Teak productivity dropping in Kerala

Kerala, which had the distinction of raising the world's first teak plantation and was once considered the Mecca of teak, is losing ground due to declining productivity.

The state is no longer supplying teak to the international market although it has about 75,000 hectare of the 2.76 lakh hectare under teak cultivation in India at present.

Attributing this fall in productivity to a number of factors, Nagesh Prabhu, Conservator of Forests (Central Circle), Kerala, said that deterioration of the site under second and third rotation teak due to frequent fires, heavy grazing and uncontrolled soil erosion year after year were the major causes.

Removal of nutrients by teak itself to support its growth for a period of 60 to 120 years, poor quality of planting stock raised out of genetically inferior seeds, financial constraints for timely planting and aftercare had also contributed towards the decline, he added.

Lack of measures on the part of the state government to encourage people to grow teak in their house compounds and fields had also led to non-exploitation of potential for growing teak in lands suitable for its growth. Besides, insufficient research inputs was yet another reason.

The Kerala Forest Department has raised large tracts of teak plantations over the years. On an average, the final yield of these plantations is 60 cubic meter per hectare and the present mean annual increment (MAI) of the standing crop of the state worked out to a meager 2.423 cubic metre at 60 years per hectare.

Experts believe that the potential of MAI could be easily raised to 4.9688 cubic meter per hectare at the same age. Teak timber has been a major source of revenue to the state government, earning an average revenue of Rs 95 crore per year.

The price curve of teak has always been bullish and during the last 10 years the price of teak has increased threefold in the domestic market.

As on today 44 per cent of the world's teak plantations are in India. Of this, Kerala's share is about 30 per cent.

Major portions of teak plantation in Kerala were raised during 1960-1980 period and therefore most of the teak plantations in the state are in the age group of 35-40 years.

That means they are at the prime of their productivity. Moreover, around 6,000 hectares fall in the age group of less than 10 years.

Emphasising that the declining productivity has caused concern to the state government, M I Varghese, former deputy conservator of forests, said, "Now some efforts are being taken to improve the productivity. With the assistance of Kerala Forest Research Institute (KFRI), the state's department of forest has identified 1,250 hectares of promising teak plantations and converted them into seed production areas by removing inferior trees."

This measure is aimed at generating quality seeds for raising plantations with improved productivity.

Moreover 250 hectares of these seed production areas have been taken up for genetic culling with the assistance of Indian Council Forestry Research and Education, he added.

In addition to this, KFRI has established three pilot clonal seeds orchards of teak over an area of over six hectares utilising 25 clones developed by the institute.

Apart from this, the Forest Department has set up over 30 hectares of clonal seed orchard. A Forest Seed Centre has also been established with financial assistance from World Bank mainly to supply certified quality seeds of teak for plantation activities of the forest department and other interested agencies.

Other measures introduced to improve productivity include banning of select felling in natural forests to encourage natural generation of teak, checking soil erosion in teak growing forest areas and introduction of revolving fund system to ensure regular flow of funds during nursery and planning season.

Of late, the Kerala government has also realised the need to involve people in the production of teak and other valuable timber species in the state.

Till now, teak was in the list of trees that cannot be felled and utilised be an individual even if they were planted and nurtured by him in his own land.

And for cutting such trees, the individual had to follow a very cumbersome procedure of getting permission from the concerned officials of the State Forest Department.

This had a highly discouraging effect and made people generally averse to planting and looking after teak in their plots.

However, the State government has now promulgated an ordinance removing ten tree species, including teak and rosewood from this restricted list.