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R. Kumar and P. Saikia
1 Background
Forests occupy 1/3 of the earth’s land area (FAO 2015) and provide an array of benefits to human societies. These benefits are often described as resources that people
can draw upon for fuel for heating, cooking and industrial needs and protect watersheds to enable hydroelectric generation, food security and improved livelihoods,
carbon sequestration, climate amelioration, soil and water conservation, recreation,
etc. besides their pivotal roles as habitat and environmental regulators. Furthermore,
forests play a key role in maintaining water quality, clean air, and help in regulating climate, floods, pollination, biological control of diseases, etc. thus providing
various regulating services (Bahuguna and Bisht 2013). Forest is the second largest
land use in India after agriculture covering 21.05% of the total geographical area of
the country (Anonymous 2011). Forest composition, structure and diversity patterns
are important ecological parameters determined by the prevailing environmental and
anthropogenic variables (Gairola et al. 2008; Ahmad et al. 2010). Forests play an
important role in maintaining important ecological goods and services and their constituent species sustain human life (Daily 1997). They support sustainable farming
and human well being by stabilizing soils and climate and regulating water flows.
More than 853 million people (49% of total population) use fuelwood for cooking in India (FSI 2011), whereas, in Jharkhand, 57.6% people depend on fuelwood
for cooking after Chattishgarh, Tripura, Meghalaya, Assam, Nagaland, Odisha and
Manipur. Overutilization of forest resources for fuelwood as well as house construction leads to more than 30% deforestation since the 1990s. Destruction of forests lead
to loss of biodiversity, pressure over the fragile ecosystem, ultimately leading to soil
fertility loss and erosion as well as too much water runoff into the lowlands. Current
estimated global net forest loss is 3.3 million ha yr
−1 and about 80% destruction is
due to agriculture (FAO 2015).
About 85% of the rural population of India utilizes wild plants and its various
parts for the diet supplements, livelihood, social upliftment and treatments of various
disorders (Farnsworth 1994; Jain 1992). Forests are the key to the economic and
socio-cultural life of tribes and provide abode to a large tribal population of India.
Tribal communities depend on forests for livelihood and to meet subsistence needs,
as tradable goods to generate cash income where market conditions permit, and
as raw materials in a variety of processed products (Angelsen et al. 2014). Tribal
people are nature loving people who live in harmony with nature and maintain a
close link between man and the environment (Sajem and Gosai 2006). Despite the
rapid development of mines related industrial sector in the State of Jharkhand over
the years, the survival of the majority of the rural people and the tribal population is
still dependent on the forests as it provides a variety of NTFPs.
R. Kumar and P. Saikia
1 Background
Forests occupy 1/3 of the earth’s land area (FAO 2015) and provide an array of benefits to human societies. These benefits are often described as resources that people
can draw upon for fuel for heating, cooking and industrial needs and protect watersheds to enable hydroelectric generation, food security and improved livelihoods,
carbon sequestration, climate amelioration, soil and water conservation, recreation,
etc. besides their pivotal roles as habitat and environmental regulators. Furthermore,
forests play a key role in maintaining water quality, clean air, and help in regulating climate, floods, pollination, biological control of diseases, etc. thus providing
various regulating services (Bahuguna and Bisht 2013). Forest is the second largest
land use in India after agriculture covering 21.05% of the total geographical area of
the country (Anonymous 2011). Forest composition, structure and diversity patterns
are important ecological parameters determined by the prevailing environmental and
anthropogenic variables (Gairola et al. 2008; Ahmad et al. 2010). Forests play an
important role in maintaining important ecological goods and services and their constituent species sustain human life (Daily 1997). They support sustainable farming
and human well being by stabilizing soils and climate and regulating water flows.
More than 853 million people (49% of total population) use fuelwood for cooking in India (FSI 2011), whereas, in Jharkhand, 57.6% people depend on fuelwood
for cooking after Chattishgarh, Tripura, Meghalaya, Assam, Nagaland, Odisha and
Manipur. Overutilization of forest resources for fuelwood as well as house construction leads to more than 30% deforestation since the 1990s. Destruction of forests lead
to loss of biodiversity, pressure over the fragile ecosystem, ultimately leading to soil
fertility loss and erosion as well as too much water runoff into the lowlands. Current
estimated global net forest loss is 3.3 million ha yr
−1 and about 80% destruction is
due to agriculture (FAO 2015).
About 85% of the rural population of India utilizes wild plants and its various
parts for the diet supplements, livelihood, social upliftment and treatments of various
disorders (Farnsworth 1994; Jain 1992). Forests are the key to the economic and
socio-cultural life of tribes and provide abode to a large tribal population of India.
Tribal communities depend on forests for livelihood and to meet subsistence needs,
as tradable goods to generate cash income where market conditions permit, and
as raw materials in a variety of processed products (Angelsen et al. 2014). Tribal
people are nature loving people who live in harmony with nature and maintain a
close link between man and the environment (Sajem and Gosai 2006). Despite the
rapid development of mines related industrial sector in the State of Jharkhand over
the years, the survival of the majority of the rural people and the tribal population is
still dependent on the forests as it provides a variety of NTFPs.