Question

What are the major causes of the degradation of forest in Brazil and India?

Answer 1

1. Forests are being cut down as more area is required to expand the cities. Hence, rapid urbanisation is one of the reasons for the degradation of forests.
2. To ensure a continuous food supply to meet the needs of the ever-increasing population, more and more areas need to be brought under agriculture. For the expansion of agricultural land, forest areas are being cut down.
3. In both India and Brazil, forests are being cut down for firewood and for other domestic needs.
4. Slash and Burn agriculture, which is also called Roka in Brazil and Jhum in India, is responsible for deforestation.
5. Apart from all the above reasons, forest fires, pollution, overgrazing, etc., are also responsible for the degradation of forests.

Answer 2

The major causes of degradation of forest in Brazil and India are as follows:

• Urbanisation:
  1. Both the countries are developing countries. In both countries, due to industrialization, there is urbanisation.
  2. Due to urbanisation, new cities develop and expand. Rural people rapidly migrate to urban areas for jobs and better living conditions. The rapid inflow of rural people to urban places gives rise to the housing problem, and to accommodate them, vast areas of land under forests are cleared. For example, Vast areas of land are cleared to widen the roads.

• Shifting agriculture:
  1. People of both countries are cutting down trees and reducing forest cover to bring more land under cultivation. As a result, it is reducing the area of the forests.
  2. In Brazil, shifting cultivation is known as ‘Roca’ and in India shifting cultivation is known as ‘Jhum’. It is practiced in parts of North-East.
  3. For shifting agriculture, land under forests is cleared by cutting and burning. For the next few years, this patch of land is used for subsistence agriculture. Once this land loses fertility, another patch of under forest is cleared, leading to deforestation.