Short Question Answers: Natural Vegetation | Geography Class 11 - Humanities/Arts PDF Download

Q. 1. How much part of total geographical area of India is under forests?
Ans. 22 per cent.

Q. 2. How much area (in Hectares) is under forests in India?
Ans. 750 lakh Hectares.

Q. 3. Name three products gathered from forests.
Ans. Rubber, gum and tanning material.

Q. 4. Name two geographical factors on which the growth of forests depend.
Ans. (i) Amount of rainfall (ii) Altitude.

Q. 5. State the annual rainfall and temperature required for tropical evergreen forests.
Ans. (i) More than 200 cm of rainfall (ii) 25° – 27° C temperature.

Q. 6. State the annual rainfall required for deciduous monsoon forests.
Ans. 150 – 200 cm.

Q. 7. Name three important trees found in tropical evergreen forests.
Ans. Rosewood, Ebony and Gurjan.

Q. 8. Why are monsoon forests called Deciduous forests?
Ans. Because these shed their leaves in summer.

Q. 9. Name two states in India noted for Deodar trees.
Ans. Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh.

Q. 10. Where is the Forest Research Institute located?
Ans. At Dehradun.

Q. 11. Name two typical forests found in Tidal forests.
Ans. Sundari and Gurjan.

Q. 12. According to scientific norm, how much area of a country should be under forests?
Ans. 33%.

Q. 13. Name three typical trees of coniferous forests.
Ans. Pine, Deodar, Silver fir.

Q. 14. What is the use of Myrobalan tree?
Ans. It provides material for tanning leathers and dying cotton.

Q. 15. Name the economically most important vegetation belt of India.
Ans. Monsoon deciduous forests.

Q. 16. What is the use of wood of chinnar tree?
Ans. For handicrafts.

Q. 17. What is the main aim of National Forest Policy?
Ans. Sustainable management of forests.

Q. 18. Which exotic species is known as ‘Terror of Bengal’? Why is it called so?
Or
Why does the exotic flora become a problem for us? Name two such species.
Ans. Nearly 40% of plant species found in India have come from outside and are called exotic plants. These plants have been brought from Sino-Tibetan, African and Indo-Malayasian areas. These plants were brought as decorative garden plants in India. These plants grow rapidly as weeds under hot-wet tropical conditions. These rapidly multiply so that it is difficult to eradicate these. These reduce the useful land cover. These prevent the growth of economic plants. These spread diseases and are a hazard to public health. Lantana and water Hyacinth are two such species. Water Hyacinth is known as “Terror of Bengal”. It has choked up all the water courses like rivers, streams, tanks, canals, etc.

Q. 19. What do you mean by Chipko movement? Why is the conservation of forests necessary?
Ans. Afforestation is vital for the protection, regeneration and development of forests. Chipko movement is a movement launched by nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) for afforestation where forests have been cut. It creates awareness and encourages active participation of masses in tribal areas.
Forests are a valuable resource. The conservation of forests is essential for ecological security. Forests meet the needs of fuel, fodder and timber of the people.
They meet the requirements of raw materials for village, small scale and large scale forests based industries. For this the social forestry, farm forestry and production forestry programmes have been introduced to cover an area of 16.55 lakh hectares besides planting 378.5 crore saplings under farm forestry.

Q. 20. What is need for Conservation of Forest?
Ans. Increasing Human and animal population has adverse impact on natural vegetation. Areas which were once covered with forests, have now become semi-desert. Even Rajasthan had forests. Forests are essential for ecological balance which in turn is essential for human survival and development. For balanced ecology and healthy environment, at least one-third of the land of India must be kept under forest. Unfortunately, we do not have even one-fourth of the total area under forest. The need for a policy for conservation and management of forest resources, therefore, demands no emphasis.

Q. 21. What are the aims of National Forest Policy?
Ans. A new National Forest Policy was adopted in 1988 to stop further decrease in the forest cover.
(1) The policy aimed at bringing 33 per cent of India’s landmass under forest cover. The world coverage was 27 per cent, and India’s own coverage at that time was only 19 per cent.
(2)  The policy further stated that the effort would be made to maintain environmental stability and to restore forests where ecological balance was disturbed.
(3) The other objective was to conserve the natural heritage of the country, its biological diversity and genetic pool.
(4) The policy further aimed to check soil erosion, extension of the desert lands and reduction of floods and droughts.
(5) Other objectives of the policy were to increase the forest cover through social forestry and afforestation on denuded and unproductive land, increase in productivity of forests to make timber, fuel, fodder and food available to rural and tribal population dependant on forests, and encourage the substitution of wood
(6) Lastly, it emphasized the creation of a massive people’s movement involving women to encourage planting of trees, and stop felling of trees.

