🔆Semal trees are being wiped out in Rajasthan due to Udaipur's Holi

✅Holika Dahan in Udaipur: The bonfire traditionally uses a semal tree (silk cotton tree or Bombax ceiba L.) as its central pillar. This tree is significant not only for its use during Holi but also for its ecological and medicinal value.

📍Semel Tree (silk cotton tree or Bombax ceiba L.):

✅Commonly known as Cotton tree, Malabar silk-cotton tree, red silk-cotton, red cotton tree, or ambiguously as silk-cotton or kapok.

✅This Asian tropical tree has a straight tall trunk and its leaves are deciduous in winter. Red flowers with 5 petals appear in the spring before the new foliage.

✅The tree is widely planted in southeastern Asian countries and regions (such as Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, southern China and Taiwan, etc.).

📍Ecological Importance of Semal Tree:

✅The semal tree supports various wildlife species including rock bees, the golden-crowned sparrow, and Hanuman langurs, among others. It is described as a “one-tree wildlife sanctuary”.

✅Various tribal communities value the semal for its resources—food, fodder, and materials for crafting instruments and utensils.

✅Members of tribal communities consume the tree’s reddish root for food during the monsoons.

✅Larvae of the moth Bucculatrix crateracma feed on its leaves.
The golden-crowned sparrow weaves the lining of its nests with white cotton from its seeds.

✅The Dysdercus bugs, the Indian crested porcupine, Hanuman langurs, and some other species feast on the nectar in its flowers.

#gs3
#prelims
#environment

@upsc_4_environment

Environment & Ecology

🔆Semal trees are being wiped out in Rajasthan due to Udaipur's Holi

✅Holika Dahan in Udaipur: The bonfire traditionally uses a semal tree (silk cotton tree or Bombax ceiba L.) as its central pillar. This tree is significant not only for its use during Holi but also for its ecological and medicinal value.

📍Semel Tree (silk cotton tree or Bombax ceiba L.):

✅Commonly known as Cotton tree, Malabar silk-cotton tree, red silk-cotton, red cotton tree, or ambiguously as silk-cotton or kapok.

✅This Asian tropical tree has a straight tall trunk and its leaves are deciduous in winter. Red flowers with 5 petals appear in the spring before the new foliage.

✅The tree is widely planted in southeastern Asian countries and regions (such as Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, southern China and Taiwan, etc.).

📍Ecological Importance of Semal Tree:

✅The semal tree supports various wildlife species including rock bees, the golden-crowned sparrow, and Hanuman langurs, among others. It is described as a “one-tree wildlife sanctuary”.

✅Various tribal communities value the semal for its resources—food, fodder, and materials for crafting instruments and utensils.

✅Members of tribal communities consume the tree’s reddish root for food during the monsoons.

✅Larvae of the moth Bucculatrix crateracma feed on its leaves.
The golden-crowned sparrow weaves the lining of its nests with white cotton from its seeds.

✅The Dysdercus bugs, the Indian crested porcupine, Hanuman langurs, and some other species feast on the nectar in its flowers.

#gs3
#prelims
#environment

@upsc_4_environment

hottg.com/Upsc_4_environment/5292

2.6K viewsMay 15 at 13:59