IGNOU FST CHAPTER 18 Q1(Assignment 2017)

Q)Detailed account on the management of water and forest resources.
Ans)Management of Forest Resources
Considering the ever growing demand of wood and realizing the importance of conserving our forest resources, it has become necessary to find alternate fuels as well as raw materials to manufacture paper, sports, goods, packing cases, furniture and beams used in buildings. Research is going on to discuss alternate resources; in some cases, plastics and composite materials have been developed though they are not widely used as yet. The other way to cultivate quick growing trees berbages in large numbers in selected farms of degraded or wastelands. This well provide us fodder, fuelwood, timber, fruits and seeds. If deforestation has to be stopped and some necessary steps have to be taken:

1. adoption of a scientific method of harvesting forest stocks,
2. developing a mechanism of monitoring forest growth rate and depletion
3. establishing an effective system of fighting forest fires
4. strictly enforcing laws to deal with unauthorized cutting of tree

• Tree Plantation

Plantation, on a mass scale, of fast growing trees such as poplar, casuarina etc should be undertaken. The productivity of tree plantation is found to be greater than that of natural forests. In a well irrigated tree farm, the productivity may be as high as 45 tonnes per hectare per year.

• Social forestry

A farmer can partly meet his needs of wood from the fast growing trees planted within the limits of his village, alongside railway tracks, side roads or canals and streams, boundaries of fields and empty spaces, The aim of social forestry is to meet the needs of fuel, fodder, fruits, timber and other requirements.
Management of water resources
Management of water resources means a program to provide and adequate supply of good quality of water for various used without endangering the life of source or the reserve of water.In other words efforts should be made to see that

1. water of the right quality is available for all kinds of uses, and
2. there is no misuse or wastage of this precious resource

Water management includes recharges of reserves of groundwater and diverting supply from the area of surplus to the region of scarcity.
Recharging of groundwater is the most important aspect of the water management. In the mountains and hills the watersheds are covered with vegetation.The litter-covered soil of the watershed allows infilteration of rain water, which finds its way to the aquifers.
In urban and rural areas, storm water, used water or domestic drains can be fed into pits, trenches or any depression, where it can filter underground. Flood water can be injected into aquifers through a series of deep pits or it can be spread on the fields through a network of ditches
The excess flow of normal as well as flood water can be diverted to areas where there is scarcity of water, This will not only remove the danger of damage caused by floods but will also benefit the regions of scarcity.
By proper treatment of the domestic and municipal waste water, one can supply fit for many industrial and agricultural purposes. The treatment of waste water involves removal of pollutants, germs, and toxic elements as you have already studied in the previous section.

• Desalination of sea water

By use of solar energy,sea water can be distilled, thus fresh water of good quality can be obtained. This method of desalination of sea water is being used in our country   at places like Bhavanagar in Gujrat and Churu in Rajasthan.

• Reducing over consumption

Using more water than necessary is an unpardonable waste of the precious and scarce resource. In our country, a lot of water is wasted due to leaking taps and bad plumbing. There is also need for a check on excessive irrigation.