I VALUATION AND EVALUATION OF TREES-OUTSIDE-FORESTS (TOF) OF INDIASUMMARY Growing trees in home gardens, farmlands, sacred places, along the courses of water bodies and roads is an old age practice in India. Such trees have been important source for timber, fuel wood, fruit, fodder shade and shelter. The emphasis to plant more trees outside forests increased after the launch of social forestry programmes in India in late 1970s. The basic theme of the social forestry project was to plant trees in vacant lands, private as well as public, for meeting the do mestic needs of local pe ople through the involvement of the people. The extent of trees outside forests and theircontribution in meeting the requirement of wood and other forest products has not been studied in depth. Under the aegies of social forestry projects many states undertook wood balance studies to understand the gap between supply and demands of wood. In a few states where trees outside forests provide substantial contribution, some rough estimates were made but acurate assessment was not done as the time available to generate primary data was inadequate and methodology was also not developed. The Forest Survey of India (FSI) charged with the responsibility ofassessment of the forest resource of the country, undertook the field inventory /survey of the trees in non-forest areas during 1992. The inventory has been with a slow pace until 1998-99. The pace of the inventorization has accelerated with the refinement of the methodology in the recent past. The inventory has been confined to rural non-forest areas only. The trees available in the nonforest areas are classified into 8 categories for the purpose of data processing and analysis. These categories are farm forestry, roadside/railside / pond side/ canal plantations, village wood lot, block plantations and others. The s ampling design followed is the stratified random sampling where village is treated as a final sampling unit. All the trees in the randomly selected villages are enumerated and measured. Some of the results of inventories are presented in the following para. In Haryana, 291 villages against a total of about 7000 villages were sampled and inventoried. The total volume of wood estimated in the entire rural area of Haryana was 10.34 million m3 corresponding to 55.14 million
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SUMMARYGrowing trees in home gardens, farmlands, sacred places, along the
courses of water bodies and roads is an old age practice in India. Such trees
have been important source for timber, fuel wood, fruit, fodder shade and
shelter. The emphasis to plant more trees outside forests increased after the
launch of social forestry programmes in India in late 1970s. The basic theme
of the social forestry project was to plant trees in vacant lands, private as well
as public, for meeting the domestic needs of local people through the
involvement of the people. The extent of trees outside forests and their
contribution in meeting the requirement of wood and other forest products has
not been studied in depth.
Under the aegies of social forestry projects many states undertook wood
balance studies to understand the gap between supply and demands of wood. In
a few states where trees outside forests provide substantial contribution, some
rough estimates were made but acurate assessment was not done as the time
available to generate primary data was inadequate and methodology was also
not developed.The Forest Survey of India (FSI) charged with the responsibility of
assessment of the forest resource of the country, undertook the field inventory
/survey of the trees in non-forest areas during 1992. The inventory has been
with a slow pace until 1998-99. The pace of the inventorization has accelerated
with the refinement of the methodology in the recent past. The inventory has
been confined to rural non-forest areas only. The trees available in the nonforest
areas are classified into 8 categories for the purpose of data processing
and analysis. These categories are farm forestry, roadside/railside / pond side/
canal plantations, village wood lot, block plantations and others. The sampling
design followed is the stratified random sampling where village is treated as afinal sampling unit. All the trees in the randomly selected villages are
enumerated and measured. Some of the results of inventories are presented in
the following para.
In Haryana, 291 villages against a total of about 7000 villages were
sampled and inventoried. The total volume of wood estimated in the entire
rural area of Haryana was 10.34 million m3 corresponding to 55.14 million
tree. The estimated number of trees per ha. was about 13. In West Bengal,
only 25 villages were selected. The number of trees based on pilot survey gave
25.4 trees per ha. This number is almost twice the number found in Haryana
State. In Karnataka, only 10 villages were selected representing all agroecological
regions and covering 8512 ha area. The number of trees obtained
per ha was around 16. In the Western UP, 62 villages were selected covering atotal area of 15802 ha. The number of trees obtained per ha was about 19.7.ii
Farm forestry has highest contribution in Haryana, Western UP and Karnataka
States. In West Bengal, maximum contribution comes from other category.
In Kerala, the study was done by KFRI where 30 villages against a
total of 1505 villages were selected . The study has revealed that homesteads
contribute the maximum in production of wood. The total number of trees in
home steads were estimate as 442 million excluding the area of plantations and
palms. It is noted that the distribution and living style in Kerala is different as
compared to other states. A small group of households called ³desom´ has alarge area around for cultivation and growing trees. In Kerala and West Bengal
the trees have been measured upto 5-cm diameter which may be one reason of
more number of trees per unit area. Further, growing of trees in homesteads is
more prevalent in these two states perhaps due to favourable climatic
(moist/humid) conditions as obtained in these states. It has been found that
their exist a positive co-relation between village area and number of trees and
also between population of a village and number of trees.
Since trees outside forest have become a major source of wood, it is
imperative that such resources are accurately assessed on a periodic interval.
With the advancement in the space technology and increasing resolution of
stellites, it is contemplated to apply remote-sensing technology combining
ground inventory to assess the trees growing outside, quickly.iii
CONTENTSPage
1. India¶s Profile1.1 Introduction 1
1.2 Flora and Fauna 21.3 Recorded Forest Areas 3
1.4 Forest Cover Estimates 3
1.5 Trees Outside Forests 51.6 Assessment of Trees Outside Forests 6
2. Design and Methodology of the Field Inventory
in Non Forest Areas (Rural)2.1 Definition 7
2.2 Category of Plantations 72.3 Sampling Design 8
India is the seventh largest country in the world having an area of 328.72 m ha. It
is bounded by the Great Himalayas in the north and crossed over by the Tropic of Cancer in the south and tapers off into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal on the east
and the Arabian Sea on the West. The mainland extends betwe en latitudes 804dand 3706dnorth, longitudes 6807dand 97025deast with land frontier of about 15,200 km. Countries
having borders with India are Afghanistan and Pakistan to north-west, China, Bhutan and Nepal to north, Myanmar and Bangladesh to the east . Neighbouring country Sri Lanka is
separated from India by a narrow channel of sea formed by the Palk Strait and Gulf of Mannar.The mainland comprises four regions, namely, the great mountain zone, plains of
the Ganga and the Indus, the desert region and the southern Peninsula. The plains of theGanga and the Indus are one of the world¶s greatest stretches of flat alluvium and densely
populated areas.
The Minstry of Agriculture, Government of India is responsible for the maitenaceof land use statistics o f the country. The land use pattern in 1992-93 was as per Table 1.1
Table 1.1: Land use in India as on 1992-93 (in million ha)
Forests 67.0Area under non-agricultural uses 21.8
Permanent pastures & other grazing lands 12.0Land under Misc. tree crops & groves 3.0
Culturable waste land 16.0Fallow lands 24.0
Barren and unculturable land 19.4Cropped area 142.5
Use not reported 23.0Total land area 328.7
India is one of the most densely populated country having 267 persons per sq.km.The population as per 1991 census stood at 846.30 million out of which 628.69 million
people reside in rural India. The estimated population on 1 April 1998 was 955 million.The cattle population in the country in 1992 was 445 million.
The climate of India is broadly described as tropical monsoon type. There arefour seasons: winter (January-February), (ii) hot weather summer (March-May); (iii)
rainy south-western monsoon (June -September) and (iv) post-monsoon, also known asnorth-east monsoon in the southern peninsula (October -December). India¶s climate is
affected by two seasonal winds ± the northeast monsoon and the southwest monsoon. The
north-east monsoon commonly known as winter monsoon blows from land to sea2
whereas south-west monsoon known as summer monsoon, blows from sea to land after crossing the Indian Ocean, the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal. The southwest
monsoon brings most of the rainfall during the year in the country. It is now possible tomake forecast about the monsoon rains successfully with developed models and trainedmanpower.
With a wide range of climatic conditions India has rich and varied vegetation.India can be divided into eight distinct floristic regions, namely, the western Himalayas,
the e astern Himalayas, Assam, the Indus Plain, the Ganga plain, the Deacon, Malabar andthe Andamans.
