Articles containing the keyword 'India'

An investigation was carried out in the area of Beas River in India in the conifer forests of the region to study the possible supply of raw material for forest industries. The investigation based on an agreement between the Government of Finland and the Government of India about techcnical assistance to India.

The results of the survey suggest that though the Himalayan conifer forests are scattered and they lie on high altitude and in difficult terrain, their potential value is very important to the Indian national economy. Their extraction is feasible in much larger scale than now. The present yield coming to the markets is 30-10%, or even less, of the obtainable yield under intensive management and integrated utilization of wood. The obtainable yield could support comparatively large saw milling as well as pulp and paper industries.

The problems in developing the Himalayan conifer forestry cover the field of forest management, silviculture, re-forestation, logging, relations between forestry and the local population, forest administration, sales policy and industrial planning. Estimating the actual possibilities requires reliable resource inventories. Cultivation of trees for primitive sleeper production should be abandoned, management systems modified in accordance with the principle of progressive yield. The future management should be based on the exploitation of the existing over-mature stock and on the growth of the new stands.

The PDF includes a summary in Finnish.

• Kuusela, E-mail: kk@mm.unknown

Forest site type classification based on the vegetation has not been developed in India. The classifications made by forest officers have been based on the upper storeys of trees. Shrubs have been used to class such sites where grasses are the dominant species. However, some observers in India have used grass and bamboo species to identify sites suitable on unsuitable for certain valuable tree species. In Burma, some bamboo species have been noticed to be good indicators for sites suitable or unsuitable for teak (Tectona grandis L. f.). Studies in the western sub-Himalayan area suggest that certain grasses could be used as indicators for sites suitable for sal (Shorea robusta Gaertn.). Grasses have also been identified as indicators for certain kinds of forests and soils in the area between Ganges and the Jumna.

The volume 34 of Acta Forestalia Fennica is a jubileum publication of professor Aimo Kaarlo Cajander.

• Osmaston, E-mail: ao@mm.unknown

Using fine-resolution satellite imagery from multiple satellite data products, we assessed the change in forest cover of a state-managed Reserve Forest (RF) located in India’s Eastern Himalaya biodiversity hot-spot. 4.6% of forest cover was lost from Papum RF between 2013 and 2017 at the rate of 8.2 km² year^–1. Three species of hornbills: Great Hornbill Buceros bicornis Linnaeus, 1758, Wreathed Hornbill Rhyticeros undulatus (Shaw, 1811) and Oriental Pied Hornbill Anthracoceros albirostris (Shaw, 1808), that are functionally important are found here with nesting habitat in the areas affected by illegal logging. Therefore, we assessed the habitat loss within a 1 km radius around 29 nest trees. From 2011 to 2019, forest cover declined from 38.55 km² to 21.94 km² around these hornbill nest trees. Illegal logging is the main driver that is depleting forest cover within this important bird area. Our results highlight the ongoing threats to biologically-rich forests and the need for urgent measures to halt this loss. We suggest that this study has practical implications for the monitoring and governance of state-managed forests in Arunachal Pradesh.

• Sheth, #4 Ananda Nilaya, 4th Main Road, Siddhivinayaka Layout, Bengaluru 560097, Karnataka, India E-mail: chintz604@gmail.com
• Datta, Nature Conservation Foundation, 1311,“Amritha”, 12th Main, Vijayanagar 1st Stage, Mysore 570017, Karnataka, India E-mail: aparajita@ncf-india.org
• Parashuram, Nature Conservation Foundation, 1311,“Amritha”, 12th Main, Vijayanagar 1st Stage, Mysore 570017, Karnataka, India; Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, CB2 3EN, United Kingdom E-mail: dp608@cam.ac.uk