Mexican Pines and their Possibilities in India

Mexican conifers and pines in particular have proved to be valuable exotics in various countries of the World as a source of quick-growing and reasonably cheap soft-wood for pulp and paper industries. According to the available statistics in India, there is a great need for increasing the production of quick-grown pulpwood in our country in order to meet the rising demand which is expected to be ten times the present requirements in the next two decades. The dwindling resources of bamboo and the extreme difficulty in exploiting the land-locked coniferous woods of the higher Himalayas owing to logging and transport difficulties, coupled with the problem of their speedy regeneration after exploitation, have created an acute shortage of the vital long fibred material for the paper industry. Tropical and Mexican pines provide some solution to the problem of bridging the gap hetween demand and supply of pulpwood mainly because of their quick-growing nature, long fibre length, higher volume return and adaptability in suitable parts of other receptor countries. Thus, Mexican pines hold a great promise in India, the introduction of which has already been taken up by the Silviculture Branch, F.R.I., Dehra Dun, for some years past and the results of these trials indicate that a few species like Pinus patula, P. pseudostrobus, P. caribaea, P. oocarpa and some others hold bright prospects for growth in some of the areas tried (Qureshi, 1967). This paper briefly deals with the distribution, regeneration techniques, management and utilization of Mexican pines and at the end suggest a definite approach towards a systematic investigation based on elimination trials for rapid screening of species and promotion of large scale cultivation of the selected species for meeting the long felt needs of quick-growing long fibred material for the expanding pulp and paper industries in this country. The author visited Mexico under a UNESCO Study grant and the recommendations are based on actual field studies and discussions with various national and international experts on the subject.