the strategy without direct community participation.
• Reserved = most valuable; protected = guarded against further depletion; unclassed = other forests and wastelands.
• JFM's first resolution: Odisha, 1988 — not a central law.
• Chipko began in 1973 in the Himalayas (Chamoli), to save green trees.
• 1,827 is the 1972 tiger count; the c. 1900 figure is a rough estimate.
• Plants were first added to the protected list only in 1991.
• Corbett is now in Uttarakhand; it was in Uttar Pradesh until 2000.
• Forest shares in the book are undated and use pre-2014/2019 state names.

Prelims — what UPSC asks

• From this chapter: Chipko (1979), the success of Project Tiger (1991), which named areas are tiger reserves and parks' states (1985, 2012), Schedule I protection (2017), what wildlife law protects (2022), where the Asiatic lion and one-horned rhino live (2019).
• Prelims loves current wildlife facts — new tiger reserves, Ramsar sites, species' IUCN status, the Forest Rights Act's procedure. Learn the chapter's frame here, then update facts from official sources (NTCA, MoEFCC, FSI, IUCN) close to the exam.

Mains — where it appears and how to answer

• GS1: status of India's forest resources and their link to climate change (2020) — use forest classes, ISFR 2023 figures with their year, and community examples. GS3 conservation questions draw on the same material.
• Set the conservation-first and community-rights views side by side with their authors; give the Wild Life Act, Forest Rights Act and court orders as dated facts. No present-day political commentary.

Tap an option. NCERT's own exercise questions come first; the rest test the figures and common confusions.

Open any question to attempt it in the Question bank — your attempt is saved to your progress.