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Jungle
jamboree
Shabitri Majhi, a 40-year-old tribal woman who lives in the
Kuradipasha village in western Orissa, is facing the worst crisis of
her life.
Shabitri’s savior:
Owner of 10 acres of agricultural land, she and her
family were once considered pretty well-to-do by the neighbours.
Then the rain god turned nasty. Every alternate year—during the past
two decades—monsoons have failed in Kuradipasha. Today, it survives
in a state of chronic drought. But Shabitri was still unfazed.
Because she had the forests—in which her village nestles—to fall
back on. So what if the crops failed? She could still feed her
family by collecting mahua flowers and selling bagfuls in the local
market. But last year, her savior let her down. Western Orissa was
in the throes of a severe ‘forest drought’. Scientists are busy
exploring the reason behind this relatively new phenomenon. It’s due
to seasonal and annual climate changes, they say, which reduce soil
moisture and disrupt the nutrient cycle in the forest’s ecosystem.
So trees ‘lose their vigour’ and forest produce like mahua,
tamarind, char seeds, fall sharply. But what does Shabitri care
about these fancy words? All she knows is that this year if the
rains don’t come on time, she along with most of the other
villagers, will have to starve. Because their forests have failed
them…
Yes, forests are a crucial survival resource. Not only for
livelihood. We depend on it for water, for air, and for food. This
story is about how forests actually sustain life in this planet.
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THE FRIENDLY
FORESTS: They may look deep, dark, and mysterious but these
woods are a part of the most productive ecosystem that this
planet harbours. |
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Green lifeline
“Forests are of enormous social, economic, and ecological value,”
says PS Ramakrishnan, eminent ecologist and academician. That is a
rather huge range of values…. isn’t it? So lets take the last one
first. What is the importance of forests ecologically?
Its bonding with human beings began about four billion years ago,
when the first two-legged ancestors of homo sapiens (human species)
settled themselves around the forests of East Africa. The wooded
grasslands were their lifeline, which took care of their most
fundamental needs—food and water. They fed on the animals and
plants, and sourced drinking water from here. Did you know that
forests act as Nature’s storeroom of water? Let’s find out more. |
