Introduction: Trees are the most precious gift of Nature and are our best friend because they create a friendly environment on earth for a healthy life. Trees grow in varied geographical areas and climates. Trees grow in the deserts, mountains and plains, and on the banks of water bodies. Likewise, trees grow in areas of hot, cold, and rainy climates. An abundance of many different trees makes up a forest.
A tree keeps the environment and climate of an area balanced and sound. We cannot do even a day without the blessings of trees. So it is our bounden duty to plant more trees and take care of them properly. Tree plantation means planting more and more trees around our houses, highways, rail lines, offices and roads.
Types of Trees: Trees are of many different types. There are flowering ones, that bear flowers in a particular season or through the year. There are non-flowering ones too that do not bloom. Trees may be evergreen ones remaining green through the year, or may be deciduous, and shed their leaves annually, during a particular season. Trees are also classified as medicinal, ornamental or commercially useful ones.
Value/utility: The value of trees in our life is very great. Its importance (value) is stated below:
- A tree is a great source of fruits and vitamins which give us vital force.
- It is the root source of wood which is used for making furniture and houses, shops, ships, and steamers.
- It is also a great source of many valuable medicines which save our life.
- It causes heavy rainfall which makes soil soft and fertile and we get plenty of crops, fruits, and vegetables.
- It produces huge oxygen which is indispensable of life.
- The tree which inhales carbon-di-oxide, a life killing substance.
- It prevents air pollution which endangers our existence.
- It maintains the ecological balance of our environment.
- It prevents soil from erosion and natural disasters.
- It saves houses from floods, cyclones, and storms.
- It gives shade which saves us from the scorching heat of the sun.
- It brings a lot of foreign currency every year.
Trees Provide Food to Man and Animals: Trees may bear beautiful and colourful flowers. Trees may also bear edible fruits. Edible tree parts are consumed by man as food. The edible parts include roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits, and seeds. Fruit trees are often cultivated by farmers.
Animals, birds, reptiles, and insects also depend on trees for shelter and food. Birds mostly build their nests and raise their young ones in trees. When predators chase their prey, the preyed creatures may run up a tree for safety. All herbivorous and omnivorous animals depend on trees for their food too.
Trees and forests maintain the balance in the food chain. Forests are home to a large number of animals. The herbivorous animals like deer, elephants, and rhinoceroses depend on trees and other vegetation for their food. The carnivores like the lion, tiger, and leopard in the forests depend on animals like deer and buffaloes to satisfy their hunger.
Clean Air and Maintains Biodiversity: Trees provide clean air for living beings to respire and produce energy. For a healthy life, free from suffocation and pollution, the importance of tree plantation cannot be underestimated, especially in urban areas.
The importance of tree plantation is tremendous to maintain the biodiversity and balance the ecosystem. Trees provide a natural habitat for a variety of species. Rich biodiversity and a healthy ecosystem revitalize the land and life on planet earth. Trees have an important role to play in maintaining ecological balance and equilibrium. Trees help in holding the soil and binding the top fertile layer of the soil. Trees help in maintaining the hydrological cycle. They, thus, help in maintaining the monsoon cycles and rainfall patterns. Trees also help in keeping the water table level high.
Trees give out oxygen and consume carbon-dioxide during the process of photosynthesis that occurs in them. Thus, they help in providing oxygen which we need to breathe to stay alive. By consuming carbon-dioxide, greenhouse gas, trees help in checking global warming and climate change. Trees are invaluable and, therefore, must always be protected.
Result of destroying trees: Today deforestation is a major and alarming problem. It is a global problem too. Now trees are being cut down and forests are being burnt at random. As a result, we face the following dangerous problems in our day-to-day life.
- Air pollution is increasing day by day.
- Temperature is going up wonderfully day by day.
- There is little rainfall in our country which hampers our crops.
- Floods, Cyclones, Sidrs, tidal bores, and storms visit in our country every year.
- The balance of our six seasons is seriously hampered.
- Every year a bitter cold grips in the northern part of our country.
Tree plantation: It is high time we started a tree plantation program to save our environment as well as our existence on earth. Trees should be planted on the banks of ponds and darns, on both sides of roads, highways, rail lines, embankments, and barrages. Trees should be planted on any fallow land near our houses, schools, and offices. June and July are the proper time for tree plantation. With a view to making the tree plantation program successful. Public awareness must be raised, illiteracy must be wiped out and population explosion must be controlled.
The proper time of tree plantation: In Bangladesh, June to July is the proper time for plantation. The government should launch a more vigorous program for tree plantation to involve each and every Bangladeshi in this campaign. Different social organizations like NGOs and students should take part actively to expedite the afforestation program.
Conclusion: Since human beings have excessively exploited trees in the last two centuries after lifestyle inventions, the importance of tree plantation has become a top priority in the present time. Tree plantation helps to sustain nature and maintain the dignity of human life on earth. We realize that one of the serious issues in the present condition is the devaluation of trees. Henceforth the attention to planting trees must be broadly spread in order to make our world’s condition greener and better. One should start contributing at an individual level. We additionally ought to stop the cutting down of trees and remember that if there will be no tree, there will be no life.
