1. Name the different types of natural vegetation. 2. Name different types of biomes, 3. Which forests are called ‘the Lungs of the World’? Wild Life as a Resource 4. Animals give us various products such as meat, hide, ‘Temperate beciduous Forest Feed Chain ‘wool, milk, etc. eos 2. Insects such as bees and + ree ee ee butterflies helps in pollination, w a —a-aA 3. Animals are a part of definite =. Somes food chain in the ecosystem. s— me ye Herbivores feed on plants and “a! . carnivores feed on herbivores, When animals die, other animals such as vultures act like scavengers and feed on dead livestack and clean the environment, Their remains get mixed into the Earth and form feod for the plants. This completes the cycle. There are various food chains in an ecosystem and many ecosystems in a biome. Biology Link: Find cut about the process of pollination. Ecolegy Link: Find out more about the foad chain and food web in various ecosystems. Fig, 4.6: Food Chain Reasons for Degradation of Wild Life Resource 1. Shrinking of habitats due to reckless cutting of forest. 2. illegal hunting or poaching of various animals for their body parts such as skin (tiger, lion, snakes, srocodile, etc.), nails, teeth (elephant), homs (rhinoceros), feathers. (peacocks, parrots, ete.), is a reason for many exotic species lasing their population 3. Climatic change because for the change vegetative cover. 4. Pollution caused due to human activities that destroys their natural habitat, mnEffects of Degradation of Wild Life 1. Extinction of species takes place when the last of the species dies due to environment changes and human activity. There are many species which now do not exist on the Earth, 2. Endangered species are those plants and wildlife that are 80 small in number that they face the risk of becoming extincl, 99% of the endangered species face the risk of Fig. 4.8:Philppine Eagle extinction because of human activities. _ a 3. Threatened species are those plants, animals, birds and insects that are at the risk of becoming endangered in the near future, These-are also referred to as the redslist species. 4. The local food chain is disturbed and the larger food web affected, ‘Conservation of Wild Life 1, Various laws suchas ‘Wildlife Protection Act, 1972’ are made to protect various endangered animals such as tiger, lion and blackbuck, etc. 2, Various projects. such as Project Tiger and Project Elephant have been undertaken to protect these ‘endangered species in their natural habit 3, International conventions such as CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. of wild Fauna and Flora) have been established to protect various species. 4. Usage of certain animal products such as pashmina shawl and shatoosh and fur of many arctic animals have been banned, 5, NGOs such as PETA (Prevention of Extreme Treatment to Animals), SPCA (Society for Prevention of [E ~n _+ Cruelty 16 Animals). and WWF Map 4.1 Nigra Par of ria (World Wide Fund for Nature) have been active in this mission, 6. Various wild life sanctuaries have been set up as protected areas as home to various endangered species, There are 510 wild ite sanctuaries in India. They are set upto protect the extinction of animals.7. National Parks where wild animals and natural vegetation are together preserved are also set up in the country. For example. Kaziranga National park in Assam for minocerous, Jim Corbett National park in Uttrakhand for Tiger, eto. There are 96 National Parks in the country. 8, Biosphere Reserves refer to large areas where vegetation, wid life and environment are conserved to preserve the biological diversity, For example, Nandadevi in Uttrakhand, Silent valley in the Western Ghats, and Subnderbans for mangrove forest and Royal Bengal tiger ete. There are 14 biosreserves in India. They all have been zoned according to the intensity of the human activity allowed. The core zone is free from intervention, buffer zone is allowed only for reasearch and tanstion zone is. an area marked for traditional agricultural usage, 1. What do you mean by endangered species? 2. How many wild life sanctuaries and biosphere reserves are: there in India? a Z biome endangered extinction habitat ‘scavengers Concept Map