Soil Health Cards for J&K Forests on anvil

Jammu : Indian Council of Forestry Research & Education (ICFRE), Dehradun under Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change has launched a project to prepare Forest Soil Health Cards in the country.
The exercise in J&K has been taken up by Himalayan Forest Research Institute Shimla under the aegis of ICFRE. Under the project, samples of soils were collected from different territorial forest divisions. The samples were analyzed and data obtained has been shared with the J & K Forest Department for inputs.
In this regard, a consultative meeting on FOREST SOIL HEALTH CARDS (FSHCs) of Jammu and Kashmir was organized at Forest Resources Management Centre Jammu on Wednesday.
The meeting was chaired by Principal Chief Conservator & HoFF Jammu and Kashmir Suresh Kr. Gupta. All the senior officers of forest department and Divisional Forest Officers attended the meeting.
Director Himalayan Forest Research Institute Shimla Dr. Sandeep Sharma; National Project Coordinator (NPC) from ICFRE Dr. V.P. Panwar; Scientist-G and Principal Investigator, Himalayan Forest Research Institute (HFRI), Shimla Dr. R.K. Verma, along with a team of scientists and officers coordinated and participated in the meeting.
Dr. Sandeep Sharma, Director HFRI Shimla apprised the participants that his institute has been given the task of preparation of Forest Soil Health Cards (FSHCs) of Jammu & Kashmir UT under one of the All India Coordinated Research Projects. He informed that besides Jammu and Kashmir, the institute has also prepared the Forest Soil Health Cards (FSHCs) for Ladakh UT and Himachal Pradesh under this project. He further informed that these Forest Soil Health Cards (FSHCs) have been prepared after collection of soil samples from different forest classes including the degraded areas, non-forest areas and scrub forests. Dr. Sandeep Sharma said that the main objective of the project was preparation of forest soil health cards and find out the status of forest soil in terms of availability of different macro and micro nutrients to the plants; understand the soil related constraints in degraded areas, and address the existing knowledge gaps in management of forest soils; suggesting recommendations for improvement in the nutrient deficient soils for success of forestry plantation and productivity enhancement.
In his inaugural address, PCCF & HoFF, J&K Suresh K. Gupta, highlighted the importance of forest soils and talked at length about the range of ecosystem services provided by forest soils. He expressed his concern over the degradation of soils in general and forest soils in particular. In Jammu and Kashmir perspective, he said that though the forest wealth is profuse but issues like degraded areas, shallow soils at places, acidic and alkalinity related problems, poor nutrient availability, less success in plantation activities, cannot be overlooked.
Appreciating the efforts of Himalayan Forest Research Institute, he said that the initiative of preparing the FSHCs of Jammu and Kashmir J&K is certainly praiseworthy work and knowledge sharing by the institute will be useful for the forest managers and frontline field.
National Project Coordinator (NPC) Dr. Vijender Pal Panwar gave a presentation elucidating the genesis, conceptualisation, implementation, and key outcomes of the project.
Later, Principal Investigator, Himalayan Forest Research Institute (HFRI), Shimla Dr. R.K Verma, interacted with the participants and gave a detailed presentation about the Forest Soils Health Cards (FSHCs) and explained how soil samples have been collected from different locations of Jammu and Kashmir territorial forest divisions and analysed as per the standard protocols. He also explained about the use of GIS and RS tools for deciding the sampling locations and quantum of samples to be collected from each forest division. He also discussed the various organic and inorganic recommendations made in the FSHCs. This was followed by detailed discussion on the contents and FSHCs. The Officers of the forest department provided useful inputs/insights for refinement of these cards. Dushyant Kumar, Senior Technical Officer, HFRI Shimla conducted the proceedings of the meeting and also proposed the formal vote of thanks.