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| Forest Resources |
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| Forests are the most important resource of our globe. Naturally formed forests are found in such parts of globe - where the factors of plant growth have been ideal for several centuries. For this reason, they are mostly found in regions of high rainfall and regions of high altitude. |
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| The usefulness of forests is spread to commercial exploitation of forest for timber and other products, maintenance of birds and wildlife, maintenance of ecological balance, prevention of soil erosion, etc. |
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| In different parts of world, we have evergreen forests (in equatorial belt and parts of tropics), deciduous forests (in parts of tropics and temperate regions), coniferous forests (in temperate and arctic regions) scrub forest (in dry regions). Each one of them are different in respect of composition of species, atmospheric features of its location, density of plants and type of wildlife it has harboured. |
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| Forest resources are most important resources of our country useful in maintaining ecological balance, providing fire wood, providing raw materials to many industries, providing protection to wild animals and to conserve the soils. |
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| India has 75 million hectares under forest cover as at the year 2000. This accounts for 23% of total geographical area. |
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| There are four types of forests in our country. |
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 Deciduous forest: The trees shed their leaves during winter and grow freshly during summer. |
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 Evergreen forests: They remain green through the year. |
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 Coniferous forests: Typically grows in cold hilly Himalayan region with coniferous plants. |
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 Scrub forests: With parched vegetation, poor growth of plants, such forests are spread over drier parts of our country. |
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| Evergreen forests are found in tropical tract of our country mainly concentrated in heavy rainfall hilly tracts of our country. Deciduous forests are found in plateau region of northern India and parts of central India. Coniferous forests are restricted to Himalayan and Sub-Himalayan regions. Scrub forests are distributed in all parts of our country. |
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| Retaining the forest area in tact without encroachment for agricultural and urban uses is one of the greatest challenges faced by our country. Per capita land availability getting reduced every year due to high population growth, forest area is lost at an alarming rate every year mainly to be converted into agricultural land. |
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| The quantifiable utility of forest resource in the form of |
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 Forest industry corporations producing number of forest products like panel broads, flush doors, etc. |
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 Forest trees used to prepare paper pulp, pulp for manufacture of poly fibres, etc |
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 Forest trees used for wood industry for sale of logs, mainly used in construction and furniture industry. |
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 Accessory forest products are profitably extracted from forests. E.g., gums, oilseeds (tree), etc |
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 Valuable plants like sandalwood are used to manufacture oils, or carvings. |
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| Among some non - quantifiable uses of forests, following are important |
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 Forests have maintained ecological balances because they are able. to take up large quantity of CO2 for respiration so that CO2 levels are maintained in the atmosphere. |
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 Forests have harboured large number of wild animals. |
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 They are responsible for maintaining a specific microclimate around forest area. |
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 They are able to conserve the soils. |
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| Like all other nations, India has its own resource of crops. Although crop resource is dynamic in the sense that many crops and their varieties are lost or added during the course of time, a clear recognition can be made about crops serving as an important national resource. |
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