Uses of Forests

• 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

• Forests prevent soil erosion and floods.
• Roots of trees help to control soil erosion as roots bind the soil particles together and prevent the soil from being washed or blown away.
• Trees help to regulate the climate of a place.
• They absorb water from the ground through their roots, and then release some part of it as water vapour.
• Thus, they help in keeping the air cool and also help bring in the rain.

Trees act as windbreakers

• Trees also help in checking global warming by using carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, for photosynthesis.
• Some trees, such as coconuts and palms, help to break strong winds in coastal areas. They act as shields or windbreakers.

Trees provide timber

• We get timber from more than a thousand species of trees such as sal, mahogany, teak, and rosewood.
• Several timber-based industries such as those of plywood, sawmills, paper and pulp, and cardboards are all dependent on these trees.
• We also get firewood from trees. Usually, wood with low moisture content is chosen, so that it can dry faster.
• We get fruits and most dry fruits from forests.
• Mango, coconut, orange, pear, jackfruit, lychee, apple, etc., grow wild in forests.

Almond nuts and its plant

• We also get several nuts and spices from plants growing in forests.
• Plants such as neem, eucalyptus, amla, and cassava are used for making several Ayurvedic medicines.

Cinchona

• Cinchona trees provide quinine, which is an important medicine for treating malaria.

Lemon grass

• Many varieties of grasses such as lemon grass, vanilla, kewra, and khus are the sources of several kinds of essential oils.

Eucalyptus

• Sandalwood, eucalyptus, and pine also give us oil, which can be extracted from the wood of these trees.
• These oils are used in making soaps, cosmetics, incense, medicines, and as essence for flavour and smell in bakeries and confectioneries.

Latex obtained from rubber tree

• Forests are also a source of resins (used to make varnish and paint); latex (used to make rubber); bamboo (useful as fodder, and serves as an important raw material for the manufacture of paper and pulp, basket and other small-scale industries); and cane (used to make walking sticks, furniture, baskets, picture frames, screens, and mats).
• We also get fiber from plants, such as cotton, jute, linen, hemp, flax, and ramie, which grow in forests.
• A forest is home to many types of plants, animals, and microorganisms. These living organisms depend on each other for their survival.