The Western Himalayan region extends from Kashmir to Kumaon is temperate
zone and rich in forests of chir, pine, other conifers and broad-leaved temperate trees.Higher up, forests of deodar, blue pine, spruce and silver fir occur. The alpine zoneextends from the upper limit of the temperate zone of about 4,750 metres to higher. The
Characteristic trees of this zone are high-level silver fir, silver birch and junipers. Theeastern Himalayan region extends from Sikkim eastwards and embraces Darjiling,
Kurseong and the adjacent tract. The temperate zone has forests of oaks, laurels, maples,rhododendrons, alder and birch. Many conifers, junipers and dwarf willows also occur
here.The Assam region comprises of evergreen forests, occasional thick clumps of
bamboo¶s and tall grasses. The Indus plain region is dry and hot and supports tropicaldry vegetation. The Ganga plain region covers the area, which is alluvial plain and is
under cultivation for wheat, sugarcane and rice and only small areas support forest. Thedecan region comprises the tableland and supports tropical vegetation from scrub jungles
to mixed deciduous forests. The Malabar region covers the excessively humid belt of mountain country parallel to the West Coast and support rich forest vegetation. This
region produces important commercial crops, such as coconut, betelnut, pepper andcoffee. The Andaman region abounds in tropical evergreen and mangrove forests. About
49,000 species of plants have been described by the Botanical Survey of India.India has a great variety of fauna numbering more than 81,000. Of these, insects
constitute about 60,000, molluscs a little over 5,000, mammals 372, birds 1,228, reptiles446, amphibians 204, and fishes 2,546.
Main mammals include the majestic elephant, gaur, Indian bison, the great Indianrhinoceros, the gigantic wild sheep of the Himalayas, swamp deer, spotted deer, nilgai,
the four-horned antelope, the Indian antelope or black-buck, tiger, lion and cloudedleopard. Rivers and lakes harbour crocodiles and gharials. The salt water crocodile is
found along the eastern coast and in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.3
1.3 RECORDED FOREST AREAS
At the time of independence, the recorded forest area of the country was 39.94million ha. The government owned forest was 26.16 million ha and community
(ownership resting with clans, councils) and privately owned forest was 13.78 million ha.The area increased to 68.02 million ha in 1950-51 with the addition of ex-princely and
ex-proprietary forests. Out of this 53.82 million ha was government forest and 14.20million ha community and private forests. The area further increased to 75.18 million ha
due to consolidation by the early eighties. Of this government and community ownedforests were 66.65 and 8.53 million ha, respectively. Per capita forest is 0.08 ha (as per
1991 Census) against the world average per capita forest 0.64 ha (MoEF 1997).Presently, the recorded forest area is 76.52 million ha. In terms of legal status the
forest area has been classified into Reserve, Protected and unclassed forests whichconstitute 54.4%, 29.2% and 16.4% respectively. It is to be noted here that the recorded
forest area has been rising inspite of the fact that large forest areas were diverted for various development purposes. The total forest area diverted for non-forestry purposes
between 1950 and 1980 was 4.5 million ha i.e. at an annual rate of 150,000 ha. Toregulate unabated diversion of forest land for non forestry purposes, Forest Conservation
Act was enacted in 1980 which has resulted in the reduction of diversion of forest landto about 16,000 ha annually at present. Due to compensatory afforestation against the
diversion, the forest area has establised. A large forest area in the country has been
brought Protected Area (PA) network by declaring them as national parks, sanctuariesand other µreserves¶. At present Pas in India cover about 14.8 million ha representingabout 4.5% of geographical area of the country and consists of 84 national parks, 447
wildlife sanctuaries and 8 Biosphere reserves.
1.4 FOREST COVER ESTIMATES
The first assessment of the forest cover of the country was done in 1987 by theForest Survey of India using Landsat-MSS satellite data on 1:1 million scale. Since then
assessments are done on a two year cycle. The three assessments, done in 1989, 1991and 1993 used Landsat-TM satellite data having better resolution and on 1:250,000 scale.
Thereafter, with the availability of data from Indian Remote Sensing Satellite (IRS-1B)the fifth and sixth assessments were done in 1995 and 1997. The seventh assessment is
using IRS-1C/1D data.As per the last assessment, the total forest cover of the country is estimated as
633,397 sq.km. constituting 19.27% of country¶s geographic area. The status of actualforest cover in terms of dense, open and mangrove forests of all the 25 states and 7 union
territories is presented in following table no. 1.2.4
Table 1.2: Extent of Dense Forest, Open Forest and Mangrove in 1997 Assessment
Total 367,260 261,310 4,827 633,397 0.07* No discernible forest cover.5
1.5 TREES OUTSIDE FORESTSTrees outside forests have been providing timber, fuel wood, fruite, fodder and
other useful products to the rural population in India particularly in States and localities,which have been deficient in natural forest resources. Though most of the States in India
have some pockets deficient in forest resource, there are more than 60% States in Indiawhere tree outside forests have been contributing in a big way in meeting the domestic
timber and fuel wood needs of the people. Some of the states to be mentioned here areAndhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu,
Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.Growing trees and bamboos have been a common practice of the rural people
since time immemorial. They have been grown in home gardens, farm boundaries, roadand canal side in the country for providing fruits, shade for keeping the cattle, as a source
of fuel wood, timber and income during scarcity. People also planted trees to developsacred groves around the places of worship. There are several tree species identified
whose leaves and fruits are utilized for worshipping God and Goddesses. Trees also provide protection to bunds of the sacred ponds.
The pace of tree planting outside forest area gained momentum after launching of tree planting programmes specially under externally aided social forestry project in late
1970s. The basic theme of most of these projects was to plant trees in vacant lands, private as well as public for meeting the domestic needs of the local people. Almost all
states in India except a few which have extensive forest resource implemented the socialforestry programmes through the involvement of the people. Plant a tree for every child
every year became a popular slogan in the country.A lot of trees have been planted in India outside forests particularly after the
implementation of the social forestry projects. About 35% to 40% of the total plantationtargets have been achieved by distribution of seedlings after 1985. Such distributed
seedlings are converted into notional area by a standard number 2000 seedlings = 1 ha. toThe distributed seedlings are meant exclusively for planting outside forests by private and
other agencies. In addition, a lot of trees have been planted in the common lands; landavailable along the road side, rail side, canal side, ponds and village Panchayat lands by
the Government and other agencies. The percentage of total tree plantations outside
forests is expected to be quite high (say 60% to 70%).It is possible that all such plantations might not have survived and many of themmust have been harvested after attaining maturity, specially the species of short rotation
(8 to 10 years). The uncertainty, therefore, prevails about the extent of trees growingoutside forests at the state as well as national level as there has been no mehanism of
monitoring these plantations on regular basis.6
1.6 ASSESSMET OF TREES OUTSIDE FORESTS
No seriuos effort has been made at the national level to conduct and assess theextent of tree outside forests resource and their actual contribution in meeting the timber,
fuel wood and other needs of the rural population in the country. In some states wood
balance studies were undertaken as an important component of the externally aided
social forestry projects in 1980s. The State Governments like Himachal Pr adesh,Haryana, Gujarat, West Bengal, Orissa etc. made wood balance studies to estimate the
total consumption and production of wood. Since the data on trees growing outsideforests were not available the production of wood from such source was either
guesstimated or ignored if their contribution was not considered so significant. The timeavailable to generate primary data on trees outside forests was inadequate and the
methodology was also not clear. Kerala Forest Research Institute (KFRI) estimated thetree outside forest resource in Kerala State during 1987-88 on sound statistcal basis.
The Forest Survey of India (FSI) in its biennial assessment of forest cover throughremote sensing satellite data misses most of the trees planted outside because of their
scattered nature and small patchiness. The resolution of satellite censors has not beenadequate to receive the signatures of such trees growing in isolation.
The forest cover of the country has reached to a critical mass and a sizeable areaof the forest has been brought under protected area net work. The emphasis on the
conservation of forest for ecological restoration has also increased after the promulgationof National Forest Policy 1988. This has resulted in the decline of the total wood
production from the natural forests. The requirement of wood is being met mainlyfrom the trees growing out side forests and partly by importing it.
Considering the increasing role of trees growing outside forests in meeting thetimber and fuel wood needs o f the country, the FSI charged with the responsibility of the
assessment of forest resources of the country, decided to undertake field inventory/surveyof trees in non-forest area during 1991. Initially pilot surveys were conducted in five
states to asess the size of he sample. The detailed inventory started subsequently. Thefield inventory went with a slow pace and it took about 5 years to complete inventory of
only one state i.e. Haryana in 1997. Now the pace of the inventorization has beenaccelarated and the design / methodology of the inventory has been modified to cover the
entire country in a shorter period. It is expected that with further refinement in themethodolgy the resources would be assesed in the next 4-5 years. The field works of four
states (West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, West U.P. and Gujarat) are nearing completion.7
FIELD INVENTORY IN NON-FOREST AREAS (RURAL)Forest Survey of India started inventory of trees, growing outside theconventional forest areas in the country, in 1992. Since these trees have been
providing great support to rural economy, inventory has been confined to rural nonforest
areas only. Estimates of number of trees and their growing stock by species,available in the non-forest area are generated. Pilot surveys are carried out before thecommencement of the main surveys.
2.1 DefinitionNon-Forest Area (rural): The Non forest area includes all areas outside the
traditional /notified Reserved and Protected Forests but excludes areas of Municipality, Corporation, Cantonment Board or a notified area Committee etc. which
has population more than 5000 and more than 75% male working population areengaged in non-agricultural persuit.
