Denudation of Forest Cover Repugnant to Government Assertion (original) (raw)

Boscage is a country’s natural phenomenon continuing since time immemorial. The areas under forest enrich geographical nomenclature along with eco-balance maintenance and consort sustainable features of the nature with natural resources. The word forest is derived from the Latin root foris, meaning “out of doors”, and etymologically it is “a large uncultivated tract of land covered with trees and under wood”. Several scientists describe forest from their own ideological point of view of which a few are mentionable. Wills (1951) defined forest as a closed assemblage of trees allowing no break in the overhead canopy, homogenous of one species, or diversified. Champion’s monograph on forest types (1936) is a landmark in the forest ecology of India. Other remarkable contributions in this regard include Blasco (1874), Champion (1975), Mani(1974), Mehra et al. (1983) and Puri (1954, 1960 and 1983). The forest cover area of India is 23.42 per cent of the total geographical area of the country. The recorded forest area in the country is 7,65,210 sq.km while forest cover analysed by the satellite is 6,39,900 sq.km which is tantamount to 19.47 per cent of the total geographical area of India. (ICFRE 2000) The type of forest depends on the climate and soil. Geographically India is a tropical country but the entire Gangetic belt lies outside the tropics. The country’s monsoon differs from other tropical regions of the world.