Forestry: Forest Products and Non-Timber Forest Produce
Timber and NTFP
Major timber: teak (Tectona grandis), Maharashtra's premier hardwood, ring-porous with a distinct smell and oily feel; khair (Acacia catechu), which yields katha; shisham (Dalbergia latifolia); bamboo (Bambusa bambos - a grass); semal; ain. Non-timber produce includes tendu leaves (Diospyros melanoxylon) for bidi, mahua flowers and seed, gum karaya from Sterculia urens, lac from the insect Kerria lacca on palash or ber, honey from Apis dorsata, cane, fodder and medicinal plants such as ashwagandha, safed musli and satavari.
Harvest and trade
Sustainable harvest means taking only the increment. Tendu leaves are plucked in rotation, leaving the terminal leaves so the shoot survives; host trees are never felled. Trade runs through the state forest development corporation and primary cooperatives, with minimum support prices for major MFP. Grading, drying and packaging add value for gatherers.
Worked example
A tendu coupe is worked for a fixed season; harvesters pluck the third and fourth leaf from the tip, leaving the top two. Why? Apical leaves keep photosynthesis and bud survival going, so the shrub yields again next season; stripping the shoot kills the cycle.
Traps
Bamboo is a grass (Poaceae), not a hardwood tree. Lac is an insect secretion, not a plant gum. Gum karaya comes from Sterculia, not from Acacia nilotica. Tendu is a leaf product - the tree is not cut.