Usages of Water Resources in the Forests

Abstract

Water is indispensible for sustenance of life and maintenance of ecosystem including forest ecosystem. Water resources in the forests comprise of rivers, streams, bogs, natural or artificial ponds and pot holes. These water resources provide drinking water to the wildlife and serve the purpose of bathing and wallowing of the wild beasts. All forest animals come to the water resources at least once either in day or in night and invariably leave their footmarks on the banks. From these footmarks both species diversity and population in a particular forest area are usually counted that can serve an important role in framing, formulating and implementing forest management measures. It is a common practice to build small check dams on the tiny forest streams for providing drinking water to the wild animals in the dry season. Not only that, these rivers and streams are good medium for dispersal of seed as well as spawning ground for many indigenous fish and other aquatic species. These water resources are also used by the villagers living in and around the forest to fulfil their daily domestic requirement of water. Usually the majority of Indian populace use the holy water of rivers to perform their rites and rituals. The villagers living in or near the forest also use these water sources for the same purpose. The fast flowing rivers of hill forests are also used for transporting logs from higher to lower elevations. Thus these water resources need to be conserved properly, not only for multivariate usage by humans but also for providing natural habitat to an enormous number of aquatic and semi-aquatic micro- and macro-organisms which play their pertinent role in the ecosystem, food chain and web of life.