Q. 22. What are the aims of social forestry?
Ans. Social Forestry:- 
(i) The term social forestry was used for the first time, by the National Commission on Agriculture in 1976, to denote tree raising programmes to supply firewood, small timber and minor forest produce to rural population.
(ii) Ambitious social forestry programmes have been launched by several state governments. The forest departments in most states have set up separate social forestry wings.
(iii) Social forestry programmes have mainly three components — farm forestry, encouraging farmers to plant trees on their own farms, : wood lots planted by the forest departments for the needs of the community especially along road sides, canal banks and other such public lands ; and community woods lots planted by the community themselves on community lands, to be shared equally by them.
(iv) The social forestry projects, however, failed as it did not involve poor women who ought to be main beneficiaries. The project bacame male oriented, turned farmers into cash generating rather than a basic need generating exercise.
(v) The wood produced from social forestry programmes is ending up in urban and industrial India instead of meeting the needs of the poor in rural India, and reducing rural employment. Land under food crops has declined, and absentee landlordism, has increased.

Q. 23. ‘In their altitudinal range, the Himalayas represent a succession of vegetation regions from the tropical to the Alpine.’ Substantiate this statement.
Ans. Different types of vegetation regions are found in the Himalayas from its southern foot-hills to high altitudes. The natural vegetation ranges from the equatorial to Tundra Type.  A series of vegetation regions exist according to the changes of temperatures and rainfall with altitude. A gradual change in vegetation results according to altitude and climate.
(i) Tropical Wet Deciduous Forests. These forests are found along the Southern foot-hills of Himalayas, upto a height of 1000 metres. Due to high rainfall, dense forests of sal are found.
(ii) Temperate Forests. The dense wet temperate forests occur upto a height of 2000 metres. These include evergreen Oaks, Chesnut and Pine trees which are commercially useful.
(iii) Broad leaved evergreen Forests. These occur between height of 2000 metres and 3000 metres. These include Oak, Laurels and Chestnut trees.
(iv) Coniferous Forests. These occur upto a height of 3500 metres. These include the trees of Pine, Cedars, Silver fir and Spruce. Deodar is commercially important for timber and railway sleepers. At higher altitudes, near the Snow line, Birch, Juniper and Silverfir trees are found.
(v)  Alpine Pastures. These occur beyond a height of 3500 metres. These include short grasses, these are used for transhumance grazing by Nomadic tribes like the Gujjars.

Q. 24. Distinguish between reafforestation and afforestation.
Ans. Distinction between Reafforestation and Afforestation :
Reafforestation:- 
1. It is practised in areas where forests have been destroyed.
2. Two saplings are planted to replace  every felled tree.
3. It is practised to avoid the evils of Jhuming.
Afforestation:-
1. The new forests are planted in new  areas.
2. One sapling is planted to get one tree.
3. It is practised to bring more area under forest.

Q. 25. From administrative point, name three types of forests and the percentage of areas covered by these.
Ans. (i) Reserved forests – 53% area.
(ii) Protected forests – 30% area.
(iii) Unclassified forests – 17% area.

Q. 26. Account for declining wildlife in India.
Ans. Some of the important reasons of the declining wildlife are as follows :
(i) Industrial and technological advancement brought about a rapid increase in the exploitation of forest resources.
(ii) More and more lands were cleared for agriculture, human settlement, roads, mining, reservoirs, etc.
(iii) Pressure on forests mounted due to lopping for fodder and fuelwood and removal of small timber by the local people.
(iv) Grazing by domestic cattle caused an adverse effect on wildlife and its habitat.
(v) Hunting was taken up as a sport by the elite and hundreds of wild animals were killed in a single hunt. Now commercial poaching is rampant.
(vi) Incidence of forest fire. It is being felt that conservation of wildlife is of great significance to the national as well as the world heritage along with the promotion of ecotourism. What steps have been initiated by the government in this direction?

Q. 27. Distinguish between Agro-forestry and Farm forestry.
Ans. Agro forestry means to plant trees and crops at the same time on cultivated land and barren land. Agriculture and forestry go together so that fodder, fuel, timber, fruit and crops can be obtained at the same time. Community forestry includes afforestation in public places, pastures, temples, along canals and in schools. It connects, landless labourers with forestry. Farm Forestry includes the growing of trees for commerical and non-commercial purposes, buildings of trees are distributed free of cost. Trees are grown on marginal grasslands, pastures, cow sheds, etc.

Q. 28. Describe the tiger and elephant projects for the conservation of wildlife.
Ans. For the purpose of effective conservation of flora and fauna, special steps have been initiated by the Government of India in collaboration with UNESCO’s ‘Man and Biosphere Programme’. Special schemes like Project Tiger (1973) and Project Elephant (1992) have been launched to conserves these species and their habitat in a sustainable manner. Project Tiger has been implemented since 1973. The main objective of the scheme is to ensure maintenance of viable population of tigers in India for scientific, aesthetic, cultural and ecological values, and to preserve areas of biological importance as natural heritage for the benefit, education and enjoyment of the people. Initially, the Project Tiger was launched in nine tiger reserves, covering an area of 16,339 sq. km. which has now increased to 27 tiger reserves, encompassing 37,761 sq. km of tiger habitats distributed in 17 states. The tiger population in the country has registered and increase from 1,827 in 1972 to 3,642 in 2001-2002.
Project Elephant was launched in 1992 to asist states having free ranging population of wild elephants. It was aimed at ensuring long-term survival of identified viable population of elephants in their natural habitat. The project is being implemented in 13 states.