Amritsar Forest Division, Amritsar
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WORKING PLAN AMRITSAR FOREST DIVISION, AMRITSAR WORKING PLAN PERIOD (2013-14 To 2027-28) By:- N. S. RANDHAWA, IFS Introduction Amritsar Forest Division is an important division both from forestry as well as from historical perspective. This Working Plan has been prepared for the Government forests of Amritsar Forest Division. The total area covered by this Working Plan is 13898.53 ha. of which the Block Forests constitute 5646.24 ha. and the Strip Forests constitute 8252.29 ha. Some of the Block Forests have been declared either as Reserve Forests or Protected Forests under The Indian Forests Act 1927, whereas all the strip forests have been notified as Protected Forests. Some Block Forest areas still remain as unclassed forests and efforts are being made to get them declared as Protected Forests. This Working Plan aims to conserve forests and wild life through scientific approach of forest management, consolidation of the forests areas, enhancing the growing stock in these forests with the help of improved and latest technologies coupled with participatory management through JFM. It further aims to provide an enhanced level of protection to forest wealth, conservation of biodiversity, habitat improvement of wild life, management of NTFP, enhancing public awareness in matters related to forests and forest ecosystems, creation of employment opportunities and increasing the productivity of the Forests. Since both the revenue districts of Amritsar and Tarn- Taran falling in this forest division are agriculture predominant districts efforts have been made to incorporate prescriptions which shall help to enhance tree cover outside conventional forest areas. The guidelines of the Government of India and Government of Punjab have been meticulously followed in the preparation of this Working Plan. It is expected that the prescriptions given in this Working Plan will help in fulfilling the objective of improving the environment and ecological status of the area. At the same time, it is also believed that the improvement of soil and its moisture regime will raise the general prosperity of the people as a whole. N.S.Randhawa, IFS Divisional Forest Officer Amritsar Forest Division & Working Plan Officer ii Executive Summary Amritsar Forest Division is a very old forest division which came into inception in year 1943 that is before partition of the country. Before partition this forest division comprised of forest areas falling in Amritsar and Gurdaspur districts of combined Punjab. After partition, in the year 1966 the original state of Punjab was subdivided into states of new Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. Subsequently in the year 1968 this forest division was restricted to revenue district of Amritsar. But with the carving out of new district of Tarn-Taran in the year 2006 this division presently comprises of revenue districts of Amritsar and Tarn- Taran. So far 6 working plans have been prepared for this forest division with details as under:- Sh. D.L. Sah, Working Plan 1938-39 to 1946-47. Sh. Jaswant Singh, Working Plan 1947-48 to 1972-73. Sh. S.K. Kapoor, Working Plan 1973-74 to 1982-83. Sh. Sital Das Working Plan 1983-84 to 1992-93. Sh. Ranjit Singh Working Plan 1993-94 to 2002-03. Sh. Basanta Raj Kumar, Working Plan 2003-04 to 2012-13. The main objective of this Working Plan is conservation of the Forests and Wild Life and improving the ecological and environmental status of the area. The major forest protection issues which have been addressed in this working plan are illicit felling of timber, protection of wildlife, biodiversity conservation, consolidation of forest boundaries so as to check any further encroachments and removal of existing encroachments. In order to achieve this and other objectives this Working Plan proposes eleven Working Circles. Working Circles have been constituted on the basis of nature of Forest area to be worked silviculturally. All the Block Forests i.e. Reserve Forests, Protected Block Forests and Un-classed Block Forests have been put into Block Working Circle. Remaining strip forests have been divided into four working circles i.e. Road Strip, Canal Strip, Drain & Bandh Strip and Railway Strip Plantation Working Circles. Besides this six mandatory overlapping Working Circles have been proposed to ensure biodiversity conservation, peoples participation, sustainable yield of NTFP, Wild Life habitat improvement, increase in growing stock primarily through large scale plantations and a good level of protection to Forests and Wild Life. The prescribed Working Circles are enumerated below. 