In the hill areas, the traditional systems of dependence on forest products like fuel for their households and fodder for their livestock has an important bearing on the status of Himalayan watersheds. The population of livestock is therefore also significant. The fuel and fodder requirements of the hill people are important routine activities for which women/children spend long hours of their day-to-day life.
Many traditional conservation ethics of people directly or indirectly protect forest patches by dedicating them to local deities. Such forest pockets, referred to as sacred groves, are more or less small to large chunk of traditionally maintained near virgin forests protected on socio cultural grounds. Named differently in different states of India, these groves are mainly concentrated in tribal areas and are managed by local people for various purposes.
Bambusa tulda (Deobans), a symbodial bamboo species, grows well in humid tropical and sub-tropical regions of the Indian sub continent. In India it is distributed naturally in the North and North-eastern parts of the country. It produces culms up to 10-15 m height and 4-8 cm dia. Flowering is reported generally after 25-30 years.
Effect of application of biofertilizers, Azospirillum, phosphate-solubilising bacteria (PSB) and arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi was studied in a factoral experiment on production of planting propagules (stumps) of teak in nursery. Seed germination was maximum in Azospirillum treatment followed by its combination with AM and PSB after two months.
Keeping in view the low productivity of forestry plantations in Rajasthan and Gujarat, an effort has been initiated to enhance the productivity of bamboo plantations using improved planting material raised either through clonal methods or through tissue culture. These trials have been established at Chakhalia, Jhalod (Gujarat); Kushalgarh (Rajasthan). In total 50 ha area has been covered under these specialty plantations, the bamboo species considered for planting are Dendrocalamus strictus and Bambusa bambos.
Agro-technologies for cultivation of a number of medicinal plants have been developed but large scale cultivation of medicinal plants on farm lands in Uttarakhand is yet to begin. Among other causes for this gap, lack of reasonable correct information on economics of cultivation of medicinal plants is one important cause.
Many protected area managers are encountering difficulties balancing the demands of conservation and visitors. An essential component of sound management planning for these areas is objective data on visitor use impacts and needs. Gir National Park attracgts a large number of visitors, both pilgrims and tourists. What matters is not the large number of visitors, but the type of visitors, the pattern of resource use and the quality of management to achieve compatibility between activities undertaken by the visitors and the protected area objectives.
A silent revolution has taken place in productivity and profitability of plantations through clonal Eucalyptus, with productivity more than double compared to seed route plantations. The clonal plantations under rain-fed conditions are safer investment, while the irrigated clonal plantations under agro-forestry models are more profitable as compared to agricultural crops.
The eco-development programme was initiated in Rajaji National Park to elicit participation of local people in conservation. An analysis of factors influencing the participation of women and men in the eco-development programme in two villages - Ganeshpur and Gungabhogpur, adjoining Rajaji National Park was carried out.
India has growing shortages of timber and wood-based products. Agro-forestry plantations promoted by wood-based industries and raised by a large number of small farmers and imports play a major role in bridging the demand supply gap. Private sector companies like Wimco and ITC have played a major role in promoting technology based high yielding clonal plantations under agro-forestry on commercial scale.
