The Concept of Fast Growth in Forestry and the Place of Indigenous Fast Growing Broad-leaved Species

The concept or fast growth in forestry is not absolute but related to the objects in view, site productivity, differential performance of a species at different periods of its life with special reference to the size and quality of produce required and the economics involved. Of equal importance is the total weight of cellulosic material produced and its relative recovery in the finished product particularly in case of pulp industry. Without denouncing the present search for fast-growing exotics to meet the evergrowing demand of wood, the paper focuses attention on some of indigenous species which are as fast-growing as, and in some cases even much more than, the much-coveted eucalypts, tropical pines and poplars and satisfy the criteria commonly accepted for a fast-growing species, viz., a minimum M.A.I. of 10 m³ per ha. Special mention in this respect is made of Gmelina arborea, Cedrela toona, Terminalia myriocarpa, Michelia champaca, Anthocephalus cadamba, Trewia nudiflora, Lophopetalum fimbriatum, Artocarpus chaplasha and some others. Lamb, A.F.A., reports from U.K. that the most important fast-growing tropical hardwoods is Cedrela. A species may be fast-growing up to a certain age and not beyond and therefore for different purposes different species could serve as fast-vowing. With the present emphasis on pulpwoods, and short-rotation crops, some of the indigenous species could as well be as useful as the exotics without the risks and uncertainties involved in the case of the exotics. Also, for different productivity zones, based on major climatic and edaphic types, different species could serve the purposes in view.