{"id":23370,"date":"2024-05-14T04:14:37","date_gmt":"2024-05-13T22:44:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=23370"},"modified":"2025-04-07T02:05:03","modified_gmt":"2025-04-06T20:35:03","slug":"silk-cotton-tree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/silk-cotton-tree\/","title":{"rendered":"Silk cotton tree"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>About Silk cotton tree:<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The silk cotton tree (Bombax ceiba L.) is locally known as <strong>semal tree.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>It is a <strong>lofty deciduous tree<\/strong> with buttressed base when old and the whole trunk is covered with large conical prickles.<\/li>\n<li>It is mainly found in <strong>moist deciduous and semi-evergreen forests<\/strong>, also in the plains<\/li>\n<li>Occasionally found in plains from the coast, on the deciduous belt of the hills to 1400 m.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Members of the <strong>Garasia tribe<\/strong> in Rajasthan believe they are descended from semal trees.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Distribution:<\/strong> In India it is seen in Andaman &amp; Nicobar Island, Assam, Bihar, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharastra, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Significance of the tree<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>It has multiple purposes and is useful to wild animals, insects, and even to tribal communities.<\/li>\n<li>It is a fire-resistant tree. It is also known for its <strong>cooling properties.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>It is <strong>considered a pioneer tree<\/strong> that generates a rich biomass every season, and has been used to reclaim wastelands.<\/li>\n<li>This tree fixes carbon and helps carbon sequestration by shedding all leaves before flowering.<\/li>\n<li>Many researchers believe the <strong>semal to be a bio indicator<\/strong>\u2014a late flowering could mean a hot summer or a delayed monsoon.<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>rock bees nestle<\/strong> on its branches because the tree\u2019s spikes keep its predator, the sloth bears, away.<\/li>\n<li>Members of tribal communities consume the <strong>tree\u2019s reddish root<\/strong> for food during the monsoons.<\/li>\n<li>It provides opportunities for agroforestry and resources like food, fodder, and fuel wood.<\/li>\n<li>Members of the <strong>Kathodi tribe<\/strong> use its wood to craft musical instruments while those of the <strong>Bhil <\/strong>use it to make utensils.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q1: What is a Bioindicator?<\/h3>\n<p>These are living organisms such as plants, planktons, animals, and microbes, which are utilized to screen the health of the natural ecosystem in the environment.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/sci-tech\/energy-and-environment\/udaipur-holika-dahan-semal-trees-rajasthan-disappearing\/article68170694.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">For Udaipur\u2019s Holi, Rajasthan\u2019s semal trees are going up in flames<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Silk cotton tree  is a lofty deciduous tree with buttressed base when old and the whole trunk is covered with large conical prickles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":23371,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-23370","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23370\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}