Forestry & Forest Sciences · Forest Products & Utilization · also Minor Forest Produce, Non-Wood Forest Products, NTFP Management
Products other than timber: gums, resins, tannins, fibres, oils, edible products, bamboo and rattan, and medicinal and aromatic plants, with their sustainable harvest, processing and trade.
In the exams: ICAR AICE-JRF 59 Unit 7 (non-wood forest products); ICAR AIEEA-PG Group 09 (major and minor forest products including medicinal and aromatic plants); IFoS Forestry Paper II Section B
Non-timber forest products (NTFPs), also called non-wood forest products or, in Indian law, minor forest produce, are the goods other than timber that people obtain from forests and trees: gums, resins, tannins, dyes, fibres, flosses, essential oils, medicinal and aromatic plants, bamboo and canes, fruits, nuts, seeds, mushrooms, honey, lac, tendu leaves and many more. For hundreds of millions of people living in and near forests, these products supply food, medicine, fuel, materials and cash income; for forest-dependent and tribal communities in India they are often the main source of income in some seasons. They also supply industries making paper, varnish, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, food and furniture.
The word 'minor' is misleading. In many forests the value of NTFPs to local people and to the economy rivals or exceeds that of timber, and their harvest shapes the ecology of the forest. Overharvesting, destructive collection, weak tenure and exploitative markets threaten both the resources and the people who depend on them. Managing NTFPs well requires knowledge of the species and their biology, sustainable harvest methods, processing that adds value, and fair institutions for marketing and benefit sharing.
This manual covers the classification and livelihood importance of NTFPs; gums and resins; tannins and dyes; fibres and flosses; essential oils and aromatic plants; medicinal plants; bamboo and canes; edible products; lac, tendu leaves and other regional products; sustainable harvest and certification; and marketing, cooperatives and value chains. Field identification of the source trees is covered in dendrology; the silviculture of bamboos and multipurpose trees in silviculture of species; and the classical Ayurvedic properties of many medicinal plants in Laisha's Ayurveda dravya pages, which this manual complements from the forestry side. The subject is examined in ICAR's AICE-JRF forestry paper (non-wood forest products), ICAR's AIEEA-PG and the UPSC Indian Forest Service Forestry optional. Yields, prices and quantities vary greatly by region, year and product, and are given here only as examples where they are well established.
FAO defines non-wood forest products as goods of biological origin other than wood derived from forests, other wooded land and trees outside forests. The broader term non-timber forest products includes some wood products such as fuelwood, small poles and wood for handicrafts. In India, minor forest produce is defined in the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 as all non-timber forest produce of plant origin, including bamboo, brushwood, stumps, cane, tussar, cocoons, honey, wax, lac, tendu or kendu leaves, medicinal plants and herbs, roots and tubers. The Indian Forest Act, 2017 amendment removing bamboo grown outside forests from the definition of a tree also bears on bamboo as a product.
NTFPs can be classified by the product (food, medicine, fibre, exudate, oil, ornamental), by the plant part harvested (bark, roots, leaves, flowers, fruits, seeds, exudate, whole plant), by origin (plant or animal, such as honey, lac and silk), or by end use (subsistence, local trade, industrial raw material, export). Classification by plant part is especially useful for judging sustainability, because harvesting leaves or fruits is usually less damaging than harvesting bark, roots or whole plants.
NTFPs contribute to livelihoods in several ways: as subsistence goods consumed at home, as a source of cash income, especially in seasons when farm work is scarce, as a safety net in times of drought or crop failure, and as a basis for small enterprises. They are particularly important to women, who do much of the collection and primary processing of products such as mahua flowers, tendu leaves, sal seeds and medicinal plants, and to the poorest households, who have least land. In India, tribal communities in central and eastern states depend heavily on products such as tendu leaves, mahua, sal seed, lac, chironji, tamarind and medicinal plants.
