India needs to safeguard its natural resources

The symbiotic association of man and forest deeply embedded in the religious and the socio-cultural mindset of our countrymen and emphasised since time immemorial, is getting disturbed in recent times

India is among the fastest growing economies in the world today. It is now paying much more attention to environment than earlier.

While before 1980, almost 150,000 hectares of forest land was being diverted to non-forestry activities every year, it is heartening to note that this rate of diversion has been reduced to 15,500 hectares per annum after 1980.

In terms of forest cover, India has shown an increasing trend in comparison to the global trend of decreasing forest cover during the last decades. As per the India State of Forest Report, 2017, India is ranked 10th in the world with 24.4