Excepting bamboo and sungrass, various grass species growing
in the forest lands of Chittagong, Chittagong Hill Tracts and Sylhet
districts of Bangladesh, at present, have practically no use. Five
grass species, namely, Panicum, antidetale, Retz., Themeda arundinacea,
Ridley., Saccharum spontaneum Linn., Thysanolaena maxima, O, Ktze, and
Imperata arundinacea, Cyr., which are available in the area in appreciable
quantities, have been pulped by steaming and soda processes for the
manufacture of insulation boards in equivalent mixtures as well as in
the proportion of their availability in the forests. The pulps obtained
by the steaming process were free-draining but rather dark in colour.
Soda pulps were lighter in colour but comparatively slow-draining.
Yield was high in both the processes.
Rigid structural insulation boards were made both by press-drying
in a hot hydraulic press at low pressure and by cold pressing the
mats and then drying in a force-draft oven. The boards had very
good strength but moderate heat insulating properties, They compared
favourably with the imported ones so far as the moisture resistance
properties were concerned.

In the wake of plausible expulsion threat
from the plain forests of Dacca-Mymensingh
areas and the northern zone of Bangladesh
due to expanding population pressure, the
necessity, scope and arguments for afforestation
of Unclassed State Forests (USF) is now
much more genuine, wider and stronger respectively
than before. These USF areas
constitute a large tract of contiguous land,
free from the vices of legal complications
and from all norms of scientific land use,
land classification and land capability considera
tions, should be devoted to forestry. This
should not be viewed as merely an argument
for increasing forest areas but be taken as
a legitimate and just demand of the land
itself. Moreover, when Bangladesh is under
a population pressure of nearly one thousand
persons per square mile, the highest in
the world, it is unpardonable, with the present
knowledge of scientific land use, to

The taxonomy of bamboos offers more
problems to the taxonomists than that of
any other group of flowering plants.
Unlike other perennial flowering plants many
bamboos flower once in their life and die.
Because of the non-availability of flowering
materials, identification based on anatomical
structure is often of particular
interest.
Except the leaf anatomy by Metcalf
(1960), no anatomy of M. conip act iflor us
has yet been done. Ghosh and Negi (1960)
studied culm epidermis of six Indian
bamboos. Pattanath and Ramesh Rao (1969)
studied the culm epidermis and internodal

Cultivation of oilpalm in Bangladesh
started in 1979. Six hundred hectares of
plantations have already been raised in
Chittagong, Cox’s Bazar and Sylhet forest
divisions on hilly land.
Oilpalms are best grown in many
countries located between 0° to 10° latitudes
(Hartley 1977). Bangladesh lies between
21°25′ to 26°38′ N latitudes. Therefore,
before undertaking ventures of large scale
plantation of oilpalm in Bangladesh, due consideration should be given on her climatic
and soil suitability aspects.

Teak (Tectona grandis L.) is the premier
species both in terms of properties, and
appearance and is the top demanded
species in Bangladesh. In recent years, heavy
demand of timbers in the industries has
led the Forest Department to choose fast
growing species on short rotations. Still
the demand of Teak for constructional and
cabinet manufacturing purposes and also
for export is very high. It is, therefore,
being planted only under the long rotation
cycle.
Stump planting is the usual practice
for raising Teak plantations. Seedlings are
raised in the nursery, one year ahead, for
stump-planting during May-June in the

Grasses such as Blue panic, Guinea grass, Green panic, Rhodes
grass, Signal grass, three cultivars of Buffel grass, two cultivars of
Setaria and Legumes like Centro, Greenleaf desmodium, Highworth
dolichos, Rongai dolichos, Archer dolichos, Tinaroo glycine, Siratro,
Cook stylo, Schofield stylo, Endeavour stylo, Townsville stylo, Verano
stylo were grown at six Silvicultural Research centres of Bangladesh
to study their herbage production. Among grasses Signal grass,
Guinea grass, Green panic and the cultivars of Setaria produced
higher amount of herbage in comparison to other grasses. Legumes
like Schofield stylo, Cook stylo, Endeavour stylo, Townsville stylo
and Verano stylo produced higher yields of herbage in comparison
to other legumes. These promising fodder grasses and legumes have
important bearings on multiple land use in agriculture as well as in
forestry.

Trials on introduction of tropical Pines
have been undertaken in Bangladesh with
a view to building up a source of
longfibred pulp. Pinus caribaea, P. oocarpa
elliottii have been experimentally
over the last 15-20 years at
the Bangladesh Forest Research Institute
Campus. Needle cost is a general term used to
describe diseases in which needles are shed
from diseased trees. Specific needle cast
differs with respect to age of needles

A community Forestry Project was initiated in 1980 in the
Protected Forest land at Pomra in the district of Chittagong. So
far, 126 landless families have been rehabilitated in 24 groups in the
project area by allotting 1.62 ha of denuded hills to each family.
Most of the families took loans from the Bangladesh Krishi Bank
for procuring inputs with the help of the Forest Department to
amounts ranging from Tk 1,000 to Tk 4,000. The paper discusses
the state of development of horticultural and forest plantations in
these plots, and the improvement of the standard of living and
socio-economic status of these families. The cropping pattern, inputoutput
ratio, Land Expectation Value and employment intensity have
been reported on the basis of a survey conducted on 24 families out
of 126.

The operational mechanism of the project is also discussed.
The major problems of the model have been outlined. The model,
if properly developed may substantially contribute towards salving
national problems like unemployment, poverty, food and forest
products deficits by depicting a way of optimum utilization of the
hitherto unproductive Unclossed State Forests, Protected Forests and
hilly khas lands of the country.