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Natural resources assessment and their utilization

IR@CSIR-IHBT

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Title Natural resources assessment and their utilization
 
Creator Uniyal, S K
Singh, R D
 
Subject Ecology
 
Description The present paper quantifies and reviews
the natural resource use in the Himalayan state of
Himachal Pradesh (HP). Twenty-five percent of the
geographical area of HP is under forests and harbour
ca. 3,400 plant species. The available bioresources not
only support the livelihood of nearly 6 million people
but also fulfill the forage requirement of 5.2 million
livestock. Thus, dependence on bioresources is
manifold. Based on field surveys to different localities
of HP and analyses of published information, two
types of resource use patterns have been identified.
One, the direct use of forest resources which is
represented by extraction of timber, fuelwood and
fodder; and the second represents indirect resource
use from the forest that is represented by activities
related to agriculture, tourism and industry. Amongst
the direct resource use, annual timber requirement of
the local people works out to be 310,063 m3. On the
other hand, annual fuelwood and fodder requirement
of local people is to the tune of 3,646,348.8 and
10,294,116.5 tons, respectively. Extraction of fodder
therefore appears to be one of the main reasons for
forest degradation in HP as opposed to timber and
fuelwood extraction. However, compared to direct
resource use, indirect resource use and pressures have
far more pronounced effect on the forests. Of the
indirect pressures, shifts in agriculture patterns and
increased tourism seem to be the most prominent.
 
Date 2012
 
Type Article
PeerReviewed
 
Format application/pdf
 
Identifier http://ihbt.csircentral.net/1223/1/28_Natural_resources.pdf
Uniyal, S K and Singh, R D (2012) Natural resources assessment and their utilization. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 184. pp. 4903-4919.
 
Relation http://ihbt.csircentral.net/1223/