Perhaps the botanists are too week to put their case forward as no interest groups support their voice while environmentalist are supported by different lobbies. The voice of botanists are not heard Petrochemicals have big money and so do the environmentalist. Its common fashion to establish NGO on environmental issue once you retire from plum posts, get lands allotted as you are well connected and your colleagues help you out, ask and get great funds from UN bodies or other International support organisations. Its big buisness.

To protect human life there are laws in every corner of the world. Plant life is cheap. One should undersand if plants are gone entire human population will be gone. When plant life is to be protected the environmental laws are new to the law makers. When goat eats away your crop or a cow eats away or rojdas (Blue bulls) destroy your crop or insects eat away your crop as hoards of them swarm on it in minutes time, which law provides protection. about goats eating away your crop or for that matter holy cow or rojdas or stray sheeps and wild animals. If this could happen in farm raised and protected by individual farmers, what will happen to the forests which are protected by forest guards which are very few in numbers as compared to the area they have to protect.

There are several levels of climate change. The tree standing on the hills near my house has suffered from a disease caused due to pollution. Termites are affecting yield . Grass in my garden has gone dry because there was not enough water in taps. The plants have died and attacked by termites and environment of my house has become warm as compared to the public garden 10km away. Hills have become barren. As they surround my city of Jaipur on all the sides they act like reflectors and heat up in summers to an extent that temperatures rise over 15 degrees. All the rainwater falling during rain just comes to he city of Jaipur and floods its roads and brings the traffic to standstill. Once plants are gone on the farm the soils have less and less humus

Earth is a finite structure. Human beings are part of flora and fauna on this earth. Earth was not created for one species only . It was not human species. Millions of plants, animals, insects, birds and billions of microbes make climate and microclimate. Man and life is facilitated on the earth by PLANTS as they takeup the carbondioxide and release oxygen. Earth is a living system in a sense that it has power to absorb and recycle carbon, nitrogen, and other mineral elements etc. Organic matter must be decomposed by microbes and and elements thus released must be refixed by plants to support life again. This helps in achieving sustainable life on the planet.

The basic difference which I have seen in rich nations and poor nations ( its obvious world wide) is the vegetation, health food habits and attitude. Health and wealth both are there . Its the rich vegetation which supports both. India was a rich country in vedic times. People were dependent on vegetables. Its happening in rich nations even today People are dependent on vegetables. Forests cover are thick and major. Forests are maintained and not destroyed . A rich body can harbour a rich mind and produce a disease free children. Most of the rich nations dont eat fried food like samosa and kachori, namkeen. In India richness is expressed in terms of amount of Ghee ( Butter cream) is used in the roti of the guest. If you dip the roti or bread in huge amouunt of ghee its sign of richness.

Sitting in a balcony facing a forest in the apartment of our daughter I wonder where the botanists have gone. In our times it was common site to see lots of botanists tracking the woods and documentating the plants. Our teachers like Professor P D Sharma Professor K K Sharma Professor Shiv Sharma and Professor Uma Kant had great fascination of taking students to forests for collection  They themselves have  studied botany with Professor Kashyap , Professor Mehra, Professor Maheshwari and Professor Johari. Royal Botanical Garden Kew England  had a list of distinguished botanists and as Bristish empire spread around the globe Britishers collected and deposited plants in Kew Herbarium.