WBC-VIII-Vol.4 – Resources – Forestry, Plantations and ... - BambuSC

sequester carbon, can be an effective, cheaper, and income generating option to face the challenge of climate
change and to fulfill the demand of livelihood for the forest dependent people. Out of few big bamboo species,
which are able to grow at lower temperature, Dendrocalamus asper is one of the economically viable and
socially useful species for cultivation in the mid hills of Himalayan region. No reports on biomass produced by
D. asper are available from the mid hill region of India. The Present study was conducted to estimate the above
ground biomass produced in D. asper plantation at two aspects (hill slope and river side) in the mid hills of
Uttarakhand state of India.
Materials and Methods
The study was conducted during 2006-2008 at Agriculture Research Station, Majhera and Jarmila, Garampani,
Nainital, Uttarakhand, India. Altitude, latitude and longitude of the study site are 1000 m (a.s.l.), 29º30.137’,
79º28.784’, respectively with two aspects i.e. top of hill and side of river bank. Maximum temperature,
minimum temperature and maximum relative humidity were recorded 32.1ºC in the month of June, 4.83ºC in the
month of January and 97.67 per cent in the month of August, respectively on the basis of mean of three years
data. Annual rainfall of this site was 554.30 mm (Fig 1).
Methods as given here pertain to data collection procedure and analysis for biomass using acceptable linear
equations for the encountered species in this study. Plants of D. asper were produced through micropropagation
(Agarwal et al. 2008) and planted at ARS, Majhera at the top of the hill and at Jarmila by the side of the river
bank of Kosi (spacing 5m) in the year 2006 (Fig 2). Sampling was done during December 2008 by selecting five
plants from each site. Five poles of various diameter and height from each plant were harvested. Fresh weight of
each pole with branch & leaves was taken and dry weight was recorded by drying at 70ºC for 72 hrs in an oven
after harvesting. On the basis of fresh & dry weight linear regression equation was developed (Singh et al. 2009)
to estimate the above ground biomass of D. asper. For the estimation of soil carbon, sampling was done
according to Jackson (1973) at 0.5m and 1.0 m radial distance from the centre of the plant. Soil sampling for
control was done before the bamboo plantation. Estimation of organic carbon was done by Soil testing
laboratory (Uttarakhand Tea Development Board), Bhowali, Nainital (UK) India.
Results & Discussion
Model for the prediction of above ground biomass in D. asper was developed. With the help of this model,
estimation of above ground biomass produced by D. asper at two aspects in the mid Himalayan region was
done. The results indicated change in the biomass on the basis of fresh and dry weight. For fresh weight, height
of the pole, girth to height at 1.0 m and 1.5 m affected the biomass by 99.8 per cent whereas in dry weight it was
97.6 per cent (Table 1).
VIII World Bamboo Congress Proceedings Vol 4-91