Chapter 2

Forests and wildlife resources

Before You Read:

• Natural Vegetation: Natural vegetation refers to a plant community

which has grown naturally It is also known as virgin vegetation.

Ex: Forests (woodlands), Grasslands etc.

• Wildlife: Wild animals living in the natural environment.

• Flora: Plants of a particular region or period.

• Fauna: The species of animals.

• Eco-system: All the plants and animals in an area are inter depen-
dent and inter related to each other in their physical environment, thus
forming an ecosystem.

• Endemic plants: The virgin (plants) vegetation, which are purely

indian. They are also known as indigenous species.

• Zoological parks: Reserved gardens for wild animals and birds.

• Wildlife sanctuaries: Natural forests where hunting and poaching

of wild animals and birds are prohibited.

• Biodiversity or Biological diversity: Refers to diverse form of plants

and animals which are closely integrated and interdependent.

• Endangered Species: These are species which are in danger of

extinction

Ex: Indian wild ass, indian rhino, black buck, crocodile, sangai, lion
tailed macaque, etc.

120 X – Social Science

www.acadpills.com
 • Extinct Species: These are species which are not found after
searches of known or likely areas where they may occur.

Ex: Asiatic cheetah, pink head duck.

• Vulnerable Species: These are species whose population has de-

clined to levels from where it is likely to move into the endangered
category in the near future, if the negative factors continue to operate.

Ex: Blue sheep, asiatic elephant, gangetic dolphin, etc.

Important Points:

• India is rich in its flora. It has about 47,000 plant species and about
15,000. Flowering species are endemic to india.

• India is also rich in its flora. It has more than 81000 of animal species.
The country has more than 1200 species of birds. There are 2,500
species of fish and more than 2500 species of insects.

• There are five types of forests in India.

(1) Tropical Evergreen (2) Tropical deciduous

(3) Thorny (4) Montane (5) Mangrove

• Human beings cut the trees and kill the animals creating ecological
imbalance.

• "Project tiger" One of the well publicised wildlife campaigns in the

world, was launched in indian 1973.

• The Indian wildlife protection act was implemented in 1972 and later
in 1980, 1986, and 1991 some other provisions were added.

• Community had played and can play a vital role in the conservation of
forests and wildlife in India.

X – Social Science 121

www.acadpills.com
• The biological loss through destruction of forests and wildlife is strongly
corrected with loss of cultural diversity.

• The greatest damage inflicated on India's forests was during the co-
lonial period.

• Among the largest animals in india, 7 species of mammals, 44 of

birds, 15 of reptiles, and 3 of amplibians are threatened.

• Nearly 1500 plant species are considered endangered Asian chee-

tah is nearly extinct due to a decline of a vailable habitat and prey.

• "Taxol" a chemical compound extracted from the himalayan yew is

the biggest selling anti-cancer drug in the world.

• In some tribal areas Poverty is a direct outcome of environmental

destruction.

• American consumes 40 times more resources than an average

somalian.

• The Nicobar megapode is an endangered bird species.

• If we share books after passing a class we may save trees.

• As per U.N. report per head trees in our country are 28 only while the
number in 8953 in canada, 4461 in russia, 716 in USA and 102 in
china.

• In every five years our environment become hotter by 1 degrees

celsius.

122 X – Social Science

www.acadpills.com
Categories of Plants and Animal Species

X – Social Science 123

www.acadpills.com
Questions

1. What is IUCN?

2. Name any one vulnerable species of animal in India.

3. Name a medicinal plants found in India.

4. Which is afforestation?

5. Name a bird, disaapeared from Delhi in recent years.

6. Name the nearest rivers to you place? Why it is not clean?

7. Write any one cause of damage to the Indian forests during colonial
period?

8. Which mineral mining is causing a serious threat to the buxa tiger

reserve in west Bengal?

9. Write any one use of forests and wildlife to us?

10. By which plant or tree the rich Himalayan oak was replaced during
colonial period?

Answer’s

1. International union for conservation of nature and natural resources.

2. Asiatic elephant / Gangetic dolphins / Blue sheep

3. Jamun, Arjun, Neem, Babool, Tulsi (any one)

4. Growing trees

5. Sparrow (Gauraiya)

124 X – Social Science

www.acadpills.com
 6. River yamuna (due to pollution)

7. Expansion of the railways/ mining/ agriculture/ scinetific forestry.

8. Dolomite (An ore)

9. Wood, backs, leaves, rubber, medicines, dyes, food, fuel, fodder,

manure, etc. (any one)

10. Chir, pine

Objective Type Questions

Fill in the blanks:

(i) The term is used to denote plants of a particular region or period

..................

(ii) Species whose population levels are considered to be normal for

their survival are known as .................

Match the following:

(i) Bishnoi of rajasthan (a) Beej Bachao

(ii) Tribals of orissa and bihar (b) Black buck

(iii) Citizens groups of tehri (c) Tarmarind and mango

(iv) Asiatic chettah (d) World’s fatest land mammal

Answer’s

1. (i) Flora (ii) Normal

2. (i) b (ii) c (iii) a (iv) d

X – Social Science 125

www.acadpills.com
Long Answer Type

1. Explain three types of forests and wildlife resources classified by for-

ests department?

