Feasibility Study of Tropical Pine Plantations in Koraput, Orissa

Abstract

To fulfil the demands of paper and pulp industry, tropical pines were introduced on a large scale in the 1970s in India. For a certain period it marked a trend in Indian forestry. Under the Government of India Coordinated Tropical Pine Project many research activities were conducted and some large scale plantations were taken up. However, these were stopped after a controversy arose in Bastar where it was taken up after clearfelling a mixed sal forest.But in Orissa, tropical pine plantations were taken up on barren hills and it had positive effects on the environment. The present study shows that it is commercially viable, it does not have any negative effect on soil and it is not a matter of public resentment unlike that occurred in Bastar.