ESTIMATED QUANTIFICATION AND VALUATION OF FUELWOOD COLLECTED FROM FOREST AREAS OF NARMADA FOREST DIVISION OF GUJARAT STATE, INDIA.

The forest ecosystem is a primary source of fuel wood for forest dwellers as cooking energy and other purposes. The forest dwellers depend on the nearby forest area for taking fuel wood on headloads or otherwise. Therefore, an attempt has been done to estimate the quantity and monetary value of fuel wood being collected from the forest areas of Narmada Forest Division (NFD). This study was done in 31 forest villages covering 346 households through structured questionnaire interview based on the density classes of the forest and their dependence for fuelwood on the forest. It has been found that a total of 11 tree species are being frequently used as fuelwood. The investigation of the study showed that fuelwood collection was found to be 76561.79 Mt/annum with an estimated monetary value of Rs 114.7 million/annum. The fuel wood collection from forest areas having different density classes viz., Moderate Dense (MD), Open Forest (OF) and Degraded Forest (DF) found to be 3.39 mt/ha/annum, 1.54 mt/ha/annum and 0.31 mt/ha/annum, respectively Furthermore, estimation showed that per capita and per household's fuel wood consumption in the forest villages of NFD is 1.06 kg/day and 5.3kg/day, respectively. These benefits of forest are being used free of cost by the villagers of the forest areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]