2.2 Category of PlantationsTrees available in the non-forest area were classified into 8 categories for the
purpose of data processing and analysis. These categories are:(i) Farm forestry: Trees along the farm bunds and in small patches up to 0.1 ha. in
area(ii) Roadside plantation: Trees planted along the road side
(iii) Village woodlot: Naturally growing or planted trees on community /privateland
(iv) Block plantation: Compact plantations covering an area of more than 0.1 ha.and not falling in any of the above
(v) Pond side plantation: Trees planted in and around water po nds(vi) Railway side plantation: Trees planted along the railway lines
(vii) Canal side plantation: Trees planted along the canals
(viii) Others: Trees not falling in any of the above categories.8
2.3 Sampling DesignThe sampling technique followed in the field inventory is stratified random
sampling. District or group of districts in a state are treated as strata and villages assampling units. List of villages in each district were available from the latest District
Census Book (1991). The number of sample vi llages to be surveyed in the States wasdecided by undertaking a pilot study. The precision level fixed is usually 10% at 95% probability level.
2.4 Method of Selection of Sample VillagesFirstely pilot study is undertaken in randomly 20-25 villages. Each of these
selected villages, with its area and boundaries as per the revenue records, was treatedas a sampling unit. Each village randomly selected. All the trees of diameter 10 cms.
And above at breast height over bark (DBOH) are enumerated.On the basis of pilot survey variability of the growing stock /no. of trees are
calculated and the number of sample villages required for the detailed field inventory by using the following formula are estimated.
And N = total no. of villages in the State/group of districts.For large N, it will be equal to
After getting the number of sample villages by using the above formula, theyare distributed among different districts proportionate to the rural geographical area of
the districts. In case the fraction comes to 0.5, it should be rounded off to the nearestinteger.
The sample villages in each district are selected by using random number table.Complete enumeration of all the trees of 10 cm and above diameter in the randomly
selected villages in each district in carried out.
2.5 Estimation Procedure
To estimate the total number of trees and their growing stock, the followingratio estimate procedure is applied.
Let n = number of sample villages in the district/state N = total number of villages in the district/state
The crew leader is provided with the list of sample villages to be inventoriedalong with map of 1:50,000 scale with the location of villages duly marked on the
maps. The crew leader finds the convenient route to make the field party reach thevillage with minimum traverse by jeep or on foot. The boundary of the village is
obtained from the maps of revenue department in support of village level authorities.
For data collection, the centre of the village is selected as a starting/reference point which may not necessarily be the actual centre of the village but a prominent permanent feature. The details of location of reference point are recorded in the
³Village Description Form´.Once the fixing of the reference point is over, the entire village is divided into
suitable angular quadrants with the help of compass in such a way that enumerationwithin each angular quadrant could be completed in one working day. The
enumeration of trees commence from the line making due north from the reference
point and proceed in clockwise direction (i.e. north to east). The enumerated trees aresuitably marked with chalk along the boundary of the quadrants completed to avoid
double counting/omission of tree. All living trees of diameter 10 cm and above areenumerated and dead trees.
Borderline trees of NW and SW boundary of the village are enumerated, and
of NE and SE boundary are treated as µout trees¶.2.7 Data collection formsVillage Description Form (VDF)
It provides information of the reference point of the village, number of angular quadrants, size of each angular quadrant and number of trees enumerated in each
quadrant.Village Tree Enumeration Form (VTEF)
It provides information of all trees enumerated, their diameter and species.District Tree Form (DTF)
It provides detailed information of the sampled villages selected in the districtmentioning the geographical area and number of trees falling in different category of
plantations.12
2.8 New Methodology/Design
To hasten the process of field inventory of the non forest area the design has benn modified since mid 1999. The new design improves the efficiency of estimate
with the help of previous study and reduce the work load, so as to complete the task ina reduced time frame. The following three modifications have been implemented.
(a) It was found from the inventory of non-forest area of Haryana, West U.P. andWest Bengal that there exist positive correlation (0.6-0.8) between village area
and number of trees and also between population of a village and number of trees. This relationship has been utilised to fix the sample size of other states
and dispense with the additional job of pilot study. The time spent in pilotsurvey of each state is being saved.
(b) The state is divided into Ag ro- Climatic Zones and each zone treated as astrata. The allocation of sample villages in a zone is done proportionate to the
geographical area of the stratum. A permissible error of 15% at 95%confidence level has been given instead of 10% error for deciding the sample
size.(c) Reduction in the number of trees enumerated
Previously, all the trees in the selected village were enumerated whichconsumed a lot of time. The new scheme is based on the presumption that the
diameter distribution can be prepared with the help of only 2000 trees. If the number of trees in a village is more than 2000, a sampling technique should be applied to
reduce the number. A tree diameter class distribution in a village can be built up withthe ratio estimate technique, when the total population of trees is known.
Preliminary estimate about number of trees in a village are made with the helpof Land record/ village officials/ knowledgeable persons of the village and
(a) if the total number of trees is below 2000, all tree are measured and recorded(b) if the total number of trees is in the range of 2000 to 5000, only alternate tree
i.e. 1,3,5,«« is measured and recorded,(c) if the total number of trees is more than 5000 but less than 10,000 every fourth
tree i.e. 1,5,9,13,«« is measured and recorded and(d) if the total number of trees is more than 10,000 every tenth tree i.e.
10,20,30,40««««is measured and recorded.13
3. INVENTORY REPORTS I n following pages reports of the systematic inventory conducted by FS
I and
KFR I of a few states have been presented. The report of Haryana is basd on detailed inventory where about 3.6% villages distributed over the state were completely
enumerated. Reports of West Bengal, Karnataka and West UP are based on pilot study of FS I conducted during 1993-94. The number of villages selected were only a
few. I n case of West Bengal and Karnataka only total number of trees were estimated alongwith species and not their volumes. The study of Kerala state was undertaken by
KFR I during 1988-89.
3.0 HARYANA
3. 01 Brief background of the stateHaryan is comparatively a small state of Indian Union having a total
geographic area of 4.42 million ha. The state is situated in the Indo-Gangetic plainsand bound by Uttar Pradesh in the east, Punjab in the west, Himachal Pradesh in the
north and Rajasthan in the south. It is located between North latitudes 27 0 39dand 300
55d5tand 740 27d8tand 770 36d5tEast longitudes andExcept for some hills of the Shiwalik system in the north and of Aravalli in the
south, it has mostly plain area. The four distinct zones are recognised in the state are:(a) Shiwalik hill and foot hills
(b) The Plains(c) Aravalli hills
(d) Semi arid Sandy Plains of South and South West Haryana.The climate of Haryana is a semi-arid in the south-west and of the Gangetic
type in the rest of the state due to its continental location on the outer margins of theMonsoon region between the Thar Desert and the Himalayas in the north-west of the
Indian sub-continent. There are wide variations in day-night temperature especially inthe western part of Haryana. Summer temperature goes upto 480 C and winter
temperature falls below 50 C in the western paerts of the Haryana. Monsoon bringsrains from July to September. From October to June the weather remains generally
dry. The annual rainfall varies from 1400 mm (Ambala) to 213 mm (Sirsa).The population of the state as per 1991 census was 16.47 millions. 75.4% of
the population was rural and rest urban. Average density of the population was 372with literacy rate 55.9%. The economy of the state is predominantly agricultural.
The livestock population of the state has risen to alarming proportion from
79184 to 99469 in 1992 as per Live stock Census 1992. Since all cattle owners do nothave sufficient land for growing fodder or for grazing, the cattle population has putunbearable pressure on the forests and the plantations all over the state.14
Sources of energy in the state are fuelwood, Dung cakes, Crop residues,Kerosene, L.P.G. and others (wood, charcoal, electricity, coal etc.). 35.8% of the
energy requirement of the rural population comes from dung cakes and 30% from fuelwood for cooking. Crop residue includes cotton sticks and Sesbania grandiflora. Rest
Chart 1The distribution of the total number of trees, specieswise and dia-classwise (allcategories combined), is shown in Table 3.11 and Chart 1.The maximum number of
trees occur in 10-20 cm diameter class i.e. 34.6 million trees (62.7%) followed by 13.6million trees (24.7%) in 20-30 cm diameter class, 4.87 million trees ( 8.8%) in 30-40
cm diameter class and 2.07 million trees (3.8%) in 40 cm and above diameter class.Distribution of stems(ooo) in Haryana NFA by Dia.Classes62%25%
9%4%
10-20 cm20-30 cm30-40 cm40+ cm
17
Table No. 3.12
DISTRIBUTION OF TOTAL NUMBER OF TREES CATEGORY-WISE AND
The Table 3.12 shows that when all species and all diameter classes arecombined, the representation of trees in category I ±Farm Forestry is the highest i.e.
