Informatics Publishing Limited

P. P. Bhojvaid

Abstract

Global trade of Medicinal Plants is worth US $ 60 billion and is increasing at the rate of 7% per year. This has led to scarcity of medicinal plants in natural forests. Many national and international organisations have opined that the sustainable management of medicinal plants has a potential for income generation sand poverty alleviation provided that the resources are extracted sustainably. However, there is lack of information on inventory methods, safe harvest limits, regeneration status and management prescriptions, which are essential for management of this important resource in natural forests. This is attributed to traditional forest management systems, which are timber oriented. The characteristic features of medicinal plants are described and it is argued that some modifications are required in traditional forest management to make it suitable for management of medicinal plants in natural forests.

Full Text

     

P. P. Bhojvaid , Seema Negi

Abstract

The effects of seasons and ischolar_maining hormone on air layering were investigated in Elaeocarpus ganitrus (Rudraksha). Trials were conducted in three different seasons , viz. premonsoon , monsoon and post-monsoon using Indole Butyric Acid (IBA) as the ischolar_maining hormone (control , 100 , 250 and 500 mg l^-1). Results reveal that IBA enhanced the ischolar_main initiation and induced ischolar_maining in a shorter duration. Air layering trials in pre-monsoon season under 500 mg 1^-l) treatment exhibited maximum ischolar_maining percentage followed by monsoon and post-monsoon season under 500 mg l^-1 IBA treatment. Profuse ischolar_maining was observed in air layers treated with IBA in pre monsoon season. The callused and ischolar_mained air layers after detachment from the mother plants were transplanted separately in polyethylene bags in three different growing media [M₁ - Sand , Nursery soil and Farmyard manure (1 : 2 : 1) , M₂ - Sand and Nursery soil (1 : 1) and M₃ - Nursery soil] under nursery conditions. A highly significant variation (P < 0.05) was observed within the effect of season and callus formation as well as ischolar_main initiation. Maximum survival of callused and ischolar_mained air layers (air layering conducted in Pre-monsoon season) was observed in the growing medium containing Sand , Nursery soil and Farmyard manure (1 : 2 : 1).

Full Text

     

M. P. Singh ¹, P. P. Bhojvaid ¹, S. R. Reddy ¹, Jawaid Ashraf ¹

Affiliations
1 Forest Research Institute, Dehradun, IN

Abstract

The shift from decrease to a trend of increasing forest cover associated with economic development of a nation or to a geographical region is referred to as forest transition. Studies indicate that earlier stage of human development is marked by high forest cover and low deforestation but increase in incomes accelerate the rate of deforestation leading to loss of forest cover; but at incomes beyond a certain level, the rate of deforestation reduces; then the trend reverses and a slow increase in forest cover is seen. Evidences of Indian forest transition were tried to be traced from the Land Use and Land Cover Change for the period 1880-1980. Supplementing this data with the recent forest cover data of FSI from 1990 onwards, an attempt has been made to characterize forest transition in India. Deforestation was the dominating aspect in the initial temporal phase (till 1980), large scale afforestation/rehabilitation, social forestry and agro-forestry programmes of the state and central governments dominated the temporal phase of forest transition in India during the period of 1980-2000. Conservation and sustainable management of forests dominated the later phase 3 (Beyond 2000). Timber production from government forests gradually declined about 2 million m from the forests (excluding trees outside forests) in 2010 while most of the wood produced in the country come from trees outside forests (TOF) grown in private lands under agro-forestry, along the roads, canal, homesteads, etc. It's predicted that in a business as usual scenario, the forest transition in India will follow the trend as established in the last three decades and it is projected that the forest cover will increase to 71.34 million hectare in 2020. Forest transition trajectory in the forest transition curve indeed serves an easy instrument for testing the effectiveness of government interventions and policy implications.

Keywords

Afforestation, Conservation, Forest Cover Change, Forest Transition, Deforestation, Forest Degradation, Policy Implications

Full Text