How did lumbering start in India?
Answers
Answer:
Explanation:
Lumbering refers to commercial exploitation of timber. It is a type of industry highly dependent on geographical factors and technological advancements.
What affects lumbering in lower tropics:
> Trees are comparatively hardwood species that require more efficient machinery.
> Tropics have enormous species diversity and distribution is scattered. So, extraction of specific type of tree wood is commercially unviable.
> Transportation factors - roads, rivers and other infrastructure is low in tropical countries due to evergreen and deciduous forests. (Myanmar - dependent on Irrawady for timber transport)
> Governance deficit - poor regulations and ineffective replantation practices affect our forests as well as timber.
Favourable factors in temperate regions:
> Evenly distributed soft wood species - easy for exploitation.
> Existence of ready markets nearer to locations.
> Availability of rivers and better transportation facilities. Moreover, seasonal lumbering in winters have huge benefits.
> Effective governance and scientific forest management.
Factors for India - a limited opportunity:
> Forests in favourable areas like Western Ghats and N-E states are tropical evergreen and declared as biodiversity hotspots. So, we have very limited scope in this region. However, this wood is hard and great commercial value.
> Majority of our forest are tropical moist and dry deciduous forests - have plenty of opportunities for commercial exploitation. But, it is not on par with temperate regions as wood quality is brittle in nature.
> Forested regions of MP, Chattisgarh and Jharkhand have favourable factors like rivers and better transportation.
> Himalayan temperate dry deciduous forests have similar features to temperate forests - soft wood coniferous forests, logs mobility and transportation.
Thus, we need to adopt scientific practices of forestry and promote schemes like agro-forestry and joint forestry for development of timber industry.