23.64 million trees (42.9%) followed by category III- village wood lot having 10.75million trees (19.5%) and category IV ± Block Plantation 10.20 million trees (18.5%).
Table 3.13 shows that Acacia nilotica has the largest representation i.e. 13.85million trees (25.12%), followed by Eucalyptus spp. 10.72 million trees (19.44%)
Prosopis cineraria 6.91 million trees (12.5%), Dalbergia sissoo 5.51 million trees(10.0%).18
Table No. 3.13
DISTRIBUTION OF TOTAL TREES BY SPECIES AND BY CATEGORY(000 no.)
SL. NAME OF Category TOTAL % age
NO. SPECIES I II III IV V VI VII VIII1 Acacia catechu 10 0 0 556 0 0 1 0 567 1.032 Acacia nilotica 5613 2459 283 2994 118 233 2139 12 13851 25.12
It may be seen from the above table 3.14 that the bulk of the volmue contributed
by Eucalyptus spp. An assessment of dia-classwise and specieswise distribution of volume (all categories combined) has been presented in Table 3.14 and Chart 2. It
also reveals that the total volume per hectare contributed by trees of all species of alldia-classes combined is 2.43 cu.m.
The distribution of total volume, category wise and dia-classwise is given inTable no.3.15.Table no.3.16 indicates that maximum volume is contributed by
Eucalyptus spp. 21.6% followed by Acacia nilotica 21.2% & Prospis cineraria 15.9%.Maximum volume is under Farm forestry 41.2% followed by Village woodlot,
23.85%, roadside plantation 12.9% and block plantation 10.6%.19
Table No. 3.14
DISTRIBUTION OF TOTAL VOLUME (cu.m.) SPECIESWISE AND DIA
The geographical area of the State is 8.87 million ha and is bounded on theEast by Bangladesh and Assam, on the West by Bihar and Orissa, on the North by
Nepal and Bhutan and on the South by the Bay of Bengal. It is located between 210
30d N and 27 012d N latitudes at the head of the Bay of Bengal and between 850 50dEand 890 52dE longitudes.West Bengal¶s physiography has two natural divisions: the Himalayan Northand the fertile alluvial Gangetic plain. The topography of the northern territory varies
from a maximum elevation of 3600 metres in Darjeeling district to an elevation of 89metres in the low-lying areas in Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar districts, watered by the
swift-flowing rivers like Teesta, Torsa and Jaldhaka.Moist wind from the Bay of Bengal makes the climate of the State highly
humid, specially in the rainy season; but in cold weather, from September to February,the climate over the entire State is exceedingly pleasant. Annual rainfall varies from
1019 mm (Gangetic W.B.) to 3903 mm (Sub-Himalayan W.B.).West Bengal has five agro-ecological regions. These agro-ecological regions
are; (a) Sub-humid ecosystem with red and lateritic soils and growth period of 150-180 days (b) Sub-humid ecosystem with alluvium derived soils and growth period
between 180 and 210 days (c) Humid perhumid eco System with alluvium derivedsoils and growth period more than 210 days (d) Humid perhumid ecosystem with
brown and red hill soils and growth period more than 210 days and (e) Coastal ecosystemwith coastal alluvium derived soils.
Agriculture plays a pivotal role in the state¶s economy and nearly three out of four persons in the State are directly or indirectly involved in agriculture. About 45 per
cent of the gross cropped area of the state has been brought under irrigation. The Stateoccupies a leading position among the principal rice growing states of India by
contributing 16.2 per cent of the total production of rice. The total foodgrain production has attained an all time record production of 12.8 million tonnes in 1991-
92. The State accounted for 63.4% of the country¶s jute, including mesta, in 1991-92
and 21.8% of tea production in 1991 (calendar year). Other important crops, include potatoes, oilseeds, betel -vine, tobacco, wheat, barley and maiza.22
3.12 Forest Resources
The forests cover about 13.4% of the total geographic area and lie chiefly inthe districts of Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, 24 Parganas (South), Midnapore, Bankura,
Purulia district and in some parts of Burdwan and Birbhum districts against 18 totaldistricts of the state. Stray and scattered forests are present in Murshidabad, Nadia,
Malda and West Dinajpur districts. The principal tree species are Shora robusta, Anogeissus spp., Terminalia spp. Lagerstroemia spp. and mangroves. Jaldapara
Sanctuary in the State is famous for the one horned Rhinoceros inhabitating the area,while SundarbansTiger Reserve and National Park with mangroves as a principal spp
is famous for the Royal Bengal Tiger.
3.13 Selection of Sample Villages for field inventory
In West Bengal, 25 villages were randomly selected for the pilot survey. Allthe trees of 10 cm. And above diameter at DBH (OB) were enumerated in the selected
villages. However, in South Bengal, trees down to 5 cm dia were recorded. Each of these selected villages with its area and boundaries as per the revenue records was
treated as a sampling unit.
3.14 Estimates of the Study
In the pilot survey only total number of trees were estimated and not their volume. Thetotal number of trees in the State of West Bengal comes to approximately 196 million
or 25.4 trees/ha. The distribution of trees are shown in table no. 3.21 to 3.25.It is noticed that the main species were Az adirachta indica, Acacia arabica,
Chart 4Percetage distribution of Stems in West Bengal NFA by Dia class es9% 6%21%44%20%05-10 cm 10-20 cm 20-30 cm 30-40 cm 40+ cm
Percetage Distribution of Stems in NFA of West Bengal by Category wise16%17%13%8%4%0%6%36%Farm ForestryRoad sideVillage WoodlotBlock PlantationPondsRailway LineCanalsideOthers
It can be seen from Table 3.21 and chart 4 that the maximum number i.e. about43% of trees occur in 10-20 cm diameter class followed by about 21% trees in 05-10
cm diameter class, then 20% in 20-30 cm. Diameter class. It may also be seen thatonly 6% of trees occurred in 40 cm. And above diameter class.
It also reveals that in West Bengal, Miscellaneous species has the largest
representat ion i.e. 27% followed by Mangifera indica 12%, Eucalyptus species 10%,Acacia auriculiformis 10%, Acacia arabica 7% etc.Table 3.22 and chart 5 shows total number of trees specieswise and
categorywise. The representation of trees in the category ³Other´ is the highest i.e.36% followed by the category ³Block Plantation´ (17%), ³Ponds´ (16%), ³Village
woodlot´ (13%) etc. Farm forestry has only 4% contribution.26
Table No. 3. 22
Distribution of tree specis by category of plantationsSl. Category of trees Total %
No
Name of Species
I II III IV V VI VII VIII1 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 121 Acacia arabica 596 698 546 197 146B 0 2639 2039 8433 6.71
Total no. of enumerated 923.22 2877.62 805.35 333.02 HAPB- Humid Alluvial Plain Bengaltrees in the respective HEH- Humid Eastern Himalaya
zonel Total area of the ECP - Eastern Coastal Plain
same zone.
28
The number of stems per hectare varies considerably from one agro-ecological
region to another. In the Bengal Assam Alluvial humid perhumid ecoregion it isabout 26 trees/ ha, in the Western lateritic sub-humid eco-region 20 to 21 trees/ha and
in the Eastern Himalayan humid perhumid ecoregion in the region it is about 8trees/ha.
It may be indicated in this connection that in the hills, most of the samples of villages fell in µforest¶ or µkhasmahal¶ villages. Such village s have very few trees in
the habitable portion while the surrounding portion have dense forests within therecorded village area. As it was impossible to enumerate all tree in the surrounding
areas, only the inhabited portions of such villages were taken up for enumeration.In the Bengal Assam Alluvial region, a large number of spp. (at least 33) have
been found. The predominant ones being Barassus flabellifer , Acacia arabica, Mangifera indica, Phoenix sylveetrie, Acacia auriculiformis, Coconut, Siris, Sissoo,
Jeol and Eucalyptus in order of occurrence. The principal species in the lateritic SouthWestern districts, in order of occurrence are Butea monosperma followed by Acacia
arabica, Dalbergia sissoo, Az artichtata indica, Terminalia arjuna, Eucalyptus hybrid, Borassus flabellifer and Zi z yphus mauritania.
In Eastern Himalayas warm per humid eco-region, Cryptomeria japonica, theexotic that has almost naturalised (although without natural regeneration) in the forests
of higher elevations in Darjeeling district, appears to be equally popular in the villageareas. The other prevalent species are Albizzia spp., Cassia siamea, Gmelina arborea,
Ailanthus spp., Schima wallichii, Alnus nepalensis, Michelia champaca and Betulaainoides.
