In India, today, a sign stands in front of all the protected forests "No humans allowed." 

Looking at such signboards, I often find myself asking: why do we need this signboard? Are we dangerous to our forests, our environment? Is the earth better without us? 

As humans, we are supposed to act as mediators between nature and development. We are supposed to create an equilibrium system where development and preservation go hand in hand. It is not our right to exploit natural resources to overcompensate for our "development" plans.

Over 2 billion people rely on forests. They provide us with not only livelihood and shelter but also fuel, water and food security. Forests are the largest absorber of carbon next to the oceans. Forests have an impact on our life, whether we live close or far away from them. Hence, the argument that the degradation of forests does not have any implication on me becomes irrelevant.

According to a report of FAO, degraded forests constitute 41% of the total forest cover in India. Our country has noted two major eras of deforestation. The first wave was observed when were first colonized by the British empire in the 1890s and the second wave of deforestation began to meet the demands of World War II in the 1940s. However, post-1980, a decline has been noted in forest degradation.

From 2001 to 2012, India gained 255kha of tree cover equal to 0.32% of the global total as per the Global Forest Watch. The positive impact was created by undertaking various measures. The government developed well-thought-out initiatives to protect the forest by setting clear targets and means to achieve them. It reduced the high subsidies provided to industries that exploited forests indiscriminately to make their products. It utilized the media to develop commitment of people towards forest protection. In addition, the concept of joint forest management was implemented where the locals of the area worked together with government agencies to participate in the conservation of forests on a benefit-sharing basis. Community participation was heavily encouraged in an effort to protect the green cover. People also voluntarily organized themselves to set up tree growers cooperative societies in various parts of the country to work on increasing the green cover.

These efforts have set us up on a tunnel of recovery from forest degradation. However, there is still a long way to go and we must not stop. We must walk on a path set out through effective ecorestoration policies, initiatives and collective consciousness at the end of which we don't need a signboard saying "no humans are allowed" and no kid has to question if the earth is better off without us.

Works Cited

https://wwf.panda.org/discover/our_focus/forests_practice/importance_forests/#:~:text=The%20importance%20of%20forests%20cannot,erosion%20and%20mitigate%20climate%20change.

http://www.fao.org/3/XII/0250-A1.htm#:~:text=In%20India%2C%20degraded%20forests%20constitute,of%20the%20total%20forest%20cover.&text=Total%20area%20under%20forest%20has,priority%20in%20planning%20and%20implementation.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.globalforestwatch.org/dashboards/country/IND/%3Fcategory%3Dsummary%26location%3DWyJjb3VudHJ5IiwiSU5EIl0%253D%26map%3Dey