Gmelina arborea as High Density Plantation to Reclaim the Red Lateritic Wasteland Lands of Chhattisgarh

Gmelina arborea indigenous tree species to Indian sub continents is locally known as Khamar/Gambhar and is fairly grown in natural forest area and also cultivated as farm forestry. The study was carried out in high density plantation of G. arborea (1x1m) in marginal wastelands of Entisols at Dr Richhariya Research and Instructional Farm Baronda (Raipur). At 10.5 yrs growth of plantation, trees were felled and the accumulation of dry matter with N,P,K,C and combustible energy in root, bole, bark, branches, twigs and foliages. The survivorship of plantation was recorded 70% upto th 4 years which was dropped to 56% at felling. The average height of plantation was 8.02 m with 10.4 cm collar diameter and 7.10 cm DBH. Total biomass of a tree was recorded16 kg (dry) which removed 22.5 g N, 6.18 g P and 504 g K with 8 kg carbon having 56,452.9 Kcal/tree combustible energy. Under storey herbage biomass observed at 4, 6 and 9 years of plantation age was found decreasing from 16.8 to -1 8.5 kg ha−1 also played important role in the changes of soil properties under plantation as compare to adjacent open field at 0–15, 15–30, 30–60 and 60–100 cm soil depth over 10.5 of plantation showed that acidity of soil was decreased, while increment was found in case of water holding capacity (21.4%), Organic carbon (96.3%), available Nitrogen (50.3%), Phosphorus (149.3%) and Potassium (64.6%). The coppice in fell tree was recorded 74% with average of 6 shoots per tree. The study showed that resource utilization of marginal wasteland of red lateritic (Entisols), by high density plantation of G. arborea improved the soil quality at every soil depth along with the production of biomass of tree which can be used for timber and fuel wood.