1. Block Forests Working Circle 2. Road Strip Plantations Working Circle 3. Canal Strip Plantations Working Circle iii 4. Drain and Bundh Strip Plantations Working Circle 5. Railway Strip Plantations Working Circle 6. Wild life (Overlapping) Working Circle 7. J.F.M (Overlapping) Working Circle 8. Protection (Overlapping) Working Circle 9. Plantation (Overlapping) Working Circle 10. NTFP (Overlapping) Working Circle 11. Biodiversity Conservation (Overlapping) Working Circle Areawise Abstract of the Different Working Circles Category of the Forests Length Area in ha. Road Strips 1153.00 km 1437.50 Block Forests - 5646.24 Railways Strips 202.00 km 992.29 Canal Strips 5969.05 RD 3775.50 Bundhs and Drains 3151.10 RD 2047.00 TOTAL 13898.53 No separate working series have been prescribed. Block forests have been sub-divided into compartments. Similarly the rails, roads, canals and Bundhs & Drains have been sub-divided upto compartments. In case of rail and road strips 5 kms of length and in case of canal system 15 R.Ds or part thereof on either side of the strip constitutes one compartment. One RD is equal to 1000 ft. running distance. Salient Features: 1. Though increasing productivity of the forests is one of the key objectives but the main focus of this Working Plan is conservation rather than production. 2. There shall be no felling of Shisham, Kikar and fruit trees in all forests 3. The prescribed yield has been reduced to 50% of the calculated yield. 4. Indigenous tree species will be given preference over exotic species in the plantation programmes. 6. There shall be no clear felling of the forest areas. 7. Great emphasis has been laid on the consolidation of forest areas by removal of encroachments, fixation of boundary pillars on permanent basis by using modern technologies like GPS/GIS. iv 8. Overlapping circles of Wild Life, Non Timber Forest Produce, Biodiversity Conservation, Joint Forest Management, Plantation and Protection have been added to improve the silvicultural working and general health of the forests. 9. Keeping in view the vision of the department and state government to increase the forest cover to 15% in the coming decade, a new focus has been given to plantations in areas outside conventional forest areas Keeping this in view forest beats have been reorganised to incorporate non forest areas in them besides the existing forest areas. All villages have been incorporated into forest beats with an objective to plant every available blank patch of institutional land, common lands and private arable lands offered by farmers. In order to improve and monitor the silvicultural working on scientific lines few research projects have been proposed in this working plan. As major thrust is to be laid on agroforestry as per state crop diversification plan this emerges as a key sector where research is required in order to maximize profits of farmers so that they are attracted to take up agroforestry in a big way. The main suggested lines of research are field trials of different clones and species of Poplar, Burman Dhrek and Eucalyptus in different site conditions of this forest division. Besides this different spacing trials of these agroforestry species and intercropping species trials need to be taken up to enhance their income and thus promote agroforestry. Through this specific clones and species can be recommended to the farmers as per site conditions for agroforesty. Punjab Agricultural University Ludhiana need to be associated in these research projects. In order to monitor and evaluate biodiversity conservation status it is suggested that some sample research plots shall be laid randomly in block forests as well as in strip forests. As our biodiversity is under a big threat therefore it assumes a great significance and thus demanding a big need for setting up of these research plots to monitor its conservation status regularly. The suggested broad parameters or core indicators which need to be monitored and evaluated after a regular span of 10 years are crop composition, its natural regeneration status, site quality and productivity. The parameters can be further refined and upgraded after due consultation with the research institutes. This issue can be taken up with the local Guru Nanak Dev University which will not only benefit the department but also provide a good research platform to the students and academicians. N.S.Randhawa, IFS Divisional Forest Officer Amritsar Forest Division & Working Plan Office v Acknowledgements I wish to thank the office and field staff of Amritsar Forest Division who took pains in verifying the field data, compiling them and calculating the growing stock. My special thanks to Sh. Som Nath, Superintendent Amritsar Forest Division, Sh. Gurpal Singh RFO, Sh Balwant Singh Dy RFO, Anu, Jaspal Singh and Paramjit Kaur for their vital contribution in the preparation of the working Plan. I would also like to thank: Sh Sunil Kumar, IFS Conservator of Forests, Ferozepur Circle for the support and able guidance he has given in the preparation of the Plan; Sh. R.K.Luna, IFS, APCCF, for his encouragement and sharing his valuable experience in formulation of this working plan. Sh. A.K.Goel, IFS, APCCF (Central) for giving his valuable suggestions. Sh. H.S. Gujral, IFS, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (HoFF), for having reposed confidence in me and giving me the honourable task of writing the Working plan.