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FOREST BASED LIFE STYLE
Plant kingdom and its benevolence :
It is estimated that there are about a million species of plants out of which two lakhs have been documented, classified and studied. Myriad of products, edible seeds, beans, leaves, flowers, fruits, tubers, various gums and resins, dyes, fibres, flosses, chemicals and medicines are available from natural plant world. Even as building material wood is best as wooden structures withstand earthquakes better. There are large varieties of products available from natural plant kingdom almost everything that is required for human needs of food, clothing, shelter, medicines and raw material for all sorts of industries. It offers unlimited opportunities for human ingenuity and spirit of invention and discovery for sustained development of present and future generations. Botanists have classified the known plants into orders, families and species according to their characteristics. Though not as systematically as in modern books of flora, there are old earlier texts giving classified description of plants. In the 2000 years old treatise “Tilloypannati" by Yati Vrishabhacharya plants and trees have been classified in 10 broad groups namely (i) the plants yielding edible food products, seeds, fruits etc; (ii) plants producing drinks e.g. coconuts, palms; (iii) plants giving material for building houses etc.; (iv) plants yielding material used as light; (v) plants giving fibres and flosses used for clothing; (vi) plants giving material for making utensils, pots etc; (vii) plants giving material for various chemicals, gums, colours etc. (viii) plants yielding decorative beads, flowers etc; (ix) medicinal plants and (x) plants tall and shady capable of protecting from solar radiation.
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