NCERT Book Class 7 Science Chapter 12 Forests: Our Lifeline

12 Forests: Our Lifeline

O
ne evening Boojho entered the “This is because the forests serve as
park with an elderly person. He green lungs and water purifying systems
introduced him to his friends. in nature”, Prof Ahmad explained. The
Prof Ahmad was a scientist working in children were confused. Prof Ahmad
the university. The children started realised that the children had not visited
playing while Prof Ahmad sat on a a forest. The children also wanted to
bench in the corner. He was tired as he know more about the forest, so they
had participated in the golden jubilee decided to visit it with Prof Ahmad.
celebrations of the town. After a while,
12.1 VISIT TO A FOREST
the children also came and sat around
One Sunday morning, the children
him. They wanted to know about the
packed a few things like a knife, a hand
celebrations. Prof Ahmad told them that
lens, a stick, a notebook and walked
after the cultural programme, the
together through a forest trail near a
senior people discussed the town’s
village. On their way, they met Tibu, a
unemployment problem. A plan was
young boy of their age group, of nearby
proposed to put up a factory by clearing
village, who was taking cattle for grazing
an area of the forest just outside the
along with his aunt. He was very agile,
town. This would give the increasing
running here and there to keep the herd
population of the town a chance to get
together. When he saw the children,
jobs. The children were very surprised
Tibu also started walking along with
when Prof Ahmad told them that many
them, while his aunt went on a different
people had objected to this idea.
path. As soon as they entered the forest
Tibu raised his hand and signalled them
to keep quiet because noise could
disturb the animals living in the forest.
Tibu then took them to a place at a
height to show them the broad view of
the forest. Children were surprised
because they could not see any land
(Fig. 12.1). The different treetops had
formed green cover over the land. However,
the cover was not uniformly green. The
Fig. 12.1 A view of a forest

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