The majority of Asian countries despite having immense economic potential to become rich are limping with poverty, hunger, unemployment, poor health conditions, bad education facilities and glaring income disparity etc.  Those countries namely Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nepal etc incur huge economic loss due to cyclone, flood, earthquake, forest fire and landslides etc. Much of the wealth gained from the mining, industry and service sector is depleted due to the natural calamities. The natural disasters have eroded  wealth which could have been used for developing basic infrastructures for nation building.  How to protect human lives and properties has become the biggest challenge before the Asian community. 

China’s Ministry of Emergency and Management has reportedly said that the direct economic losses from natural disasters in China reached $34.7 billion in 2025.  A Swiss Re Group report, NatCat 2025, estimates that natural catastrophes cost India over $12 billion in 2025, with floods accounting for more than 63% of those losses. Between 2000 and 2025, India’s cumulative disaster bill has crossed $180 billion. According to the environmental organization, Germanwatch’s Climate Risk Index 2025″ report extreme floods, droughts, storms, and heat waves cause an average annual loss of nearly $3 billion in Bangladesh and the calamities affect 6.3 million people every year.   A 6.0 magnitude earthquake in Afghanistan on August 31 2025 caused an estimated loss of US $183 million in direct physical damages to buildings and infrastructure, as per a World Bank Group report. The earthquake claimed around 2,000 lives and severely affected an estimated 500,000 to 1.3 million people.

Nepal loses $ 218 million per year due to natural disasters like floods, landslides, and earthquakes. The extreme climate events impacted up to $341.97 million in 2024 and 2.08% of its GDP. The September floods in Nepal caused an estimated loss of NPR 46.7 billion due to the damage to the infrastructure, agriculture sector and rural livelihood.  The devastating monsoon flood in Pakistan has made 2.5 million homeless; a total six million people were affected. The economic loss went up to $ 5.2 billion. The natural resources rich Indonesia loses over US$ 16.8 billion annually due to natural calamities. The huge loss to the economy, life and livelihood across the world happens due to the defective economic growth models. The global leaders should take a pause and think about why global trade even after three decades brings recession from time to time. Unless they recognize nature as a protector of human lives, economy and culture, the economic growth will not be sustainable. 

Trees always form a strong defense against floods, cyclones and landslides etc. Trees save lives, provide oxygen, give food and nutrition; they protect agricultural land and tick a wide range of economic activities. Trees provide raw material for making a variety of eco-friendly handicraft products. In ancient India, trees were worshipped and planted in large numbers; the ancient Indian scriptures say the contribution of trees to human beings is more than a mother. Unfortunately trees have been wantonly destroyed in Asian countries and in other parts of the world over the last three decades. 

Between 1990 and 2005, Asia lost approximately 40 million hectares of forest. The forest loss is five times more in the last two decades between 2005 and 2025. South East Asia only has lost 15000 sq kilometers of primary forest between 2001 and 2019. The worst has happened to Indonesia; the depletion of forest there increased by 66% in 2025, with approximately 434,000 hectares disappearing. Between 2001 and 2024, Malaysia lost nearly 9.5 million hectares of tree cover.  Between 2001 and 2023, China lost roughly 12.1 million hectares of tree cover due to aggressive urbanization and plantation of monocultures. The northeastern region of India lost 79 percent of its tree cover in 2020, according to an analysis by Down To Earth.Over 110,000 hectares of tree cover vanished from the region last year, as per the University of Maryland’s forest change data.   India lost close to 143,000 hectares of forest cover in 2020. The small state Odisha in India had lost the largest area of land under trees covering 125,004 hectares between 2001 and 2020 which is 6.5 percent of India’s total forest cover. Kerala comes second in contributing to 4 percent of the forest area lost. Sri Lanka and Nepal have lost 2,91,320 hectares of forest between 2001 and 2024. Pakistan loses 11000 hectares of forest every year. The forest loss in Bangladesh is 260 kilo hectares between 2001 and 2024. More than 70% of forest has disappeared in Afghanistan since the 1950s. Even the USA, Africa, Europe and the Latin American countries lose nearly 12 million hectares of forest every year. 

Loss of tree lair is the main reason for climate change and the natural calamities; the frequency and intensity of natural calamities has increased many folds, enough to destroy the world without nuclear war. The global economic loss due to natural disasters was approximately $260–$270 billion in 2025. 

The question is why the educated and conscious leaders, scientists, intellectuals, religious leaders, environment  experts and the educated youth  have failed to stop this mayhem of trees and pushed the world community into the verge of economic suicide, deaths and diseases. Time now is to recognize trees as the protector of human life, economy, society and culture. Trees are the source of precious minerals in the earth’s crust, they are the source of energy and the controllers of the devastating climate change. 

The artisans and weavers across the world collect the raw materials from trees for making the widest range of eco-friendly utility and decorative items.  Today the planet earth is turning into a fireball due to the loss of trees. It is very essential for the world community to reform their development concept which is not for amassing wealth and power but to protect the trees which give life, energy and happiness to people. This is high time for a global mass movement to protect and preserve the trees across the world.

© Eurasia Review