Climate change is widely recognized as a significant man-made global environmental change and is also treated as a
threat. The impact of high temperature, erratic precipitation, extreme weather events and rise in sea level is felt at
local, regional and global levels. The importance of forested areas in carbon sequestration is well accepted and documented. Carbon in the form of CO2 is accumulating in the atmosphere at the rate of about 3.5 billion metric tonnes per annum as a result of fossil-fuel combustion. (Correspondence)