Endemic Possessions Of Eastern Ghats

About this book

Language: English

From the preface:

“Pterocarpus santalinus Linn. popularly known as Red sanders is a member of the Fabaceae family. This species is variously known as Erra chandanarn (Telugu), Sivappu Chandanam (Tamil) and Raktachandan (Sanskrit). The distribution of this species is uniquely localised to some parts of Chittoor, Cuddapah and Nellore districts of the Seshachalam hill ranges of Andhra Pradesh. Red sanders is one of the most sought out species because of its various high value uses in the face of very low availability, even from non legal sources. At the same time, its site specific endemic distribution has further constrained its extension to wider regions beyond its natural habitat.

Due to the high demand and highly protected nature of management, the possibility of increasing the availability of this species through legal sources is almost negligible in the existing scenario. Farmers do not take up plantations of this species due to stringent unfavourable rules. This has led to illicit felling and exploitation of the existing resources. As a consequence protection of this species has become a serious problem for the forest department. However, the lack of extension of this species is not largely due to technical reasons but to a large extent it is related to management approach as the species comes up profusely in natural regeneration as is evidenced from coming up of sufficient coppice from the stumps of illicit cut trees.

Therefore, for sustainable management of Red sanders, it is essential that all the information relevant for its growth and extension be made available to researchers, farmer and forestry professionals. However, no single book is available for providing holistic information on various technical and management aspect of this endangered tree species and this book is an effort to fill that gap. It is hoped that this book will elicit enough interest on Pterocarpus santalinus Linn. for its conservation and sustainable management. It will be helpful as a reference for future research on and utilization of Red sanders.”