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AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHS - A TOOL FOR OBTAINING AREA INFORMATION FOR
FOREST BASED INDUSTRIAL FEASIBILITY STUDIES IN BASTAR
By
Dr.M.N.Tandon, Site Assessment Officer (Inventorv), Madhya
Pradesh Forestry Technical Assistance Project, Jagdalpur (India)
1. Introduction
Aerial photographv as a tool for forestry puroose is being use-
fullv employed in a variety of wavs from one region to the other.
However indications of their limitations within each forest re-
gion have become apparent firstly because of the non-availabili-
ty of proper photographs at proper time to the foresters and
secondly because of such factors as forest tvpe, topographv,
stand density, age and characteristics of individual tree
species etc. etc. Thus it is essential to know the limits with
in which information can be extracted from aerial photographs
in the light of modern developments of photographic and photo-
interpretation equipments within each of the forest regions.
Many recent techniques of taking and interpreting aerial photos,
developed and recommended for forestrv purposes are still un-
known among foresters or not vet applied for forestry purposes
in many of the countries or regions. Particularlv for the deve-
loping nations like India - havirÿ some 75 million ha of forest
area and a variety of forest types - it is necessary that the
use of aerial photographs for forest management or regional
forest industrial planning is made freely. Such use of air
photos would furnish results more quickly and economically than
bv traditional ground methods. In a study carried out by
HILDEBRANDT, 1957 the time saving compared with ground methods
works out to some 50 to 70 percent depending on forestrv con-
ditions;topographv, staff and scope of business etc.
The improved techniaues now available offer varietv of fields
of application of aerial photographs for forestrv planning.
This paper deals with one such example of application of aerial
photographs for forestrv feasibilitv studies being carried out
in Bastar region.
2. About Bastar, its forests, and forest management
Land locked and sparsely populated, Bastar is a pre-dominantly
forested territory in the state of Madhva Pradesh, India. Bastar
constitutes one of the richest single forested regions in India.
Out of the total geographical area of the district which is
39,176 km? the extent of forest area is 22,882km? (56%). In the
national context, it works out to some 3$ of total forest area
whereas it constitutes some 13% of the state forest area. In
terms of growing stock and potential vield also, it is prominent
indeed. It contains some 7$ (187 million m? according to FAO
Report, 1970) of the total growing stock of Bamboo according to
Pre-investment Survey of Forest Resources Organisatior. This is to
the tune of 4.2 million tonnes. The potential annual cut from
these areas has been estimated as nearly 3.14 million m? of
timber and fuel and 0.32 million tonnes of Bamboo.