The predominant species of the various agro-ecological regions can thus beidentified with a fair amount of accuracy from the tabulated data. The conclusions
sought to be drawn may be taken as more indicative than conclusive in nature,considering the limited sample size in each agro-ecological region.29
3.2 KARNATAKA
3.21 Brief background of the state
The geographic area of the State is 19.18 m ha. It is situated on the Western
edge of the Deccan Plateau and lies between 11030dand 18025d North latitude and
74010dand 87035dEast longitude. Physiographically the State can be divided into two
distinct regions the µMaland¶ or the hilly region comprising mainly the Western Ghats,and the µMaidan¶ or the plain region forming an inland plateau of varying height. The
Western Ghats run from north to south with an altitude rising upto 1800 m. The mainrivers, the Cauvery, the Tungbhadra and the Krishna flow from west to east, and the
Sharavati and the Kalindi from east to west. The population of the State in 1991 was44.98 million and rural population is 31.07 million. Livestock population as per 1992
census was 29.56 millions.
Geologically, three fourth of the state is occupied by Arachean rocks andremaining by younger rocks. The northern margins of the state are covered by a seriesof sedimentary rocks of post ± Dharwar age. Soil varies from clayey black in northern
part, red sandy in central and southern parts, red loamy, laterite and mountain soil inthe Western Ghats to mixed red and black soil in the central parts of the State.
The annual rainfall in the state varies from 2000-3200 mm in the Western Ghatto 400-500 mm in the northern and north-eastern part of the state. Average summer
temperature varies from 260 C to 350 C and average winter temperature varies from140 C to 250 C.
3.22 Forest ResourcesRecorded forests of the State are 3.87 m.ha. constituting 20.19% of the total
geographical area. However, the actual forest cover of the State as assessed by theForest Survey of India was only 3.24 m.ha. Of the actual forest cover, 2.48 m.ha. was
under dense and 0.75 m.ha. under open category. Important forest types with major species found in Karnataka are as follows ³as per Champion and Seth¶s classification´
Forest types Important speciesTropical West Evergreen Dipterocarpus indicus, Calophyllum elatum,
Forests Hopea wightiana, Mesua ferrea, DisoxylumMalabaricum etc.
Cordifolia, Bambusa arundinacia,Dendrocalamus strictus etc.
Tropical dry deciduous Tectona grandis, Acacia species, AnogeissusForests latifolia, Terminalia tomentosa, T. chebula etc.
Tropical thorn forests Acacia catechu, A. leucophloea, ChloroxylonSwietenia spp. Santalum album etc.
3.23 Agro Ecological RegionsKarnataka has four agro-ecological regions as per National Bureau of Soil
Survey and Landuse Planning. These regions can be described as under.Region I: Western Ghats and coastal plains of Karnataka comprising mainly of Uttar
Kannada, Dakshin Kannada and Kodagu districts. This region is characterised by hothumid to pre-humid climate with red lateritic alluvial soil. The growth period is more
than 210 days.Region II : It is the part of the Deccan plateau in Southern Karnataka having hot and
semi arid climate and red loamy soil. The growth period is 90 to 150 days.,Chitradurga and Shimoga.
Region III : It is the part of Deccan plateau in Northern Karnataka having hot andsemi-arid climate and black soils. The growth period is between 90 to 150 days. The
main districts in the region are Dharwad, Belgaum, Bijapur, Bidar and Gulbarga.Region IV: It is also a part of Deccan Plateau having hot and arid climate with mixed
red and black soils. The growth period is less than 90 days. The main districts in thisregion are Bellary and Raichur.
3.24 Selection of Sample Villages for field inventory
In Karnataka, 10 villages were randomly selected for the pilot survey one ineach in a district in such a manner that major regions of the State was covered. All thetrees of 10 cm. And above diameter at DBH (OB) were enumerated in the selected
villages. The dead trees having utility less than 70% were excluded from theenumeration. The trees were enumerated separately for different categories of 31
plantation such as Farm forestry, Road side plantation, Block plantation, Villagewoodlot etc. The survey was completed during 1993-94
3.25 Estimates of the StudyIn the pilot survey only total number of trees were estimated and not their volume. The
estimated total number of trees in rural areas of the state were found to be 296 million..
Table No. 3.31:
Distribution of trees by different categoriesSl. Area Farm Block Village Roadside Others Total No. of
No. Surveyed Forestry Plantation Woodlot plantation trees
Chart 5Percentage Distribution of stems in kanataka NFA by Category wise2%7%55%28%8%Farm ForestryBlock PlantationVillage WoodlotRoadside PlantationOthers
32
Table no.3.31& Chart 6 indicates that out of the total number of trees farm
forestry have the maximum number (55.80%) followed by block plantation (27.6%)village woodlot (7.9%) and roadside plantation (1.78%). 7% of the tree comes in
other categories.Table no. 3.32Karnataka
Percentage of tree species distributed in different agro-ecological regionsSl. Species Agro-Ecological Regions
No. I II III IV1 Anacardium occidentale 35.7 0 0 0
Distribution of species found in non-forest area with reference to agro-ecologicalregions of Karnataka is presented in Table No.3.32. Azadiracta indica (Neem) and
Acacia species (Babul) are the prominent species found in semi -arid northernKarnataka and arid zone of the Karnataka. The percentage of these species in these
33two zones are 35.8%, 37.3%, and 29.9% & 22.8% respectively. In semi-arid Southern
Karnataka the major species occurring in rural areas are Cocos nucifera (18.2%),Pongamia pinnata (18.1%), Eucalyptus species (9.6%), Acacia species (9.3%), Ficus
species (8.2%) and Tamarindus indica (7.7%). In non-forest areas of Western Ghatand Coastal areas (Region I), three spe cies constitute 66.6% of the total trees, found in
rural areas. These are Anacardium occidentale (35.7%), Cocos nucifera (19%) andMangifera indica (11.9%).
Table no. 3.33
Percentage of tree species distributed in different diameter classesSurveyed area 8512 ha.
condoleano (3.44%), Terminalia indica (2.43%), Artocarpus species (1.80%) andEucalyptus species (3.07%).
Table No 3.33 indicates that about 58% of the trees are in diameter class 10 to 20cm and only 3% of the tree are above 40 cm diameter.35
3.3 WESTERN U.P.
3.31 Brief Background of the State
The total geographic area of the state is 29.4 m.ha. It is located between 23°5¶and 31° 28¶ North latitudes and 77° 4¶ and 84°39¶ East longitudes. The state is bound
by Tibet (China) and Nepal in the North, Madhya Pradesh in the South, Bihar in theEast and Rajasthan, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh states and Delhi U.T. in the West.
The main physiographic characteristics of the state are high mountains, valleys, flatand fertile plains and dissected plateaus. The state can be divided into following meso
and micro regions:1. Uttar pradesh Himalaya
2. Upper Ganga Plain3. Middle Ganga Plain
4. Uttar Pradesh UplandsThe present survey of non-forest area has been carried out in the Western
region having 19 districts viz. Agra, Aligarh, Bijnor, Badaun, Bareilly, Bulandshahar ,Etah, Etawah, Farrukhabad, Mainpuri, Mathura, Meerut, Moradabad, Rampur, Pi1ibhit,
Muzaffarnagar, Saharanpur, Shahjahanpur and Gaziabad. These 19 districtswholly lies in Upper- Ganga plains has been divided into two following micro-regions.
North Upper Ganga PlainsIt is a part of the great plains covering seven districts namely Saharanpur,
Muzafarnagar, Bijnor, Meerut, Gaziabad, Moradabad and Rampur. The vast area of the region is a level alluvial plain with a slope from north to south or south east with
reference to the alignment of the major rivers and tributaries joining them. The wholeregion is in fact, a tract of various classes of fertile soils while the northern part is
covered with forest. Situated immediately below the shiwalik is Bhabar tract interated
by numerous torrents that drain rain water into the Ganga and Jamuna rivers and their several tributaries. The eastern Bhabar consists of a series of high broken spurs. Teraiarea lies below the Bhabar in the north-eastern part of the region. The region is spread
over an area of 2.91 m.ha.Southern Upper Ganga Plains
The Southern Upper Ganga Plain delineated as a micro region, covers almostthe central part of the state and takes into account 12 districts namely Bulandshahar,
Budaun, Bareilly, Pilibhit, Shahjahanpur, Aligarh, Mathura, Agra, Etah, Mainpuri,Farrukhabad and Etawah. The surface slope of the micro-region is generally uniform
and level with slight undulations and an inperceptible gradual slope from north-west to36
south-east. The northern parts of the districts Bijnor, Rampur and Pilibhit is a
continuous belt of terai, having rich soil, high water level and unhealthy climate. Thismicro region is spread approximately over an area of 6.0 millin ha.
The state has a sub tropical climate. There is marked variations intemperature and rainfall in different part of the region. During summer season the high
temperature in the plains causes low pressure area and movement of monsoon. Nearly90 percent rainfall in the area is caused by monsoon from Bay of Bengal during June
to September. The north and north eastern part of the region get more rainfall than thesouth-western part. The rainfall in Terai region is as high as 1200 mm whereas the
rainfall in Agra, Mathura, Mainpuri, Etawah etc. is less than 800 mm. A markedvariation can be seen in the mean annual temperature as we move from hills towards
Agra in the south-west. The temperatures are generally from 200 to 250 C in theregion whereas they are between 150 to 200 C in the narrow Terai belt in the foot hills.
