The Vedas sing highly of trees and in ancient India, some trees were particularly looked upon with a great amount of reverence and even worshipped. We know that certain trees are like pipal and ‘jind’ are still worshipped in temples and elsewhere in India. Many trees are associated with great myths, stories and legends of the past heroes and are not allowed to be felled down.
Today even small children know that trees absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and release oxygen in the presence of sunlight. The process is known as photosynthesis. Thus they clean the atmosphere and keep a balance of oxygen with other gases.
Rabindranath Tagore, a man of great vision, expected the Shantiniketan University started by him, to be able to teach the students in the shade of trees.
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Trees give us various kinds of fruits. The leaves of some trees are used as fodder for animals. Bark of some trees proves useful in tannery. Trees provide us gums, rubber and certain medicines like quinine.
Trees are useful in several other ways. Their wood is used for making doors, windows and ventilators for homes. It is also used for making furniture. Almost all the paper industry depends upon trees.
Some people, particularly the villagers, use the wood of the trees as fuel and use it for cooking and other such purposes. Actually, wood should not be used as fuel, as just for this reason so many trees have to be cut down, such that there is a constant depletion of the forest area and this is a dangerous sign for good environmental health.
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It is, therefore, of paramount importance that we grow more trees instead of cutting down the existing trees. Of course, sometimes trees which go dry due to several reasons have to be axed. But fresh trees must be grown in their place.
It is in the fitness of things that “Forestation” or “Vanmahotsav” is celebrated every year in India on first July. On this day saplings of trees of various kinds are grown in large numbers all over the country.