Deforestation

Topic: Environment and Sustainable Development · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 7 "Environment and Sustainable Development"

Meaning

Deforestation means cutting down forests for good and using the land for something else, such as farms, fuelwood, mining or industry. When the trees are cut, the carbon stored in them is released into the air.

It matters because NCERT lists deforestation as cause no. 1 of land degradation. Land degradation is one of India's five priority environmental issues. Deforestation also leads to biodiversity loss, soil erosion and climate change.

Explanation

How it happens: the main drivers (from NCERT's list of causes)

• Clearing forests for other uses: land for farms, fuelwood, mining and industry.
• Taking more than forests can regrow: people collect more fuelwood and fodder than the forest can replace.
• Shifting cultivation: farmers clear a forest patch, farm it for a few years, then move on.

• The land left unused between two rounds of farming is the fallow period. When this gap gets shorter, the soil and the trees cannot recover.

• Encroachment: people occupy forest land illegally.

• Forest fires and overgrazing: too many animals graze the same land, so young trees cannot grow back.

Why it keeps happening: the economics behind it

• Poverty-induced degradation (damage caused by poor people who must use nature to survive):
• they have no other fuel or income → they cut forests for fuelwood and fodder
• soil and forest get worse → the land yields less
• people become poorer → they cut even more

• This is a vicious circle (a loop in which each problem makes the next one worse).

• Open access resources and the tragedy of the commons:

• Nobody owns a forest commons, and anyone can use it.
• Each person gets the full gain from cutting one more tree. The damage is shared by everyone.

• So everyone overuses it, and the forest is destroyed.

• Population pressure: India has ~17% of the world's population on only 2.4% of the world's land (NCERT: 2.5%).

• Pressure ratio = 17 ÷ 2.4 ≈ 7 times the world-average human load on each unit of land.

• Market failure (the market price does not show the true cost to society): the price of timber or fuelwood leaves out the value forests give for free, such as clean water, stable soil and stored carbon. So forests get cut down more than is good for society.

What deforestation causes

• Soil erosion (topsoil washed or blown away): India loses ~5.3 billion tonnes of soil a year, which carries away 5.8-8.4 million tonnes of nutrients (GoI estimate).
• Biodiversity loss: animals and plants lose their habitat.
• Carbon release: carbon stored in trees goes into the air, which adds to climate change.
• Lower farm yields: poorer soil gives lower incomes, which feeds the vicious circle.

Worked example: the forest gap

• Forest land available per person: 0.06 ha. Forest land needed per person: 0.47 ha (NCERT).
• 0.06 ÷ 0.47 ≈ 13%. Each person has only about one-eighth of the forest they need.
• Gap = 0.47 − 0.06 = 0.41 ha per person. This gap is filled by overusing the forest.
• Result: about 15 million m³ of forest is cut beyond the permissible limit (the amount that can be cut safely).

In India

• Who measures it: the Forest Survey of India publishes the India State of Forest Report (ISFR). ISFR 2023 is the 18th report in the series.
• ISFR 2023 figures [2]:
• Forest and tree cover together: 8,27,357 sq km = 25.17% of India's geographical area [2].
• Forest cover: 7,15,343 sq km (21.76%). Tree cover: 1,12,014 sq km (3.41%) [2].
• Increase since ISFR 2021: 1,445 sq km, made up of 156 sq km of forest cover and 1,289 sq km of tree cover [2].

• Worked example: 1,289 ÷ 1,445 ≈ 89% of the gain is tree cover (trees outside recorded forests), not natural forest.

• Land degradation: the ISRO Desertification and Land Degradation Atlas (Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad; released 2021, data for 2018-19) shows that 97.85 million ha (29.77%) of India's land is degraded [3][4].

• Restoration pledge: at UNCCD COP14, New Delhi (2019), India pledged to restore 26 million ha of degraded land by 2030 [5].
• This pledge is linked to Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN), which means new damage is balanced by restoration so that net degradation is zero [4].

• Progress: 21.76 million ha is under restoration (Bonn Challenge), about 84% of the target [6].

• Biodiversity law: the Biological Diversity Act 2002, amended in 2023. India holds 4 of the world's 36 biodiversity hotspots, and many of them depend on forests.

Don't confuse with

• Land degradation: this is the broader problem, meaning any fall in land quality (salty soil, waterlogging, erosion, desert-like land). Deforestation is only one of its 12 causes in NCERT.
• Forest cover vs tree cover (ISFR): forest cover is 21.76% and tree cover (trees outside recorded forests) is 3.41% [2]. A rise in the total can hide the fact that natural forest is barely growing.
• Shifting cultivation: this is one cause of deforestation. It causes harm only when the fallow gap becomes too short for the forest to regrow.
• Desertification: this is land in dry areas turning into desert. Deforestation can lead to it, but the two are not the same thing. The ISRO Atlas measures land degradation and desertification together [3].

Prelims Hooks

• NCERT lists deforestation as cause no. 1 of land degradation. Open access resources (tragedy of the commons) is cause no. 11.
• ISFR 2023 (18th report, Forest Survey of India): forest and tree cover = 25.17%, of which forest cover = 21.76% and tree cover = 3.41% [2].
• Trap: "21.76" appears twice. It is 21.76% forest cover (ISFR 2023) and also 21.76 mha of land under restoration [2][6].
• Forest land per person: 0.06 ha available vs 0.47 ha needed (NCERT).
• ISRO Atlas: 29.77% of land is degraded. India's pledge is to restore 26 mha by 2030, announced at UNCCD COP14, New Delhi, 2019 [3][5].
• Kunming-Montreal GBF (2022) sets the 30x30 target: protect 30% of land and 30% of sea by 2030.

Mains Points

• Poverty and deforestation feed each other:
• Forest-dependent poor people cut trees because they have no other fuel or income. Bans alone cannot stop this.
• Livelihood support works better: LPG to replace fuelwood, and MGNREGA work on land and water, which also brings community control over the commons.

• This fits the Brundtland (1987) idea of sustainable development: meet today's needs without harming future generations.

• Quality vs quantity of green cover:

• Forest and tree cover rose by 1,445 sq km in ISFR 2023, but most of the gain is tree cover, not natural forest [2].

• Plantations do not replace natural forests for biodiversity or for holding soil.

• Land, SDGs and farm incomes:

• Nearly 30% of land is degraded [3], and soil erosion strips nutrients and lowers yields.
• Meeting the 26 mha LDN target [5][6] links forest protection to SDG 15 (Life on Land) and to rural incomes.

Related concepts

• Poverty-induced degradation and pollution from affluence
• Land degradation
• Soil erosion
• Open access resource
• Biodiversity loss
• Air pollution
• Industrial pollution
• Water pollution
• Groundwater overuse
• Virtual water

Read more

• State of India's environment: the dichotomy and the five priority issues