Need for Mechanisation for Forest Plantations

In the context of present day requirement of wood, both for local anddomestic consumption and for wood-based industries, large scale plantations have become a sine qua nan for India. Accordingly, a provisional target of about 56,000 ha (14lakh acres) has been used for the IV Plan exclusively for fast-growing species for industrial consumption. This excludes a considerable area which is planted up annually as a part of normal programme of regeneration and reboisement. To undertake all this work, mechanisation of plantation operations becomes inescapable, particularly in areas where manual labour in the interior of forests is either not available or is available at a time when forestry operations are over since the period of forestry works and the agriculture operations synchronise and overlap. The paper, therefore, focuses attention on various aspects of the problems and discusses the advantages of mechanisation including better soil working, reduction of weeds and saving in expenditure, etc., that are achieved with mechanisation of plantation operations. The paper also deals in general with the equipment needed and used, with particular reference to conditions of U.P. One of the important aspects of mechanisation in U.P. is its adaptability to conditions of taungya cultivation which greatly contributes to the production of food crops from forest areas and which is of great significance in the present food shortage. Considering this limitations of use of mechanised equipment, it is conceded that such equipment is suitable only for plains or gently sloping land and not for such hilly slopes where the equipment will either not feasible to operate or where it is not advisable to use in the interest of soil and moisture conservation or amelioration of the site.