World Forest Day 2020 - A Reminder To Turn Around Deforestation Before It Is Too Late
The World Forest Day is celebrated on March 21. This day celebrates the different kinds of forests all over the world and is used to spread awareness about the environment and the importance of forests. On this day, the UN advises governments across the globe to promote their forests and to undertake activities such as tree planting and wildlife education.?
The theme of World Forest Day 2020 is 'biodiversity'. Biodiversity is the term for a variety of wildlife and plants present in a certain ecosystem. Higher biodiversity denotes that an ecosystem has a higher variety of plants and animals.
In?2019, a UN report?had sounded the alarm about accelerating species extinction rates, and the unprecedented speed at which ecosystems are declining.
The UN chief pointed out that forests, and the global environment in general, are being severely degraded by the unsustainable way that we are consuming natural resources, which is accelerating biodiversity loss and exacerbating climate change.
Given the huge role that forests play in preserving life on earth and regulating the climate, Guterres expressed his alarm at the damage being wrought by drought conditions in many parts of the world, citing devastating forest fires, from the Canadian Arctic and Siberia to California and Australia.
On top of this, deforestation continues to occur, due to large-scale agriculture: even though the annual rate of deforestation has halved over the last 25 years, vast areas of forests continue to be lost.
¡°We must act quickly to reverse this. Safeguarding forests are part of the solution¡± said Guterres, urging all governments and businesses and civil society to ¡°take urgent action to halt deforestation and restore degraded forests, so future, generations can enjoy a greener, healthier future¡±.
Like the rest of the world, India too is facing a deforestation crisis and its aftermath is becoming more and more evident every passing day.
Due to the rampant deforestation, the forest cover of India has fallen below the minimum recommended level. According to experts, the forest should cover about one-third of the total area of the country but in India forest covers around 24% of the total area.
Although India has seen an increment in the total forest cover of ca. 1%, still certain regions in the country have sought a decrease in the forest cover.
Impact of deforestation
One of the most visible impacts of deforestation in India are the massive floods that are becoming way too frequent.
With the forests that used to absorb a good portion of the rainwater gone, the rains flow into open areas, inundating everything in its path. This is also directly linked with the increasing number of landslides. One of the consequences of deforestation is that it exposes the soil and after the roots that held them together are gone the soil loosens up and becomes vulnerable.
It also erodes in quality over a period of time and will not yield the same amount of produce year after year.
Another major visible impact of deforestation is how our rivers and other water bodies are drying up. That is because the water table is plummeting. Due to deforestation, the forests which used to absorb rainwater and recharge the groundwater are not able to perform its duty and most of the water flows over the surface and is wasted.
