Impact of Depleting Forest Resources on Livelihood of Rural People of West Bengal

Abstract

Interdependency of plants and animals is one of the most sustainable symbiotic relationship which is accepted by evolutionary mechanism. Imbalance in this partnership has given birth to endless chain processes, which has threatened to bring the world to destruction in nearby future. Anthropogenic activities have brought a havoc discrimination in the availability of natural resources, where it is misused and overused by one section of people while the other section is deprived of it. Urbanization, commercialization of forest areas and its various products pose serious threat to survival of forest, which in turn directly affects the livelihood of the millions of rural people who depend on timber and non-timber products for various purposes, such as medicine, food, economic and socio-religious purposes.