The secret superhero

Hey little ones!! How have you been? 

I am sure you have been acing the lockdown! Your little creative minds must have come up with a thousand little games and stories by now. Do share with us in the comments section when you can. You can even get in touch with us over facebook.

While playing around, did you have a story, where you were a hero, rescuing people and animals in trouble? Did you have to jump over lava, difficult bridges and swing from imaginary wines? Yes? So you know how fantastic it is, to have a superhero?

Do you know who is the superhero of the planet?

Forest

The forests do so much for us, bet you haven’t noticed!

*picture credit journals, indiatimes

Fruits, chocolates and much more

Almost 50% of fruits we eat come from trees and forests. Almost all the delicious chocolate you eat, comes from the amazon forest. Even many spices that you would see in your kitchen, come from forests and trees. In fact, many of these spices grow in India. Forests of Western Ghat are famous for Cinnamon, pepper and cardamom. 

All the water you need

Have you thought about this – the largest collection of water in the world is in oceans. But can you drink any of it? Have you tasted it? It is all so salty!

So where does our drinking water come from? Do we filter sea water to drink? Noooo…we get drinking water from under the ground and rivers and lakes. So where do lakes and rivers get the water from? 

That’s right – rain and melted snow from mountains! 

More than a third of world’s largest cities like New York and Mumbai get water from lakes and rivers.

When it rains, water falls over the trees, through leaves and grass and into soil in forests. The water gets cleaned and absorbed all through monsoons. The rest of the year, the soil slowly releases this water. That’s how rivers flow, lakes stay filled up. 

Do you see what would happen if there were no forests??

The air you breathe

Have you thought about this – every single breath you take, is because of the trees around you and in forests. Trees are like the lungs in your body. They suck up all the carbon dioxide from the air and use it up in photosynthesis. In return, they give out oxygen that literally keeps you going. 

If all the forests were cut, all this carbon dioxide would be in the air! This would make the air unbreathable and the earth would turn really really warm. Ice mountains would melt and there would be terrible floods all over the earth. More importantly, you would have no oxygen to breath!

Forests soak up about 2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide each year. But when trees are cut down, they release this carbon dioxide back into the air. Making the weather too warm.

Picture this – when you make a closed blanket tent and play, after sometime, you feel warm and the air inside the tent is just not comforting. So you want to get out and take in some fresh cool air.  Well, without trees, the earth would permanently feel like the inside of the closed tent. 

So every once in a while, when you take a breath, thank the forest for the gift of oxygen.

The Earth’s Air conditioner 

If you have ever visited a rocky mountain, you would have noticed how hot rocks get when the sun shines on them directly. On the other hand, if you have visited a forest, you would notice how cool the air is around. 

Given a choice, what would you prefer – hot rocky mountains or cool fresh forest air? 

Not just you, animals love and need the forests too. There are many different kinds of animals living in the forests of the earth. The amazon forest is home to 10 million species of animals, plants and insects. 

So you see, just like you, forests rescue wild animals. Hide them under the trees, bushes, give them water and safe home to live in. Forests keep us humans alive.

Lately, some people have been chopping down forests. Either to build roads, build cities or to take out wood for furniture, paper and what not. These are people like you and me, but they just don’t understand how important forests are for us.

Here’s what you can do – 

1. Read up. Learn about forests and just how important they are for us.
2. You can visit the many forests in India and around the world.
3. As you grow up, see if you can contribute (help) in saving and protecting forests. With some help from us, forests will happily continue to give us clean air, pure water and a beautiful earth to live.

You, my little beforestors can be the planet superheroes