Chapter 3: Walking Through The Forest
"Zia Ma'am, I am a member of the Managing Committee of the High School of City B. I was nominated to be a representative at your school by the professors of my college." He started answering.
"Many students from your school seek admission for higher learning at City B College after qualifying the entrance test." He added.
"I know that you joined the school about 2 months ago and the Principal joined about 2 years back. I also know that he tried to conduct programs in your school for declamation contests, various functions, and excursion trips."
"The old management board committee was never in favor of such things. In fact, the new committee wanted to follow the same procedure. It was at my insistence that the funds were made available for all the programs including your instant camping trip." He clarified.
"The new committee agreed for this trekking trip on the condition that I accompany you guys to keep an eye on you!" He added.
Zia was not amused. Are we going to embezzle any funds? We did not get any cash for this trip. Does the management want to keep an eye on all of us or only on me? Has he been sent to spy on us?
She wanted to avoid Luke somehow. "We do not have a tent for you."
"Doesn't matter, we two can fit in one tent?" Luke laughed.
What a flirt, he thinks he can say anything. Zia was feeling awfully annoyed with this guy. No one could get under her skin and this guy kept embarrassing her. I should keep to myself otherwise this guy is going to keep saying things to me to agitate me.
"You have high hopes. Basically, there are 6 tents @ two persons per tent so we all are accommodated. I will camp in 1 tent with one of the girls and Sherpa will be accommodated with one of the boys." She replied. "You can camp out in the open," she added with a smirk.
"There is no point in us standing here and talking. I think we need to move. There is a 3 hours climb to the camping site," she said.
"Before we proceed walking everyone please give me your mobile numbers send me SMS on my phone. I know all of you are carrying mobiles and you already have my phone number. Your parents had taken it from me in the last parents-teachers meeting." She informed the students.
Soon her phone number started giving ting sounds of receiving messages. She seemed to have received 12 messages instead of 11.
" I have your mobile number and the last SMS was mine," Luke said.
My God, this guy is too much, Zia thought.
The boys started off, walking on the concrete slabs which were arranged very neatly one after the other sometimes in steps. They were carrying their backpacks as well as some of the stuff that the peon handed them. The girls followed behind with their backpacks and carried some pots and pans. Sherpa followed behind with the rest of the heavy luggage. Behind everyone walked Zia and Luke. It was not by Zia's choice that she was walking with Luke. Zia was carrying her backpack and a few other items. Surprisingly even Luke was carrying a huge backpack.
"You came here on short notice so I can understand you did not get your camping equipment. But you seem to have managed to fill up a huge backpack?" Inquired Zia.
"Zia Zia... Curiosity killed the cat, you know that?" I have lots of magical things in my backpack and I am always prepared for any eventuality." He said.
"Furthermore, there is a Guest House a few meters from the camping site. The person in charge of the Guest House stays at Village C which is about 2 Km below the Guest House. During the tourist season and camping season, he is present at the Guest House but moves to the village after the tourist/camping season is over. The Principal seems to have forgotten to tell you or maybe he did not know. You had no need to bring so much stuff." He stated.
"I do not think the Principal had any knowledge about the Guest House near the camping site otherwise he would not have asked me to collect all this stuff." Zia retorted.
As they were walking, there were the little holding of people on both sides. Besides both the sides of the pathway, there were small water channels that were carrying water downwards from the mountains. This water was also used to irrigate the little holding of the villagers. After about an hour of walking, the forest area started and the pathway changed to a small single file type path which seemed to have been made by the trampled grass by previous trekkers.
The trees were now changing from mixture deciduous forest ( or monsoon forest) to coniferous one. Zea thought it is time to tell the students something. They would need to jot down or record in the notes section of their mobiles, whatever information she was going to give them.
She rang everyone on their mobiles and asked them to gather together for a short rest for 10 minutes. The children got the call and stopped near a fallen tree on the side of the path. Some even sat down on its log.
Upon seeing all the students together, Zia was pleased and smiled.
"Children, I asked you to stop here to get some rest as well as to point out a few things. You all know that you have to submit your essay on what all that transpired on your trekking trip. So please jot down the points so that you can refer to them later when you are writing your essay. Though I am not a Geography teacher I can still impart some information to you. Please get it cross-checked with your Geography teacher so that you have the facts, I may be wrong here and there," she added.
Basically, there are 4 climatic zones.
These are:-
1.Tropical Zone from 0°–23.5°(between the tropics)
This region lies between the equator and the tropics, basically called the equatorial region. The rays of the sun are directly overhead. The region is very warm with a high temperature. Due to the high temperature, the water evaporates and the atmosphere is moist. As a result of the moist atmosphere and the dense cloud cover, there is reduced solar radiation reaching the ground level and its temperature.
