活动名称：木艺木趣国际研讨会暨展览会
时间地点：2011年10月21日，印度班加罗尔J N Tata多功能礼堂
演讲嘉宾：K S Shashidhar
演讲题目：Changing trends in timber usage in Nagaland, India

摘要：The State of Nagaland in North Eastern part of India is endowed with rich forest resources. With about 52.04 per cent of its geographical area under forests of which 88.30 per cent are owned by communities and individuals, the state is sustained mainly by a rural economy. Forests along with agriculture and animal husbandry are the main source of livelihood, impacting the economic and socio-cultural aspects of the people. The timber resources have three major end users, domestic consumers, wood based industries and market outside the state. Initially, the hardwood species like Phoebe goalparensis, Michelia champaca, Morus laevigata and later Terminalia myriocarpa, were preferred for durability and sizes for construction. No gap existed between demand and supply with availability of timber in plenty. With the setting up of wood based industries and export outside the state, the demand far exceeded the supply resulting in escalation of prices. Species costing Rs. 50-100 per cubic feet during 1985-90s are now priced at Rs. 350-500. With gradual shrinkage of natural forests, scarcity of the preferred timber species resulted in shift towards lesser known hardwood species such as Chukrasia tabularis, Artocarpus chaplasha, Albizzia lebbeck and Duabanga sonneratioides. The Jhuming cycle has been reduced to 4-5 years from earlier 15 to 20 years. All these necessitated augmentation of the resource base through people‘s initiative in the form of plantations of Terminalia myriocarpa, Gmelina arborea and Duabanga sonneratioides. Subsequently, plantations of Tectona grandis and Gmelina arborea were taken up on large scale. In this scenario one can foresee a future for fast growing species like Teak and Gmelina. Emphasis on plantations of short rotation timber species with technological interventions to explore the potentials of engineered woods would augur well for the sustainable management of forest resources in the state.

K S Shashidhar, Department of Forests, Ecology, Environment and Wildlife, Kohima, Nagaland.