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• Deforestation: Process of cutting down of trees
• Causes of deforestation:
  • Man Made causes: Cutting wood for furniture, paper and fuel, agriculture, construction of roadways, houses, factories, railways, dams.
  • Natural causes: Forest fire, droughts, etc
• Consequences of deforestation:
  • Global warming – Deforestation causes an increase in the quantity of carbon dioxide which causes an increase in earth’s temperature.
  • Drought – deforestation causes an increase in temperature that disturbance in water cycle causing drought.
  • Flood – Due to deforestation, water cannot be held in the soil, this causes an increase of water level in rivers, that ultimately causes flood.
  • Soil erosion and desertification – Deforestation removes top fertile layer of soil through water or wind causing soil erosion.
• Flora and Fauna: Plants and animals in a specific area. E.g. plants such as Sal, teak, mango, jamun, silver ferns, arjun, etc are flora of Pachmarhi Biosphere reserve
• Endemic species: Species found in a particular area and can not be found in any other area are endemic species. Bison, Indian giant squirrel are endemic fauna Pachmarhi biosphere reserve.
• Wildlife sanctuary: Areas reserved by government to protect animals and their habitat
• Biosphere reserve : Biodiversity and culture of a particular area is maintained by the biosphere reserve. E.g. The Pachmarhi Biosphere Reserve consists of one national park named Satpura and two wildlife sanctuaries named Bori and Pachmarhi.
• National Parks: Reserved areas by government, large and diverse enough to protect different ecosystems. E.g. Satpura National Park.
• Various projects are taken in action by the government to protect endangered species. E.g. Project Tiger.
• Recycling of paper: for making one tonne of paper it requires 17 completely grown trees. Thus to save forest there is need to recycle paper. Paper can be recycled 5 to 7 times. This saves number of trees per year.
• Reforestation: Process of planting trees in the forest to replenish the damaged forests.