2. Subtropical Zone is from 23.5°–40°
This region receives the highest amount of radiation during the summer months as the sun's angle at noon is almost vertical to the Earth. The cloud layer is quite thin. Hence, the region receives less moisture, thus the effect of radiation is increased. Most of the deserts of the world are found in this subtropical zone. When it comes to winter, the radiation gets decreased and the area can get quite cold and moist.
3. Temperate Zone is from 40°–60°
The solar radiation in this region comes at an angle and the average temperature here is much cooler than in the subtropics. The seasons and the length of the day differ significantly. There is a regular distribution of precipitation over the year and there is a longer vegetation period.
4. The Cold Zone is from 60°–90°
The Cold region areas are after 60° latitude and are also called the Polar Regions. The poles receive less solar radiation and heat since the Sun forms a very flat angle toward the ground. Hence the day length varies most in the cold zone. Vegetation is possible during a few months per year only and even then is sparse. The conditions for life in these regions are very harsh.
However, the characteristics of the climate zone change rapidly when there is a sudden change in the altitude of a small area like in a mountain area. This is because the temperatures decrease rapidly as you gain altitude.
We are now in the temperate forest region. So let me tell you about the temperate forest.
A temperate forest falls in the temperate zone. It is further divided into deciduous, coniferous, broadleaf, mixed forest and rain forest.
One type of coniferous forest is the northern boreal forest and is found in 50° to 60°N latitudes. Another type is the temperate coniferous forests, which grows in lower latitudes of North America, Europe, and Asia, at higher altitudes of mountains. Some temperate forests have trees with needles instead of the leaves that we normally see. Trees that have needles and cones, like pine cones, are called conifers. A forest with contains mostly conifers trees is called a coniferous forest. Because the trees stay green all year round, the conifers are also called evergreens. Pines, firs, and spruce trees are conifers—and so are Christmas trees.
A mixed forest is the one that has both deciduous trees and conifers. We are presently in a mixed forest.
The summers in these regions are warm but during autumn it gets cool and in the winter it is quite cold. The temperature varies from say 21 degrees in summer to 10 degrees in winter. Most temperate forests don't get much rainfall but they do get enough to grow into huge trees. Trees are known to have grown to 100 feet.
A part of an island, in Japan, is temperate forest. One can find trees like Oak, Ash, and Conifers growing in the lowlands of the island of Hokkaido. You must have heard of the Sherwood Forest in England, where the legendary Robin Hood used to live. Though it is a tiny forest which is less than one square mile but it is home to over 900 big oak trees.
The animals found here are squirrels, Brown Bears, deer, foxes, and wolves. You will even find migratory birds and butterflies like the monarch butterflies who are there in summer but are not there during winter.
The conifers are evergreen. An evergreen plant is that has leaves throughout the year which remain green always. Evergreens include most species of the conifers like pine, hemlock, blue spruce, and red cedar. Conifers grow their seeds inside cones, and most have needle-shaped leaves. Redwoods are the tallest conifers and the tallest trees on Earth.
Soon we will be moving into the Conifer trees area. These trees survive in cold and harsh climates. Its needle-like leaves are an important adaptation to these trees as they do not accumulate snow.
The pines are basically gymnosperms having cone-bearing seed plants. All conifers are perennial woody plants with secondary growth. The great majority are trees, though you do find them as shrubs too. You have the Cedars, Douglas firs, cypresses, firs, junipers, kauri, larch, pines, hemlock, redwoods, spruces, and yews.
Mankind has had a great impact on the coniferous forests. The cutting down of trees worsen the situation of forest cover, global warming and destroy the habitat of some animals. Trees as you know attract clouds, the slow the speed of the rain water running down the slopes of mountains and stops the top soil from being carried away. These trees have an economic value of providing timber, pulp for paper as well as resin, etc for the chemical industry to make varnish and pharmaceutical products.
You will be able to see the gullies that had formed on the mountains. Reforestation is in progress in the areas above to give soil cover to the mountains.
The coniferous forests through which we will be passing basically consist of the stately Deodar Cedar trees. These trees are found at a height of 2,168 meters above sea level. As mentioned earlier these trees are large evergreen coniferous trees reaching a height of 40–50 m tall, some even reach 60 m. The trunk of the trees can be up to 3 m in diameter. The top of the trees has a conic crown with level branches and drooping branchlets ( like a Christmas tree). The needle-like leaves are mostly 2.5–5 cm long, occasionally up to 7 cm long, slender with 1 mm thickness), borne singly on long shoots in dense clusters of 20–30 on short shoots. Their coloration is from a bright green to blue-green.
"I hope you have noted some or all of what all I said," said Zia.
Let us proceed.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
RenuKakkar
RenuKakkar Zia being a teacher has to give tips to her students for their essay. In addition, she has to get across the fact that human's greed is impacting the environment which will ultimately affect us as we are linked to our environment. Hope the chapter took you all back to school/college days?
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