Forest and Wildlife Resources
Biodiversity and why we conserve it
Explain biodiversity and why forests and wildlife must be conserved.
One big web of life. We share the planet with millions of living things: bacteria, lichens, banyan trees, elephants, blue whales. All of them, and us, are tied together in one web. We are only one part of it, and we depend on it to survive.
What the web does for us. Plants, animals and micro-organisms keep our air clean, our water fresh and our soil able to grow food. Forests are the primary producers: every other living thing depends on them.
Biodiversity means the huge variety of living things, wild and farmed. They look and work very differently, but they are all linked, each depending on many others. India is one of the richest countries in the world for biodiversity, and many species are still waiting to be discovered.
Why conserve forests and wildlife? The book gives clear reasons:
- to keep our life-support systems working: water, air and soil;
- to keep ecological diversity;
- to keep genetic diversity, so plants and animals can grow and breed well. Farmers still rely on old, traditional crop varieties, and fisheries need a healthy variety of life in the water.
A people who love nature. The chapter opens with a Lepcha folk song. The singer wants to gather God's music from the springs, rivers, mountains, forests, insects and animals. To the Lepchas, nature itself is sacred.
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