8th Class Science Conservation of Plants and Animals Protected Areas

        Protected Areas

Protected areas are areas of land or sea especially dedicated to the protection and maintenance of biodiversity. These are managed through legal means and have been set up within the legal frame work of Indian wildlife (Protection) Act,1972. Examples of protected areas are national parks and wildlife sanctuaries.

              National Parks

A national park is a large area dedicated to conserve the environmental, natural resources and the wildlife therein. In a national park,

• Private rights are non-existent.
• Forestry operations, grazing of animals and hunting of animals are prohibited.
• Visitors are allowed to enter only for study, cultural and recreative purposes.
• Exploitation of habitat or wildlife is banned.

             Wildlife Sanctuaries

A wildlife sanctuary is similar to a national park. However, it aims only at conservation of species. The wildlife sanctuaries have the following features:

• The boundary of a sanctuary is not limited by state legislation.
• The killing, hunting or capturing of any species is prohibited.
• Private ownership may be allowed to continue in a sanctuary.
• Forestry and other usages may be permitted, but to the extent that they do not affect wildlife adversely.

            Forest Reserves

These forests are primarily reserved for raising trees for the production of timber or wood for industrial use. They also provide other products such as pulp, cellulose and medicinal plants. These forests cover 54.4% of the total forests area of 76.5 million hectares of land.

             Zoological Gardens

Zoological gardens or parks and zoos are places where the wild animal are kept in a protected environment under human care for public display. All the animals in a zoo are provided with the conditions similarto their natural habitats as far as possible. The aim is to enable us to learn about their behaviour and food habits.

             Botanical Gardens

Botanical Gardens play an important role in the conservation of plants species. They have collections of living plants for reference. Plant species are grown for identification purposes and each plant is labelled to indicate its scientific name, common name and vernacular name. a famous botanical garden of India is the Indian Botanical Garden situated at HOWRAH (Kolkata).

       Which one of the following is a renewal resource?

(a) Petroleum

(b) Coal

(c) Mineral deposits

(d) Solar energy

(e) None of these

Answer: (d)

       Which one of the following statements is true?

Statement 1: Botanical garden play an important role in the conservation of plant species.

Statement 2: Botanical garden play an important role in the conservation of animals species.

(a) Statement 1

(b) Statement 2

(c) Both statements are correct

(d) Both statements are incorrect

(e) None of these

Answer: (a)

• Biodiversity, or biological diversity, denotes the number and variety of different organisms and ecosystems in a certain area
• The greatest threat to biodiversity is loss of habitat as humans develop land for agriculture, grazing livestock, industry, and habitation
• Deforestation means large-scale removal of forest prior to its replacement by other land uses
• Protected areas are areas of land or sea especially dedicated to the protection and maintenance of biodiversity.
• Zoological gardens or parks and zoos are places where the wild animal are kept in a protected environment..