Forests

Ajji takes Bhoomi and Surya for a walk in the forest, full of herbs, shrubs and trees. Forests are large areas with a dense growth of many kinds of plants. The children collect nellikai (Indian gooseberries) that have fallen on the ground. In Ajji's village, people do not pluck fruit from the trees; they leave it for animals and birds.

Forests are the natural home of many wild animals, birds and insects, and give them food and shelter. We get many things from forests too: wood, food, medicines. But forest cover has been shrinking, mainly because of large-scale cutting of trees. Cutting a forest takes days; growing a new one, or bringing a lost one back, takes many years. So we must use forests responsibly and give them time to grow back.

People work to protect forests:

• Van Mahotsav is a week-long forest festival in July, held across India. New plants and trees are planted, and people learn to respect forests.
• The Chipko movement began in the early 1970s in Uttarakhand. Local women encircled and hugged the trees to stop them being cut down.

On the walk the children see many fallen leaves and feel that the soil is damp. Ajji explains that plant roots hold the soil and stop it from being washed away. Fallen leaves decay and enrich the soil with nutrients, and new plants use this soil to grow. This is recycling in nature.