Forest-Our Lifeline Notes

• Forests are home to a variety of plants and animals.
• Several trees, shrubs, mosses, and mushrooms; birds and mammals; spiders; frogs; and snakes grow and live in forests.
• Human beings, too, depend on forests for a variety of things.
• About one-third of the world's land surface is covered with forests.
• Forests are different from one another depending upon where they are located.
• Climate, topography (physical features), and soil type are some of the main factors that determine the type of trees and animals that grow and thrive in a forest.

• According to the height of plants and trees, forests can be divided into three layers:

1. Canopy

2. Crown 

3. Understory / Understorey

Layers of the forest

• Forest plays a major role in our life.
• Early men and women gathered food and were dependent on forests for all their basic needs of food, clothing, and shelter.
• As time went by, they learnt techniques of growing food by clearing small patches of land in the forests. But they still remained dependent on forests for several other things, and the need is still continuing.

Roots bind soil particles