Model Questions for UPSC PRE CSAT PAPER SET - 55
Passage 1
There are a instances of diseases that have laid waste huge tracts of forests
throughout India. Caused mainly by pathogens and pests, these diseases are
deadly and are capable of wiping out entire forests and plantations, causing
immense economic as well as ecological loss.
Meanwhile, forest pathologists and entomologists are grappling with new
maladies that are surfacing almost every year. But with meagre resources and
just a few experts working on the issue, things are heading virtually towards a
cul-de-sac.
Moreover, no assessment has been made so far to quantify the devastation.
While large chunks of forests fall prey to maladies, it is also an opportunity
for some politicians and timber merchants to cash in on it. Research and
documentation on forest disease, particularly on forest pathology, began in
India way back in 1929, by pioneering pathologists KD Bagchi and BK Bagchi.
Although it has been eight decades since then, not much headway has been made in
this direction. The forestry sector today is ailing due to its misplaced
priorities, resource crunch, and mismanagement. “Forest management lacks
scientific approach,’ says Surendra Kumar, director of the Himalayan Forest
Research Institute (HFRI), Shimla.
The scientific community involved with forest diseases is today a dispirited
lot. With only a few stalwarts left in this field, forest disease is a neglected
area of research. Moreover, bureaucracy is increasingly taking over the
scientific institutions and scientists in most of these institutes are a
marginalised group.
To top it all, there are no institutions dedicated to forest diseases.
Although the ministry of environment and forests is the facilitator for such
research, it is not paying enough attention to promote scientific research on
forest diseases. In fact, the government’s lackadaisical approach came to the
fore with the Sal borer epidemic in Madhya Pradesh in 1998. While forest
bureaucracy slept, the beetles merrily continued to wipe out entire tracts of
precious Sal forests. Eventually, with no solution in sight, thousands of
valuable trees were hacked. There were also allegations that the Sal tragedy was
a chance for the timber mafia in the state to cash in on timber through the
legal loophole, with the nexus of politicians.
Today, things haven’t changed one bit. India’sforest department and research
institutes have yet to formulate contingency plans to face any assault of
similar dimensions.
Forest diseases are elusive. Although experts claim that they know quite a
lot about forest diseases, there are still aspects of the maladies that are not
completely understood. Says RS Bhandari, entomologist in the Forest Research
Institute (FRI), Dehradun, “We know about all the important pests and insects,
their life cycles and their development. But there are a few diseases which
remain an enigma.” According to Jamaluddin, head of the pathology department in
the Tropical Forest Research Institute (TERI), Jabalpur, “Due to micro climatic
changes, we are discovering new aspects of the same disease every year. Diseases
have also increased manifold.” Another FRI scientist points out that although
forest diseases
are increasing, there is no study to estimate the economic and ecological damage
caused by these pests and pathogens.
Varying with different geophysical regions and climatic conditions, pathogens
and pests are essentially responsible for the tree maladies and then mortality.
When the pristine, natural and mixed forests existed, forest diseases acted as a
natural control measure to check the proliferation of a particular species that
could threaten the balance of the ecosystem. Perhaps, this is why forest
diseases aled into insignificance in the past. But today, with shrinking forests
and increasing monoculture plantations, any outbreak of disease takes on a
virulent form.
To top this, changed climatic and forest patterns nd environmental pollution
have given rise to newer forms of forest diseases. While trees are forced to
take an additional load of human-induced environmental changes, the
introduction of mono culture has substantially increased the problems. Whatever
little we know about forest diseases today comes primarily through mycology, the
study of forest pathogens. Mycology explains that the prime pathological reasons
for forest disease are fungi, bacteria and viruses. “Among these, fungi playa
major role, while the other two are relatively less significant. There are 150
to 200 major pathological infections in central India. Out of these, only five
per cent are bacterial. The rest are fungal,” says Jamaluddin.
Most of these pathogens stay close to a tree waiting
for a chance to infiltrate. Their entry points are small openings or wounds in
the tree. However, invasion is not always easy. Like human beings, trees also
have antibodies that fight anything alien. In case of invasion from the trunk of
a tree, the sapwood acts as a shield and secretes enzymes to fight pathogens.
But when attacked and conquered, there are tell-tale signs in the form of knotty
growths of fruit bodies that are extensions of the fungi in the tree.
1. Which of the following is the author most likely to agree with?
(a) The ministry responsible should take a more serious view towards research
in forest diseases.
(b) There is a likelihood of another forest disease epidemic, similar to the Sal
Borer epidemic, spreading in the country.
(c) There needs to be a more coordinated effort towards dealing with forest
diseases in India.
(d) All of the above.
2. Which of these incidents discourages the government to formulate any
kind of concrete plans?
(a) India lacks specialists in this area of forestry
(b) The government is not able to work in concomitance with specialists, like
entomologists and pathogenists
(c) The prevalence of malpractices, such as the alleged nexus of politicians
with some of the forest officials
(d) None of the above
3. Which of these statements cannot be inferred from the passage?
(a) With the variation of different climatic conditions, pests responsible
for forest tree degradation, disappear
(b) There are hardly any committed institutions in India, for the promotion of
research in forest diseases in India
(c) It is possible that the timber mafias could spread their network with help
from vested interests in the political and bureaucratic brass
(d) None of the above
4. The discussion on the present condition of forest diseases proves that
(a) There must be a cooperative endeavour by scientists, government officials
and politicians to weed out the possibilities of forest diseases
(b) A lot more needs to be done by the government for sustaining the ecological
balance
(c) Hitherto forestry has been a neglected area of research
(d) None of the above