The economy of the Western U.P. is predominantly agricultural and has highconcentration of population in the State of U.P. Economically it is developed region of
the State. Means of irrigation, location of industries high yield of agricultural producehave given impetus to the development of urban centres and the rural landscape of the
region. The rural population constitutes 76.55% of the total population of the regioni.e. Western U.P.
3.32 Forests ResourcesThe region had quite a dense forests till 18th century. With an intensifying
pressure on agriculture land growing demand for wood forests were denudedrecklessly. The forests are confined to the Terai districts of Saharanpur, Pilibhit,
Rampur, Bareilly etc. that too in the nothern parts of the district and only Shorearobusta, Dalbergia sissoo are the predominant trees along with their associates. In non
forest areas of plains Mango, Jamun, Ficus, Neem, Eucalyptus, Babul (Acacianilotica) are the main trees planted along roads, rails and canals etc .
3.33 Agro-Ecological Regions of Western U.P.Western U.P. has two agro-ecological regions, as per National Bureau of Soil
Survey and Land Use Planning, India.Region I: Semiarid Eco System:
Northern plain and central highlands including Aravallis, hot semi-aridecoregion with alluvium derived soils and growt h period is 90-150 days.37
Region II: Subhumid Eco System Northern plains, hot sub humid (dry) ecoregion with alluvium-derived soils
and growth period is 150-180 days.
3.34 Selection of Sample Villages for field inventory
In total 62 villages were selected for the survey in the State. After completingthe survey the data was processed for estimating number of trees and trees/ha.
3.35 Estimates of the StudyThe study was conducted in 62 villages and enumerated number of trees were
found .31million and their distribution given below in Table 3.41 to 3.43. Theanalysis of above Table No 3.41 indicates that the maximum number of trees occurs in
10-20 cm dia class followed by 20-30 cm dia class i.e. 69.4% and 19.52%respectively. Mangifera indica has the largest representation of 26.12% followed by
22.05% of Eucalyptus species. Similarly it has been noticed that stem/ha is maximumin diameter class 10-20 cm followed by 20-30 cm.
Table 3.42 shows the distribution of number of trees, species wise andcategory wise (all dia class combined). The farm forestry has a highest percentage of
plantation followed by block plantation, roadside plantation i.e. 56.34%, 37.00% and3.13%respectively. Major contribution of tree species are shown by Mangifera indica
(26.12 %) followed by Eucalyptus spp. (22.05 %) and Dalbergia sissoo (14.14 %).The number of stem occuring in various agro ecological regions are shown in
table no 3.43. The important tree species in a region NPHC (decreasing order) areMangifera indica, Dalbergia sissoo, Eucalyptus spp. and Azadirachta indica and in
region NPSH (D) in decreasing order Eucalyptus spp., Mangifera indica, & Dalbergiasissoo.
The analysis of table 3.43 indicates that in NPHC region has 59.21% of totaltrees with 11.66 stem/ha and the region NPSH (D) has 40.79% of total trees with 8.03
stems/ha.38
Table no. 3.41
DISTRIBUTION OF NUMBER OF STEMS-SPECIESWISE AND DIA
CLASSWISE(All categories combined ) Surveyed Area 15802 ha
SL. NAME OF DIAMETER CLASS TOTAL % ageNO. SPECIES 10-20 20-30 30-40 40+ of stems1 Acacia catechu 198 52 1 0 251 0.08
Chart 7Percentage distribution of Stems by Dia classes in Western UP NFA7% 4%69%20%10-20 cm 20-30 cm 30-40 cm 40+ cm56.3437.003.13 2.640.47 0.370.040.0010.0020.0030.0040.0050.0060.00
Percentage distribution of stems in West UP by category wiseFarm forestry Block plantation Road side plantation Village wood lot c anal side plantation Railway lines Ponds
40
Table No 3.42
DISTRIBUTION OF TOTAL NUMBER OF STEMS-SPECIES AND
CATEGORYWISE
Surveyed Area 15802 haSL. SPECIES CATEGORIES TOTAL % ageNO I II III IV V VI VII1 Acacia catechu 10 232 0 9 0 0 0 251 0.082 Acacia nilotica 12761 645 689 681 6 74 58 14914 4.79
Area of agro-eco zones 11335 4467 15802No. of vill.in each zones 44 18 6242
3.4 KERALA
3.41 Brief background of the State
Kerala State is situated on the South Western part of India. The geographicalarea of the State is approximately 3.88 million ha, of which about 10 percent comes
under lowland region (coastal), 42 percent under midland region and remaining under highland region (State Land Use Board, 1980)1. Bordering the Arabian sea, Kerala
lies between 80 and 12045d North latitudes and 7404dand 77050dEast longitude. TheWestern Ghats constitute the eastern boundary while the Arabian sea marks the
western boundary of the State. Kerala has an equable climate and the day temperaturevaries from 20 to 350 C. The mean annual rainfall is about 3,000 mm and varies from
1016 mm to 7620 mm. Variation in temperature is between 23.9 0 C to 37.70 C in plains and 10.0 0 C to 32.20 C in the hills. The soil is varied generally leached and
lateritic and particularly loamy in the hilly region and alluvial in the valleys and plains.
Kerala is the most densely populated State in India. The population of theState in 1991 was 29.09 million with population density 749 persons per km2
compared to 273 persons per km2 of the country. The contribution of forestry andlogging to the net State domestic product has declined from 0.5% in 1990 -91 to 0.4%
in 1997-98. Forest lands including degraded forests constitute 24.3% of the totalgeographical area of the State (Kerala State Land Use Board, 1995). Of the total net
area cultivated, coconut accounted for 39%, rubber 20%, tea, coffee and cardamom
together 7% and rice 11%. Mixed cropping is the characteristics feature of land use inthe home-gardens of Kerala. It integrates agricultural crops with several tree copssuch as coconut, jack, mango, tamarind, cashew, etc., which provide timber, fuelwood,
fruits, green manure and fodder.
3.42 Forest Resources
Recorded forest area of the state is 1.12 m ha of which Reserved Forestsconstitute 1.10 m ha while protected and other forests account for 0.02 m ha.
Vegetation in the State varies with climatic, altitudinal and other edaphic factors. Thehilly zone contains the maximum forests while the midland has only little and the
coastal plains has almost no vegetat ion except for few very small discontinuous patches of mangrove vegetation. Major forest type and species are given below as per
Champion and Seth¶s classifications.1 The lowland, midland and highland regions are the three broad natural regions based on altitude. The land
lying below 7.6 m elevation is lowland, between 7.6 to 76 m midland and above 76 m highland.
Actual forest cover of Kerala as assessed by the Forest Survey of India is 1.03m ha which constitute 26.6% of the total geographical area of the State. Of the actual
forest cover, 0.8 m ha is under dense forests and 0.2 m ha is under open forests.Forest plantations started in Nilambur in the year 1842 with teak. Since then,
teak plantations were established in many accessible forest areas. Since 1960, the areaunder Eucalyptus plantations increased rapidly. The area under teak has also
increased. Further growth of forest plantations is likely to be marginal in future.
3.43 Social Forestry in Kerala
Several social forestry schemes have been launched in Kerala in order toincrease the supply of fuelwood and small timber, these are National Rural
Employment Programme, Rural Fuelwood Scheme, Rural Landless EmploymentGuarantee Programme, Drought Relief Scheme and the World Bank Scheme. Under
these schemes, plantations have been raised through block, strip and avenue plantingin forest areas, waste lands, etc. A large number of seedlings have also been raised in
nurseries under these schemes and distributed to farmers and social organisations to
raise in homesteads and around public buildings respectively. The total area at the endof 1987-88 was 27149 ha. The species planted and distributed area mainly Acacia44
auriculiformis, Eucalyptus tereticornis and Casuarina equisetifolia . The plantations
have not yet been harvested.
3.44 Need for the Study
The pattern of wood consumption by various sectors and the contribution of different sources of supply in Kerala was not studied until 1987-88. Supply of wood
from the forests of Kerala has declined during the 1980s. Homesteads appear to be animportant source of wood supply, but the available data on land use do not reveal the
composition of tree crops and the growing stock distribution in homesteads. In thiscontext, the present study on µDemand and supply of wood in Kerala and their furture
trends¶ was of great relevance in planning wood-resources development in the State.
3.45 Methodology adopted by KFRI
A survey was conducted during 1988-89 to estimate the volume of growingstock of trees in homesteads, the crop-mix and the preference for particular species.
