History of Forest Management in Pakistan-III, Irrigated plantation and Riverain Forest
History of Forest Management in Pakistan-III, Irrigated plantation and Riverain Forest
Ghaus Mohammad Khattak
ABSTRACT
Traditionally the irrigated plantations of the Punjab have been managed under the two storeyed high forest system with an understorey of shisham and mulberry and an overstorey of shisham standards. The lower storey has been managed on a rotation of 16 to 22 years at different times. Shisham standards have been retained for three rotations. Yield is regulated by areas without allowing for variation in site quality.
The Sind plantations are still in their formative stage, their special problems are:
I. soil salinity combined with a high water table in the Ghulam Mohammad Barrage zone;
II. heavy work involved in leveling land;
III. lack of as intense a demand for temporary cultivation as in the Punjab.
In recent years there has been a massive return to babul as the principal species in the irrigated plantations. The Sind riverain forest of babul and kandi are managed the clear-felling system with broad-cast sowing in receding flood water. Aerial seeding is being increasingly employed since 1974. Yield regulation is by area. Areas threatened by river action are given the highest preference in cutting followed by burnt areas, dead-wood, windfalls and special purpose fellings and the balance of the year's prescribed yield is taken out of that year's coupe.The riverain areas now under the control of the Punjab Forest Department usually represent scattered lands transferred from the control of the Civil administration, mostly in a piece-meal manner. Most of the area is blank, some of it still unstable. The major species are shisham and bahan with some kikar. The present management aims for these area are as follows:
I. Conversion into irrigated plantations where canal irrigation is available.
II. Conversion of existing wooed areas to high forest of shisham, bahan and kikar.
III. Planting of areas devoid of trees with the above-mentioned species according to site conditions.
The sub-tropical broad -leaved forest have all along been worked on the selection coppice system in which the felling series is divided into coupes of about the same area, equal in number to the years in the felling cycle-usually 30. Each year an annual coupe is one over for felling of trees of exploitable size: usually 6 inches and 8 inches diameter at one foot above ground level, respectively, for kau and phulai the two main component species of the forests.
The Sind plantations are still in their formative stage, their special problems are:
I. soil salinity combined with a high water table in the Ghulam Mohammad Barrage zone;
II. heavy work involved in leveling land;
III. lack of as intense a demand for temporary cultivation as in the Punjab.
In recent years there has been a massive return to babul as the principal species in the irrigated plantations. The Sind riverain forest of babul and kandi are managed the clear-felling system with broad-cast sowing in receding flood water. Aerial seeding is being increasingly employed since 1974. Yield regulation is by area. Areas threatened by river action are given the highest preference in cutting followed by burnt areas, dead-wood, windfalls and special purpose fellings and the balance of the year's prescribed yield is taken out of that year's coupe.The riverain areas now under the control of the Punjab Forest Department usually represent scattered lands transferred from the control of the Civil administration, mostly in a piece-meal manner. Most of the area is blank, some of it still unstable. The major species are shisham and bahan with some kikar. The present management aims for these area are as follows:
I. Conversion into irrigated plantations where canal irrigation is available.
II. Conversion of existing wooed areas to high forest of shisham, bahan and kikar.
III. Planting of areas devoid of trees with the above-mentioned species according to site conditions.
The sub-tropical broad -leaved forest have all along been worked on the selection coppice system in which the felling series is divided into coupes of about the same area, equal in number to the years in the felling cycle-usually 30. Each year an annual coupe is one over for felling of trees of exploitable size: usually 6 inches and 8 inches diameter at one foot above ground level, respectively, for kau and phulai the two main component species of the forests.
To share on other social networks, click on any share button. What are these?
December 1976
Vol. 26, Iss. 4
