TEAK PLANTATIONS IN NILAMBUR - Kerala Forest Research Institute

1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
Teakwood is a valuable multipurpose timber preferred for quality and
decorative applications and exported for centuries from India. It is excellent
for furniture, doors, decorative veneer, plywood and all sorts of
constructions. Teakwood has high rating in most of the timber qualities such
as strength, durabdity and workabdity. It has been dcscribcd as one of the
most durable timbers of the world (Pearson and Brown 1932). Traditional
use of teak poles for electricity transmission and timber for railway sleepers
are a time tested testimony of’its suitability for outdoor uses. It is the best
timber for ship building and even now sea-going dhows (uru) are built with
teakwood in the traditional ship yards of Beypore near Calicut. In the earlier
days, Indian, Arab and British merchant and naval ships were built with teak
from Malabar. Among Indian timbers, only sandalwood and rosewood
command a higher price than that of tcakwood.
Teak (Tectona grandis Linn.f) has a natural distribution range of South and
South-east Asia. India has the maximum genetic variability of teak with a
natural distribution of over 8.9 million ha (Tewari, 1992). For the first time,
teak plantations were raised in India in 1842 in Nilambur (Ribbenthrop,
1900). It is cultivated throughout the tropics in varying extent. Teak covers
about 14% of the total tropical plantations (Evans, 1982). Extensive teak
plantations exist in India outside the zones of its natural distribution. As on
plantations in India covered 926,484 ha (Karunakaran, 1995). Nearly 8,000
ha of teak plantations representing about ten percent of all teak plantations in
Kerala exist in Nilambur North and South Divisions.