Answer the following questions in about 120 words.

(i) Describe how communities have conserved and protected forests and wildlife in India.

(ii) Write a note on good practices towards conserving forest and wildlife.

(i) the forests in India are home to a number of communities. These communities share a complex relationship with the flora and fauna around them. In certain areas, local communities are struggling to conserve these habitats along with govt. officials.

(a) In Sariska Tiger Reserve, Rajasthan, the villagers have been fighting against mining citing Wildlife Conservation Act.

(b) In many areas, villager have taken the step ti protect habitats and openly have openly rejected governments' involvement. They have done this all by themselves. The residents of Alwar district in Rajasthan have declared 1,200 hectares of forest land as "BhairodevDakavSonchuri". They have their own set of rules and regulations which do not allow hunting, and protect the wildlife against any outside dangers.

(c) Nature worship is an old tradition in India. It states that all the creations of nature have to be protected. These beliefs have led to the conservation of several forests in their pristine form called Sacred Groves (forests of Gods and Goddesses). These patches have been left untouched by the local people and any sort of interference is banned.

(d) Trees are protected in the name of worship. The Mundas and Santhals of tehChotanagpur region worship Mahua and Kadamba trees. The tribal of Odisha and Bihar worship the Tamarinf and Mango trees during weddings. To many people, Banyan and Peepal are considered sacred.

(e) There are a lot of Monkeys and Langurs found around temples. They are fed daily and treated as a part of temple devotees. In and around the Bishnoi villages in Rajasthan, herds of Blackbuck (Chinkara), Nilgai and Peacocks can be seen as an important part of the community and they are not harmed.

(f) Chipko Movement in the Himalayas and the Joint Forest Management (JFM) programme offer good examples to create the involvement of local communities in the management and restoration of degraded forests.

(ii) (a) Chipko Movement in the Himalayas has successfully kept a check on deforestation in several areas. It has also sent a message to the community that afforestation is step to be taken to preserve indigenous species.

(b) There have been attempts made to revive the traditional conservation methods. Parallely, new methods of ecological farming have also been introduced. The groups like "Beej BachaoAndolan" in Tehrii and Navdanya have shown that appropriate production of diversified crops can be done without the use of synthetic chemicals and are also economically viable.

(c) The Joint Forest Management (JFM) provides the platform to involve local communities to help restore the degraded forests. The fundamentals of JFM depend on creating village institutions which undertake the protection activities on degraded forest land, managed by the forest deptt. In return, these local communities are provided the right to intermediary benefits as non-timber produces and share in the timber by successful protection.