CBSE Class 10 Answered

Wildlife and their habitats provide us with tangible benefits.  The forests are watersheds of major river systems of Karnataka such as Cauvery, Bhadra, Nethravathi and Tunga.  These forests regulate the flow of water after the seasonal rains and protect the soil underneath from erosion.  The survival of these forests is, therefore, critical to the welfare of millions of farmers who depend on these rivers.  When we protect wildlife from human destruction we are, in fact, protecting the soil-water resources that sustain millions of people in our state. 

Our forests are also treasure troves of biological diversity.  They harbor millions of species of plants, insects, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals.  These life forms took millions of years to evolve. We barely understand the complex ecological linkages among these plants and animals. Studies suggest that a loss of diversity may lead to a loss of ecological stability.

Often, extermination of species can disrupt links between predators and prey, flowers and pollinators, fruits and the dispersers of their seeds.  Wild plants and animals have to be primarily saved wherever they occurring in the living landscapes around us.

Most of our crop plants and domestic animals are bred from wild relatives and can potentially greatly benefit from the vast, barely tapped wild gene pools. 

Many of our current drugs, as well as sources of energy, fibers and structural materials, come from a few exploited species that we have discovered.

As biotechnology becomes an increasingly important weapon in our fight against hunger; homelessness, poverty and diseases, the role of those as yet undiscovered life forms would become even more central to our welfare. 

The wildlife habitats are wonderful laboratories of nature, an irreplaceable library of life.  In these we can study nature at work and benefit from the knowledge we gain.  

There are also ethical and aesthetic reasons for saving wildlife.  Forests that sustain animal and plant communities are products of millions of years of natural evolution. They have a right to survive and evolve as nature intended them to.