Nigam, Rajeev 
  
Block Plantation 7144 
Degraded Block Plantation 400 
B. POTENTIAL SITES FOR AFFORESTATION 
Scrub Land 7900 
Grazing land/ Degraded Pasture 720 
6.2 POTENTIAL SITES FOR AFFORESTATION 
i Scrub lands: These lands are mostly occupied by relatively higher topography like 
uplands or high grounds with or without scrub in open land, near agricultural fields, 
near roads, canals and river.. This category accounts for 7900 hectares. and mostly 
having plant species of Acacia sp., Prosopis specigera etc. and Ziziphus sp. 
ii. Grazing land/Degraded pasture : Which accounts for 720 hectares which is the 
maximum in all the classes mapped. They are mostly present surrounding the 
villages, Mostly species of Acacia sp. and Prosopis sp. are present. This area is 
recommended for potential site for afforestation plan by the forest department also. 
7.0 DISCUSSION 
On the basis of data supplied by the Department of Forest (Govt. of Haryana). 
The reserve forest area is 1400 hectares while in our study by using satellite remote 
sensing technique the reseve forest area comes to 1324 hectares which is 1.15 percentage 
and 1.08 percentage to the geographical area of the district respectively. While the total 
forest cover which includes reserve forest areas, strip plantations, and block plantations 
which accounts for 8567 which is 7.03 percentage to the total geographical area of the 
district. The forest blank areas within the reserve forest boundary are due to non 
germination of the seeds of the plants. but the measures are being taken by the forest 
department to plant species belonging to Acacia, Dalbergia sissoo and Prosopis juliflora 
etc. | 
The major indigenous tree species of the area are Kikar (Acacia nilotica), 
Shisham (Dalbergia sissoo), Neem (Azadiracta indica), Jandi (Prosopis cineraria), Beri 
(Zizyphus jujuba), Jal (Salvadora oleoides), Jamun (Syzygium cumini), Siris (Albizzia 
lebbeck), Bakam (Melia azadiracta) and Rohru (Tecomella undulata) etc. The prominent 
exotic species planted are Prosopis juliflora, Eucalyptus sp., Populus sp., Acacia tortilis, 
and Ailanthus sp., Besides, there are innumerable associated as well as scattered species 
etc. The forest area in Kurukshetra division comprises only scanty, xerophytic and widely 
dispersed vegetation, due to increase in population and the demand of rural masses in 
terms of fuel,timber, fodder etc. The existing vegetation has degraded to large extent. 
The adverse environmental factors also create the problem of seedling establishment and 
plantation. As, the result of this the seedling mortality is high and forest area is less 
despite the best efforts of the state forest department. Due to over exploitation of trees, 
  
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International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXIII, Part B7. Amsterdam 2000.