Impact of Harvesting of Emblica officinalis (Aonla) on Its Natural Regeneration in Central Indian Forests

Abstract

The present paper reports the prevalent harvesting practices of an important NTFP species, Aonla, Emblic myrobalan (Emblica officinalis) which grows as an associate in tropical dry and moist deciduous forests in large parts of India. Aonla fruit is a rich natural source of vitamin C and is an integral part of a number of Ayurvedic (Indian system of medicine) formulations. Aonla fruits start maturing after December but due to great demand by industries and intense competition among collectors, pre-mature harvesting starts in October. The entire fruit collection is over within a span of 2-3 weeks. Prevalent harvesting practices of Aonla fruits involve lopping and pollarding of branches and in some places even felling of the whole tree. The results reported in this paper pertain to some tropical dry deciduous forests of central India, which form an industrial catchment for the supply of raw Aonla fruits for pharmaceutical preparations to the prominent industries located in the area. The study compared the impact of extraction of fruits in Protected Areas (PAs) as well as in multiple use natural forests. While extraction of NTFPs from PAs is legally restricted, although villagers on the fringes sneak in and collect some quantity of fruits, no such restriction exists in multiple use forest areas. The unsustainable practices impact natural regeneration and damage fruiting trees. The results revealed that as against 16.00 ± 1.09 trees/ha of fruiting Aonla trees in PAs, the tree population in multiple use forests was observed to be very low (5.20 ± 3.09 trees/ha). A similar trend was observed in respect to natural regeneration also. As against a mean number of 20.00 ± 2.01 seedlings/ha in PAs, there were only 2.20 ± 1.50 seedlings/ha in multiple use areas.