Bending timber, as a means of producing
curved parts in fabrication, has several
advantages over other methods of manufacture.
A variety of bends can conveniently
be made from solid wood by hand bending
method. It is often found suitable for the
production of such articles as various
furniture parts, country boats, vehicle parts,
sports goods and novelty items. Although
the modern trend is oriented towards the
manufacture of wooden bent parts from
glued laminated timber, extensive studies have
been made in many countries on bending
of solid timber (Anon. 1948, Anon. 1959,
Anon. 1967, Peck 1943, Peck 1950, Martin
and Wangaard 1950, Rehman et al 1956).
Solid woods have been classified by them
according to their bending characteristics.
No such information in respect of the

The Sundarban forests lie on the
south-west part of Bangladesh and occupy a
major part of the deltaic regions having
a land area of 4,75,000 hectares. The forest
is comprised of a wide variety of tall
mangrove species and short undergrowths. Th area, being dissected by numerous
interconnecting rivers and creeks, is difficult
to approach by land communications;
consequently the Sundarbans have been less
disturbed enthropically. These forests thus
provide an excellent opportunity to study

A large number of small dimension
round Teak becomes available every year
through thinning operations of Teak
plantations in Chittagong and Chittagong
Hill Tracts (Anon. 1979). In recent times the
principal uses of such thinnings have been
their uses as pole, fence-post and house post. Teak pole and post are often used
under conditions favouring rapid decay.
The heartwood of Teak is durable but the
sapwood is highly susceptible to attack by
borer, termite and fungus. In outdoor uses
and in contact with ground Teak sapwood
perishes in a year or two. Teak poles,

Bangladesh is blessed with 119 species
of mammals (Khan 1982). The abundance
of such a large number of species in a
small territory has been possible because
of a diversified flora, a characteristic of
tropical forests. However, the existing
mammalian population indicates a distinctly
deteriorating trend during the past
several decades. No systematic survey of
mammals has ever been carried out for the
area now under the territories of Bangladesh.
It is, therefore, difficult to quantify the
magnitude of loss. Our knowledge is
limited to some old records made by
Blanford (1888) and Pocock 1939, 1941) and
some recent works (Choudhury 1969,
Mountfort 1969, Husain 1974, Khan 1982).
None of these records is complete and
uptodate and, therefore, further studies are
needed in this direction. A reconnaissance
survey was made during 1978 and 1979 to
assess the status and distribution of some
mammals of Bangladesh. This paper
discussess the status and distribution of 21
species covering 8 families.

Wood-based particleboard is a recent
introduction in Bangladesh. Prior to 1981,
there was no plant in Bangladesh which
could produce wood-based particleboard.
The one located at Narayanganj has been
producing particleboards for the last 25 years under the trade name of ‘Partex’ using jute
stalk, an agricultural residue. The wood-based
particleboard plant established by the
Bangladesh Forest Industries Development
Corporation(BFIDC)at Chittagong went into
production of three-layer medium density

Teak has occupied a dominant
position in the plantation programme of
Bangladesh. As much as 70-80 percent
of the total plantations established in
the hill forests is composed of Teak
(Douglas 1981, White 1979). In the future
plantation programmes also it is likely to
remain to be the principal species.
The rate of return from Teak plantation
is not known in Bangladesh. Because
of lack of this information it is not possible
to compare Teak with other promising
species and without doing so forestry

Bamboos play a very important role
in the rural economy of South and South-
East Asia. Probably the usefulness of
bamboo is nowhere as great as in Bangladesh.
What with the population explosion and
wholesale depletion of forest wealth during
the last decade or so, Bangladesh is suffering
from acute shortage of wood. Bamboos
from the village groves which used to be
the most important material for house
construction, scaffolding, ladders, mats, baskets, fencing, containers, tool-handles,
pipes, toys, musical instruments, furniture,
handicrafts and a host of other utilities
are in very short supply these days (Lessard
and Chounard in 1980). Bangladesh
once used to be very rich in bamboo
species. Karnaphuli Paper Mills was orginally
planned to produce 120 thousand tons of
paper a day with Muli bamboo (Melocana
baccifera) as the fibrous raw material.
However, it was found later that these

Machining properties of wood are highly
important in determining their suitability
for prospective uses. Different woods vary
in machining properties as influenced by
their density, fibre structure, chemical and
mineral contents and many other
characteristics. As machining is involved in all
common woodworking operations, a knowledge
of the machinability of different woods
is helpful in selection of a particular species
for a particular use. The importance
of this information lies in marketing of conversion for The minor species occur gregariously
along with the commercial species in the
natural forests of the country. Due to
ignorance of the characteristics and machining
properties of these species, they are either
abandoned at the remote site in the forests
or used as fuel wood. Since the supply of
major commercial species of wood has
dwindled to a great extent, it is imperative to
introduce and bring these minor and new

Rattans are spiny climbing plants
belonging to the Lepidocaryoid Major Group
of the Palm Family (Moore 1973). In the
Malay Peninsula 9 genera occur : Calamus,
Daemonorops,korthalsia Plectocomia,
Plectocomiopsis, myrialepis Calospatha,

Baruna (Crataeva religiosa, Forst) is
a fast growing tropical hardwood species
found to grow sporadically in Bangladesh
near river banks and in swampy lands. The
wood is softer than many other indigenous
species with a yellowish-white to brown
colour. The wood has been reported to be a
good timber for turnery works and, as such,
used for making toys, cups, saucers and many
other small articles (Chowdhury and Ghosh
1958). But uptil now it is not utilised as an
industrial raw material in the country except
for fuel wood. A fast growing species as
it is, raising of Baruna plantations in
swamp forests as well as its possible uses
in wood-based industries of the country
was discussed in more than one meeting of
the ‘Research Consultative Committee’ held
in the Forest Research Institute, Chittagong.
In this context, the present research works
have been conducted in the Institute to study