CBSE Class 10 Answered

Following steps have been taken by the people (villagers and tribals) and the government in Tamil Nadu to protect and conserve forests:

• Many afforestation programmes have been carried out by the governmental and the non governmental organisations in Tamil Nadu.
• This includes planting trees along side roads, railway tracks, river banks etc under the social forestry scheme.
• Many vacant lands in the state have been brought under community forest schemes.
• People’s Participatory programmes have been initiated at several places in the stateto maintain bio diversity in the state.
• The villagers and the tribals of Tamil Nadu along with their counter parts in Karnataka and Kerala started the “Appiko Movement” which is similar to the ‘Chipko movement’ in Uttarakhand to protect their trees from reckless felling.
• The tribals and villagers in Tamil Nadu demanded that tree felling by contractors should end.
• They also contended that only dry and dead trees should be used for meeting local requirement.
• The tribals and villagers in Tamil Nadu have initiated a process of growing trees on barren lands.
• The third major area of activity in the Appiko Movement is related to rational use of the ecosphere through introducing alternative energy sources to reduce the pressure on the forest.