Sustainability-based evaluation of bamboo harvest in Pachgaon, Chandrapur, Maharashtra, India

Abstract

The Gram Sabha of the village of Pachgaon, Chandrapur, owns a big chunk of the forest land nearest to the village, from which they extract a number of products or trade and sustenance, predominantly bamboo. The economy of the entire village depends on an effective Working Plan for the extraction of bamboo based on principles of sustainable harvest. This project was undertaken to evaluate conditions in Pachgaon forest under the Working Plan affecting bamboo growth with the goal of increasing shoot regeneration. The ecology and life history of bamboos called attention to potential factors of shoot recruitment- clump characteristics, abiotic and biotic factors- to be collected as data. The variation in forest density in Pachgaon forest provided a natural experimental setup to understand density and harvest effects. Understanding the effects of density and harvest on shoot recruitment patterns highlighted compensatory growth in high-density areas only. Further analysis revealed a differential effect of density and time since harvest on shoot recruitment: a detrimental effect of harvest in lower densities and a compensatory effect in higher densities respectively on shoot recruitment. Additionally, understanding patterns of herbivory led to the formulation of ‘Escape Height’, an anti-herbivory quantity.