Homesteads include house compounds and farm lands. Dry land area under agricultural use2 less area under estates is defined as the area under homesteads. A
survey on tree-felling in homesteads was also attempted to quantify the wood production from homesteads. There waas a lack of information regarding the
restrictions imposed by the government on felling of certain trees in private lands.The respondents were found to conceal actual tree-felling due to fear of bureaucratic
harassment later. Also the recall metho d adopted for the survey had several defects,the most important being the non-availability of exact dimensions of the already felled
trees. Due to unreliability in the data, it was not used for further analysis. Wood production from homesteads was therefore taken as the difference between the
demand for wood and the sum of wood production from forests and estates andimports.
A stratified three-stage sampling procedure was adopted for the selection of samples. For each revenue village in Kerala, the percentage of dryland (garden land)
area under agricultural use to the total area under agricultural and population densitywere calculated from the data available with the State Land-use Board and in the 1981
census report respectively. By forming 5 class es for the percentage of dryland areaunder agricultural use to total area under agricultural use and 3 classes for the2 It is assumed that the population living within forests fully depend on fuelwood collected directly. Further,the population in villages adjoining the forests area assumed to collect 5 to 20 percent of their requirement
from the forests. The population for 1987-88 is projected based on the 1981 census. The fuelwoodconsumption is estimated on the basis of the projected population of both the groups and the per capita
fuelwood consumption in the rural areas of Kerala, including the fuelwood equivalent of fuel from
coconut/palmyra trees and crop-residues.
45
population density, 15 strata were formed and the villages were classified in different
strata accordingly. Revenue villages in each stratum were treated as first-stage units
of sampling. Out of the total number of villages in Kerala according to 1981 census,2.5 per cent were distributed in different strata approximately in proportion to the
dryland area under agricultural use in each stratum ensuring that at least one villagewas included from each stratum. The villages in each stratum were chosen at random
and in all 30 villages were selected. Census villages were taken as second stage units
of sampling since several form a revenue village. One was randomly selected fromthe chosen revenue villages and all the households in the selected desom were visitedto collect information such as year of house construction, whether there was any
construction activity using timber in the year 1987-88, size of dryland holding etc.
3.46 Estimation of growing stock of trees in homesteads
The households in the selected were classified on the basis of size of dry landholding. The households with dry land holding formed the third stage units of
sampling. 25 households were allocated proportional to the number of households ineach class and households in each class were randomly and independently selected.
All dry land belonging to the sample households in the desom were surveyed. In thehomesteads of the selected households all trees by species coming under different
diameter classes (dbh) and coconut palms were enumerated. Other palms and plantations of rubber cardamom, coffee and tea were excluded from the definition of
trees.Total production of wood including fuelwood obtained from pruned and fallen
materials and coconut wood from homesteads during 1987-88 was estimated to rangefrom10.899 to 12.246 million m3 of which 80 to 90 percent was fuel. Pruned and
fallen materials from trees in ho mesteads used as fuelwood is worked out to be 0.330million m3. The number of coconut palms felled mainly for timber was worked out to
be 1.303 million which provided 0.693 million m3 of wood. The number of palmsfelled and used as fuel was taken to be 3 .909 million which provided 1.884 million m3
of fuelwood. The total production of coconut wood was estimated as 2.577 millionm3. Non-wood fuel from coconut used in households is arrived at about 5.05 million
m3 fuelwood equivalent. Non-wood fuel materials from coconut is also used in thetertiary sector which has not been estimated. Therefore, 5.05 million m3 can be taken
as minimum production of non-wood coconut fuel. However, the non-woodcomponent of fuel has not been included in the present analysis.
The upper limit of 12.246 million m3 of wood production represents 8.3 m3 per ha of homestead lands used exclusively for agriculture or 7 m3 per ha of homestead
lands plus area under non-agricultural uses within homesteads. The definition of wood us ed in this study is different from the conventional definition where, usually,
only wood above 60 cm girth is considered. Our definition of wood includes woody46
materials up to 10 cm girth in the case of fuelwood. Therefore 7 m3 per ha cannot be
considered to be a very high figure. No attempt has been made to assess thesustainability of wood production from considering the present level of production.
3.47 ESTIMATES OF THE INVENTORYTotal number of trees in homesteads excluding that in plantations and palms
other than coconut is estimated as 442 million in 1988 -89. Coconut palms constituted21.5% of the total number. Trees in the lowest diameter class accounted for 55% of
the total number of trees. Multiple use trees such as coconut, jack, mango, cashew andtamarind were the most preferred species for planting in homesteads. Anily, teak and
matty are the species preferred among trees grown exclusively for wood. However,the crop-mix and preference for particular species vary with respect to different
regions.Growing stock of trees in number and volume and the species preference In
homesteads of Kerala are analysed. Palms other than coconut are not included in the
growing stock of trees. Neither are trees in plantations of rubber, coffee, tea andcardamom.Tables 3.51 presents the number of trees in the growing stock in homesteads
during 1988-89. The estimated total number of trees is 442.2 million of which trees below 10 cm dbh account for 42.91 per cent. When coconut palms are excluded trees
in the lowest class comes to 54.63 per cent of the total number. While trees above 30cm dbh account for only 4.4 per cent of the total number, new plantings of trees (less
than 10 cm dbh) other than coconut palms account for 54.63 per cent The shows thatefforts are being made at the homestead level in planting of trees.47
Table 3.51 Number of trees in the growing stock in homesteads of Kerala during
1988-89
(number in '000)Diameter at breast beight (in cr.)
CO stands for coconut palms, M2 for jack, M3 for mango, tamarind, gooseberry, etc., M4
for cashew, breadfruit, guava, etc., T1 for teak, rosewood and sandal, T2 for anjily,chadachy, irul , etc., T3 for kanjiram, manjakadambu, thanni, etc., T4 for matty, mullilavu,e z hilampala etc., ACE for Acacia auriculiformis, Casuarina and Eucalyptus. For complete
list see Appendix-1. The figures in parentheses are percentages to total.
The volume of growing stock of trees in total volume is estimated as 104.248
million m3 overbark including volume of branch wood above 10 cm girth. Thecommercial volume is estimated as 28.526 million m 3 underbark (see Tables 3.52 and
3.53). The commercial volume accounts for 27.4 per cent of the total volume. Theremaining 72.6 per cent is the growing stock of fuelwood. However, commercial
volume also includes volume of trees with only fuelwood value, when felled, such astamarind.3 Include only those coconut palms above 5 years old which have stem wood. The average diameter of coconut palms is assumed to be in 20-30 cm class.48
3.48 Species preference
Trees with multiple uses account for 71 per cent of the total number of trees,81 per cent of the total volume overbark of all trees and 83 per cent of the total
commercial volume. Also among trees above 60 cm dbh, trees providing multiple benefits constitute 74 per cent of the total number, 83 per cent of the total volume
overbark of all trees and 85 per cent of total.
Table 3.52
Total volume of growing stock of trees in homesteads of Kerala(volume in '000 m3 overbark including branch wood of 10 cm and above girth)
Diameter at breast height (in cm)Trees <10 10-20 20-30 30-40 40-50 50-60 60-70 70-80 >80 TotalCO - - 34171 - - - - - - 34171
Commercial volume: The commercial volume is estimated to be 28.526 million m3
constituting 27.4.% of the total volume. Coconut palms, jack, mango,
tamarind,cashew, breadfruit, guava constitute more than 80% of the total volume. Acacia auriculiformis, Casuarina equisetifolia and Eucalyptus account for only 0.02
per cent of the total comme rcial volume. Timber and multiple-use trees in the highvalue classes contribute to the timber supply and those in the low value classes
contribute to both timber and fuelwood supply.
3.49 Pattern of Growing Stock Distribution
The pattern of growing stock distribution of trees in the homesteads of Kerala
gives a very interesting picture of the preference for different trees in homesteads (seeTable 3.54, 3.55, 3.56 and 3.57). Just 10 species account for 74 per cent of totalnumber equivalent to 85 per cent of total wood volume. Coconut provides about 28
per cent of total timber consumption and about 16 per cent of the total fuelwoodconsumption. When non-wood fuel from coconut is also considered, the contribution
of coconut is 69.8% of the total consumption of fuelwood and charcoal from all other trees and all sources put together. After a pre-bearing stage of about 6 years, there is
continuous production of nut and fuel in the form of leaf, sheath, husk, shell, etc: for
Erythrina stricta and Macaranga peltata are the other trees most integrated
with agriculture. They provide support for pepper vine, a high return crop, and produce excellent lead manure. However, they do not contribute much to the total
commercial volume of wood. Jack and mango are planted for fruits and shade. Theleaf of jack is a very good fodder. Jack produces premium timber for construction and
furniture. The timber of mango, though not as valuable, is used as industrial wood andfor construction. Cashew has a very short pre-bearing stage and provides a high
annual return from nuts. Its wood is used as fuel and in packing case industry. Anjily,which provides a long straight bole, is used for construction, boat building, etc.
