CBSE Class 8 Answered

Following steps should be taken to conserve forests and wildlife:

• Mahotsav’ should be launched and celebrated on a large scale. This will create awareness among the people regarding the protection of our forests. One of the other ways of making people aware is that the celebration of festivals should proceed with tree plantation.
• One of the ways in which tribals protect the forests is by declaring a large patch of forests as ‘sacred groves’.  Since these are worshipped by the government, trees in the sacred groves are considered to be sacred and not allowed to cut.
• One of the most important factors that contribute towards the conservation of forests is the Joint Forest Management (JFM). Local communities are involved in the management of the degrading forests. This programme has been in existence since 1998. Since local communities undertake the responsibility of forest protection, they are given rights to use the non timber products and also get a share in timber harvests by successful protection of forests. Many states like Odisha, Gujarat etc have been practicing the conservation of forests through JFM.
• The developmental activities should be environment friendly. If timber is required for any project, then same or more number of trees should also be planted.
• Building of many multipurpose dams also leads to the submergence of land and natural vegetation. Building of small check dams and reservoirs goes a long way in not only providing water to farmers for irrigation but also recharge the ground water. This will ensure that vegetation cover is not depleted due to the building of large dams.
• Laws related to wild life protection should be strictly implemented.
• Poachers and hunters trading in wild animals should b severely punished.

Please ask rest of the questions as separate queries.