Sal (Shorea robusta Gaertn. f.) is an important timber species of Dipterocarpaceae. This species has the widest distribution amongst the dipterocarps, from North-west India to Eastern India, Sikkim, Nepal and Bangladesh (Thiselton Dyer 1874, Tran Van Nao 1974, and Khan 1984). In Bangladesh it is known as sal or gazari, and occurs naturally in forests under Gazipur, Madhupur, Sherpur, Dinajpur and Comilla districts. Small patches of natural sal forest also occurs at Saltilla of Sylhet and Mainamoti of Comilla district. There are also sal plantations in Dhaka, Dinajpur and Sylhet districts (Das 1976).

One timber, locally known as panniya sal, is available in the timber markets and saw mills of Dinajpur, Panchagarh and Thakurgaon districts which is usually collected excavating the river beds of those areas. This collected sal timbers remained under “pani” (water) for which it is called panniya sal.