Tamarind produces fruit which is a condiment in daily use. Tamarind wood is anexcellent fuel and the tree has the capability to establish and grow in dry areas and
adverse conditions. Teak is the traditional high quality, high value timber of Kerala
which can be used for any purpose. It has also high export demand. Matty, a fastgrowing tree, has been popularized in the recent past due to demand from matchindustry.
The data show that trees with multiple benefits are preferred to single-usetrees. Even among multiple-use trees, trees which provide for home consumption
have prefernce. The potential for recurring annual income generation is an importantconsideration. Trees which are complementary to agricultural crops for providing
support or manure are also preferred. Coconut followed by jack, mango, cashew,anjily, tamarind, teak, murikku, vatta and matty are the most preferred species for
planting and maintaining in homesteads. Howeve r, the crop-mix and preference for particular species vary with respect to different regions in Kerala. Fuelwood and very
low value trees with single use have very low preference in homesteads. Even amongfuel producing trees, coconut is the most preferred tree.51
Table 3.55
Number of Trees Growing in Homesteads in different diameter classes(number in µ000)Trees Diameter at breast height (in cm)<10 10-20 20-30 30-40 40-50 50-60 60-70 70-80 >80
Table No. 3.56Total Volume of Important Trees In The Growing Stock In homesteads(Volume in µ000 m3 overbark including branchwood of 10 cm and above girth)Trees Diameter at breast height (in cm)
Other trees 1395 1077 492 456 101 53 76 3650 12.80
Total
(%)
12222
(42.85)
5406
(18.95)
4592
(16.10)
3490
(12.23)
1483
(5.20)558
(1.95)
775(2.72)
28526
100.0054
4.CONCLUSIONSWith the increasing emphasis on the conservation of the natural forest and their bio-diversity, the responsibility to supply wood and other forest products will shift on
trees outside forest. Concerned with the depletion of the forest resource the SupremeCourt of India has also issued directions and imposed restrictions on felling of trees
from natural forests without proper management/working plans.
In India, though forestry falls under the concurrent list of the Constitution, themanagement and ownership of the forest rests with the States (Provinces). In the StateForestry Action Programmes prepared by State Governments, the role of trees
growing outside forests has been greatly emphasized. The states have drawn their plans of growing trees for production of wood and other products from outside forests.
In most of the states major portion of the area where trees are to be planted fall in thefarm lands. In Haryana State about 35% to 40% of the total projection of land where
trees are to be planted outside forests has to come from the farmlands. Other potentialareas which have been identified for growing trees, are vacant land in the institutions
(schools, colleges, offices, industrial complexes, religious places etc.) and parcels of land along roads, canals, railway lines and water coarses. Plantations in homesteads
and farmhouses have been proposed mainly in Kerala and West Bengal. National Forest Policy 1988 has emphasized that wood based industries have
to generate their own resource for meeting their raw material needs. This is to beachieved by growing trees outside forests and a major portion of which has to come
from the agro forestry practices. The industries are also expected to raise captive plantations and motivate farmers to plant tree species to meet their industrial needs.
Since trees growing outside forests will be the major source of wood and other forest products in the near future, it is imperative that such resource is accurately
assessed periodically and methodo logy is developed to monitor them regularly. TheForest Survey of India is the only organisation in India, which has undertaken the
responsibility of assessment of this resource with limited manpower and infrastructure.The present methodology even after refinement is based on the ground inventory.
With the increasing resolution of the space satellite it may be possible to get proper
signature registered of the trees growing in sporadic form outside forests. The latestsatellite of SPACE IMAGING -IKONOS launched for commercial purposes byU.S.A.has a resolution of one-meter. It is possible to discern most of the trees
growing in isolation and in scattered way. Appropriate methodology, therefore, can bedeveloped to make quick assessment of the trees growing outside forests by
combining space technology with ground inventory.55
APPENDIX I
Names of Trees in Homesteads of KeralaLocal Name (Trade Name) Class Botanical Name* Aatha M4 Annona reticulata Linn.
Akil T2 Dysoxylum malabaricum Bedd.ex Hiern
Albi
z ia T2
Albi
z ia falcataria (Linn.) Fosberg.
Anba z ham (Indian Hogplum) M4 Spondias pinnata (Linn.f.) Kurz
Anjily (Ayani) T2 Artocarpus hirsutus Lamk.
Annakara T4 Garuga pinnata Roxb.
Aranamaram M4 Polyalthia longifolia (Sonner.) Thw
Aryaveppu (Neem) M3 Az adirachta indica A. Juss.
Athi T3 Ficus racemosa Linn.
Badam (Indian almound) M3 Terminalia catappa Linn.
Chadachi (Dhaman) T2 Grewia tiliifolia Vahl.
Chandanam (Sandal) T1 Santalum album Linn.Chembakam (Chembak) M4 Michelia champaca Linn.
Vetty T3 A porusa lindleyana (Wt.) Baill.* Botanical names are taken from Sasidharan, 1987.
57
APPENDIX 2.1
HaryanaSl.No NAME OF SPECIES USES
1 Acacia catechu Katha, industrial2 Acacia nilotica Firewood, charcoal, poles, small timber, utensils/ furniture/carying, fodder in the form of leaves and pods, Nitrogen
fixation, Soil conservation/improvement and windbreak
3 Acacia spp. Small timber and fuelwood4 Acacia tortilis Firewood, charcoal, erosion control, fibre and nitrogenfixation
soil conservation, gum, dug-out canoes (coast) and timber 11 Melia azedarach Windbreak, poles, firewood, and shade12 Morus spp. Timber, fuel, fodder, fruits, shade and wood for manufacturing hockey sticks and ot her sports goods
13 Populus spp. Matchwood14 Prosopis cineraria Charcoal, fodder (leaf/flower), fodder for bees58
(fruit), medicine, fodder (fruit/pod, fodder for bees) andshade63
APPENDIX 2.4
Western U.P.
Sl.No NAME OF SPECIES USES
1 Acacia catechu Katha, industrial
2 Acacia nilotica Firewood, charcoal, poles, small timber, utensils/furniture/ carying, fodder in the form of leaves and pods, Nitrogen fixation, Soil conservation/improve ment and
12 Emblica officinalis Fruit fuelwood and fodder 13 Eucalyptus spp. Timber, fuel, fodder, fruits, shade and paper pulpwood14 Ficus spp. Mulch, soil conserva tion and improvement15 Gmelina arborea Firewood, timber, fodder for bees, poles and windbreak
windbreaks, mulch, green leaf manure, ornamental,shade, soil conservation, gum, dug-out canoes (coast) and
timber 17 Melia azedarach Windbreak, poles, firewood, and shade
18 Morus spp. Timber, fuel, fodder, fruits, shade and wood for manufacturing hockey sticks and other sports goods
19 Populus spp. Matchwood, paper pulp, poles and timber 20 Prosopis juliflora Fuelwood charcoal, timber, poles, posts, carvings, fruit,vegetable, fodder (leaves and pods), bee-forage,medicine, nitrogen fixation, shade, soil conservation,
dune fixation, windbreak and live fence21 Psidium guyava Fuelwood, tool handles, granary construction, stakingmaterial, fruit (jam, jelly, juice), medicine, erosioncontrol and live fence
22 Shorea robusta Timber
23 Syzygium cumini Timber, fuel, fodder, fruits and shade
24 Tamarix aphylla Erosion control, mulch, soil improvement, windbreak,river bank/ sand stabilisation, small timber and fuelwood
Forest Cover- All lands with a tree canopy density of more than 10 per cent though
they may not be statutorily notified as forest.Forest inventory - The measuring and describing the quantity and quality of forest
crop and many of the characteristics of the land area upon which forest crop is
growing.Growing Stock - The sum of all the trees (by number or volume) growing in theForest or a specified part of it.
Homesteads - Includes house compounds and farmlads.Mangrove - Mangroves are salt tolerant forest ecosystem found mainly in tropical and
sub-tropical inter-tidal regions.Open forest - All lands with a forest cover of trees with canopy density between 10 to
40 per cent.Recorded forest area - All lands statutorily notified as forest though they may not
necessarily bear tree cover.Regeneration - The renewal of a forest crop by natural or artificial means, also
the new crop so obtained.Scrub- All lands with poor tree growth chiefly of small or stunted trees with canopy
density less than 10 per cent.66
Shifting Cultivation - A method of cyclical cultivation in vogue where cultivators
cut the tree crop burn it and raise agricultural crop for one or more years beforemoving on to another site and repeating the process.
Unclassed Forest - Forest land owned by government but not constituted into areserve or protected forest.
Village woodlot- Naturally growing/planted trees on village community land.Working Plan - A written scheme of management aiming at continuity of policy and
action and controlling the treatment of a forest.67
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