2. Explain chipko movement.

3. Differentiate between endangered species and extinct species with

examples.

4. How dow human beings influence the ecology of a region?

5. Explain any three factors that have led to the decline in India’s
biodiversity environmental degradation.

6. What is wildlife sanctuary? How is it different from national park?

7. How mining is responsible for the loss of forests. Give reasons.

8. Write a short note on beej bachao andolan in Tehri.

9. Write down the features of JFM (Joint Forest Management).

Answer

1. (i) Reserved forests (ii) Protected forests (iii) Unclassed forests

2. The chipko movement is an ecological movement, concerned with

thet preservation of forests.

3. Endangered species Extinct species

(i) These are species which (i) These are species which are
are in danger. not found after searches of
known or likely areas where
they may occur.

Ex: Sangai, Black buck Ex: Asiatic cheetah, pink head

duck

126 X – Social Science

www.acadpills.com
 4. (i) They utilise the vegetation and wildlife.

(ii) They cut trees and kill animals, thereby creating an ecological
imbalance.

(iii) Due to the insensitivity to our environment and lack of sustain-

able development.

(iv) Greed of human beings leads to overutilisation of there resources.

5. (i) Over-population

(ii) Mining, over-grazing

(iii) Un-equal access, inequitable consumption of resources.

(iv) Habitat destruction, hunting, poaching, poisoning and forest fires.

(v) Environmental pollution

(vi) River valley projects, fuel wood collection.

6. (i) A wildlife sanctuary is like a national park but the difference is

that in a sanctuary certain types of activities might be permitted.
Livestock grazing and collection of forest produce, for instance
may be allowed.

(ii) In a national park, conservation of species is mostly left to nature

with the least human activities, but in a sanctuary conservation of
species is affected by manipulative management.

7. (i) Mining is important factor behind deforestation.

(ii) The buxa tiger reserve in west bengal is seriously threatened by

the on going dolomite mining.

X – Social Science 127

www.acadpills.com
 (iii) It has disturbed the natural habitat of many species and blocked
the migration route of several other, including the great.

8. (i) Beej Bachao Andolan in Tehri and Navdahya Save the need
movement varches, reintroduces, collect, tests, distributes and
popularizes every indigenous variety of mountain crops avail-
able.

(ii) It advocates the discontinuation of the use of chemical depen-

dent needs and synthetic chemicals.

(iii) These measures, they argue are also economically viable as

diversified crop production in adequate quantities have been
achieved.

(iv) It has also been able to successfully review the free exchange of
needs within the coomunity and has proved to be a lifeline of
traditional mountain agriculture.

9. (i) In India JMF Program furnishes a good example for involving

local communities in the management and restoration fo de-
graded forests.

(ii) The program has been in formal existence since 988 when the
state of Odisha passed the first resolution for joint forest man-
agement.

(iii) JFM depends on the formation of local (village) institution that

undertake protection activities mostly on degraded forest land
managed by the forest department.

(iv) In return the members of there communities are entitled to inter-

mediary benefits like with timber, forest produces and share in
the timber larvested by successful protection.

128 X – Social Science

www.acadpills.com
Source Based Questions

(A) The world's fastest land mammal, the cheetah (Ainonyx jubantus) is a
unique and specialised member of the cat family and can move at
the speed of 112 km/hr. The cheetah is often mistaken for a leopard.
Its distinugish marks are the long teardrop shaped lines on each side
of the nose from he corner of its eyes to its mouth. Prior to the 20th
century, cheetahs were widely distributed througout Africa and Asia.
Today, the Asian cheetah is nearly extinct due to a decline of avail-
able habitat and prey. This species was declared extinct in India long
back in 1952.

Questions

1. Name of the world's fastest land mammal.

2. How one can distinguish a cheetah from a leopard?

3. In which year, Asian cheetal was declared extinct in India?

4. At what speed Asiatic cheetah can move?

Answers

1. Asiatic cheetah.

2. Its distinguishing maks are the long tear drop shaped lines on each
side of the nose from the corner of its eyes to its mouth.

3. 1952

4. 112 km/hr

X – Social Science 129

www.acadpills.com
(B) The Himalayan Yew (Taxus Wallachiana) is a medicinal plant found in
various parts of Himachal Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh. A chemical
compound called 'taxol' is extracted from the bark, needles, twings
and root of this tree and it has been successfully used to treat some
cancers — He drug is now the biggest selling anti-cancer drug in the
world. The species is under threat due to over- exploitation.

Questions

1. Where is Himalyan Yew found?

2. What is the use of Taxus Wallachina?

3. Name the biggest selling anti-cancer drug in the world.

4. Why Himalyan Yew is in threat?

Answers

1. Himanchal Pradesh & Arunachal Pradesh.

2. It is used as a medicinal plant

3. Taxol

4. Due to over— exploitation.

130 X – Social Science

www.acadpills.com
 CLICK ON IMAGE TO
JOIN US ON TELEGRAM

CLICK HERE TO JOIN

US ON TELEGRAM