Abstract

An attempt was made to gather some of the available data related to forestry in Kerala and to generate certain useful information. The results include the following. The actual area under forests in Kerala is far below the area of 11, 225 square kilometer under forests by legal status during 1987-88. An estimate provided by the Forest Survey of India, Dehra Dun for the 1985-87 period is 10, 149 square kilometer. The area under forest plantations has been increasing at a compound rate of 5.18 percentper annum during the period 1956-57 to 1987-88. Teak and eucalypts account for the major share of the area under plantations. Over the period of 1956-57 to 1987-88 the total expenditure in real terms was increasing. The period 1965-1980 was characterisedby relatively more production of timber, poles, firewood and charcoal and the revenue in real terms was also on the increase. However, the revenue after 1979-80 was declining mainly due to the reduction in the out-turn of forest products. A computerized data base and retrieval system was developed for plantations in Kerala, with reference year 1987-88. The system can instantly retrieve information pertaining to any set of plantations in the State with regard to location, species and year of planting. The utility of such a management information system is demonstrated by making projections of yield from teak plantations in Kerala for a full rotation age in the future. A study on first rotation yield from eucalypt plantations in Kerala indicated that Eucalyptus tereticornis gives an average yield of 72.59 m3 ha-1 at 10 years whereas E. grandis yields upto 137.64 m3 ha-1 at the same age. Large variation in yield within regions precluded the discovery of any inter-regional differences. Differences in the initial espacement did not have much influence on yield, probably due to high mortality caused by extraneous factors. Larger plantations in general exhibited lower yield levels. Mean annual rainfall recorded in some of the important catchments in Kerala is presented. A study of the variation showed significant differences between the catchments with respect to rainfall. A study on timber prices showed either no or weak relation between current price and lagged values of price and disposal for eight species in Kerala. Price forecasting based on exponential smoothing fared better but predictions in general were not satisfactory. The report brings out the need for a more reliable data base and studies to utilize such data effectively