It is indeed very hard for a person to imagine how big the problem of deforestation has become in India.  Ever since the beginning of time, the Landmass, known as India, has been covered with lush and beautiful greenery.  Unfortunately, if we don’t act fast our grandchildren won’t be able to witness this beauty.

The Issue

Although India faces numerous problems as a whole, the emerging problem of deforestation should not be put to the side.  It’s hard to believe but, deforestation is at such a high rate that nearly 6.2 billion acres of jungle have been lost since 1990. That’s unacceptable.

The Causes

One of the main causes of deforestation in India is the expansion of agriculture.  In other words, as the population of India rises, the demand for agricultural products increases, causing more trees to be cut down.  Another cause is the process known as shifting cultivation.  Basically, farmers cut down trees and use their enriched soil and once the soil runs out of nutrients, they abandon it and move on to another location.  Since the main occupation in India is farming, one can only imagine how many trees are cut down due to shifting cultivation.  Lastly, I believe that the overuse of firewood in India is the leading cause of deforestation.  The reason for this is a large number of the population living in rural areas only have firewood as their accessible and efficient fuel.  Firewood is used for almost everything, keeping warm, cooking food, and building homes.

Consequences

Of course, messing with Mother Nature always comes with consequences.  One of the most obvious is its effect on the food chain.  Cutting down trees leads to the death of various herbivorous animals, which affects the food chain as a whole.

When these animals die, the predators that eat these animals die of malnutrition, causing a downward spiral in the animal kingdom.  Deforestation means taking over the living space of animals and causing the animals to move into urban and rural areas.  Now one may ask, why is that so bad?  Well, the animals have no place to live and no food to eat, and they die out. It’s an inhumane concept, not to mention, the entire food chain becomes skewed. The Earth was created in which everything works together, as a unit, to make living possible.  When deforestation occurs, the green house effect starts up.  As fossil fuels are burned every day in India, it increases the amount of carbon dioxide, and when carbon dioxide increases, oxygen decreases.  Now what does this have to do with deforestation?  All plants use a process known as photosynthesis when they produce food for themselves.  This occurs when plants take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen.  The rest is common sense. Deforestation causes trees to be cut down, and therefore they can’t produce oxygen.  And if this continues, one day the greatest utopian society will come to an end.

For the Future

Even though deforestation will be hard to stop, we can all come together to help slow it down.  Think about it this way: if every person in India (the population= 1.237 billion) planted just one tree, it would have an enormous beneficial effect for the Earth and India.  The use of more recycled products will cut down the amount of trees needed in every day life.  Of course we can’t achieve this alone.  So we need to come together and spread the information to others that are unaware of the severity of the situation. We can come together to make a change.

Image Attribute: [The Southeast Asia Weekly]