Protected Trees in the Forests of Uttarakhand

Hundreds of trees are protected as living natural monuments and are associated with wisdom and immortality in India. In Uttarakhand, some trees hold special cultural and religious significance like peepal, banyan, mango etc. It was at the International Forestry Conference at Rome in 1926 that Protection of Natural Features was discussed. In 1929 Sir H.G.Champion, Silviculturist, Forest Research Institute mooted the idea of preservation of elite trees along with establishment of Preservation Plots and resolution No. 22 was passed. In 1951 Seth distinguished 3 types of preservation plots. By the time the country became independent, the subject of Protected trees appeared to have fallen into neglect. In 1958, Bhadran, however, gave the first comprehensive account of Giant Trees of India including trees girth of more than 100 inches at breast height. The growth of trees depends on many factors like seed origin/parent material, inheritance characters, edaphic, climatic etc. Growth of trees has found to be more in Tropical Wet evergreen/Semi evergreen forests than trees in other forest type. In 2007-08, authors from Silvicultural Division of Forest Research Institute have visited Preservation Plots of Uttarakhand and adjoining Shiwalik forests of Uttar Pradesh and surveyed Protected Trees which still have markings on their stem. Fresh enumeration was also done at sites and presented in the present paper. It was concluded from the study that due to global warming and intense biotic pressure, regeneration has found to be abnormal. Increased biotic pressure threatened some existing species. There is need to examine the causal inhibitor factors responsible for establishment of regeneration and elimination of some species.