Lawrence

Are you in the habit of reading a newspaper while sipping the morning coffee? If so, can you remember some news stories that appeared recently? The murder of a high-profile politician, an accident that killed hundreds, mutiny in a foreign country or the famine that hit thousands in an African country – you may come up with many. In a hurry to read through all these disturbing news stories, did you fail to notice a streak of hope, a report on a positive development in an environmental issue? We are talking about the UN Report released recently, which speaks about the fall in deforestation. The report says that deforestation in India and China fell dramatically. While more than 8 million hectares of forests were destroyed in 1990s, this decade (2000-2010), experienced the deforestation only in 5.2 million hectares. Though it is a piece of good news, we have to work a great deal again towards our aim of preserving forests and maintaining a balance in nature. Deforestation may lead to many serious environmental issues such as global warming, drastic changes in climate, an instability in the whole biosphere etc. With large scale deforestation, many herbal plants with medicinal properties have been disappeared from the earth and it poses threat to the very existence of alternative healthcare system based on herbal medicines such as Ayurveda. Such an issue will cast a shadow on the future of Ayurveda health centres too – be it an ayurvedic health resort , a hospital or a spa. Hence we have to preserve the forest for its herbal plants, rain forests, wildlife and for everything that it harbours.