At the same time, incomes from NTFPs are often low, because collectors sell raw products to traders at low prices, lack storage and processing, and depend on markets they do not control. Rights to collect and sell were often restricted in the past by state monopolies and licensing. Laws such as the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996, which gave gram sabhas in scheduled areas ownership of minor forest produce, and the Forest Rights Act, 2006, which recognised the right of forest dwellers to collect, use and dispose of minor forest produce, aim to strengthen community control. These institutional questions are taken up in the final chapter.
NTFP harvesting affects the forest and is affected by its management. Repeated bark stripping or root digging can kill plants; heavy fruit collection can reduce regeneration; fire set to stimulate mahua flowering or grass growth can damage the forest; and lopping for leaves can stunt trees. Conversely, logging can destroy NTFP resources, as when trees that yield fruit or gums are felled for timber. Integrating NTFPs into working plans, through resource inventories, harvest prescriptions, protection of key species and the involvement of collectors, is increasingly recognised as part of sustainable forest management, and is discussed in sustainable harvest and certification.
NTFPs are important on every continent. Brazil nuts (Bertholletia excelsa) are collected almost entirely from wild trees in the Amazon, whose pollination and seed dispersal depend on intact forest with orchid bees and agoutis. Cork is the bark of the cork oak (Quercus suber) in Portugal, Spain and North Africa; it is stripped from living trees at intervals of about nine years without killing them, a classic example of sustainable bark harvest. Shea butter comes from the nuts of the shea tree (Vitellaria paradoxa) in the savannas of West Africa and is collected and processed largely by women. Maple syrup is made from the sap of sugar maple in North America. Rattan from Indonesia and Malaysia, chicle and natural rubber tapped from wild trees in Latin America, and wild mushrooms such as matsutake in East Asia and North America are other examples. These cases show both the potential of NTFPs to give value to standing forests and the risks of overharvest when demand rises.
Gums are water-soluble or water-swellable polysaccharide exudates, produced by many trees in response to wounding or stress, that harden on exposure to air. Gum arabic, from Acacia senegal (now Senegalia senegal) and related species, mainly from the Sahel belt of Africa, is the most important gum in world trade, used in food, beverages and pharmaceuticals as an emulsifier and stabiliser. Indian gums include gum karaya from Sterculia urens, obtained by blazing or deep tapping of the trunk and used in food, pharmaceuticals and dentures; gum ghatti from Anogeissus latifolia, used as an emulsifier; and gums from babul and other acacias, Butea and Lannea. Gum is collected from tapping wounds or natural exudations, sorted by colour and cleanliness, dried and graded. Over-tapping, particularly of Sterculia urens with deep or excessive blazes, has killed many trees, and guidelines limit the number and size of tapping wounds and the tapping season. Experiments with growth regulators such as ethephon to stimulate gum flow have been carried out on some species but must be balanced against damage to trees.
Resins are water-insoluble exudates, mostly terpenoids, often secreted in resin canals and dissolved in volatile oils (oleoresins). The most important forest resin in India is the oleoresin of chir pine (Pinus roxburghii), tapped in the subtropical Himalaya. Distillation of the oleoresin separates it into a solid, rosin, which makes up roughly two-thirds of the yield, and a volatile liquid, turpentine, roughly a fifth; proportions vary with the method and source. Rosin is used in paper sizing, varnishes, adhesives and printing inks, and turpentine in solvents and chemicals. Other resins include sal dammar (ral) from Shorea robusta, white dammar from Vateria indica, gurjan oleoresin from Dipterocarpus, guggul from Commiphora wightii (a medicinal resin), and frankincense-type resins from Boswellia serrata (salai gum).
Pine tapping methods have evolved to increase yield and reduce damage. In the traditional cup-and-lip method, a deep blaze was cut and resin collected in a cup; it caused heavy damage and was replaced by the rill method, in which a shallow blaze is made by removing bark without cutting deeply into the wood, and narrow V-shaped or parallel channels (rills) are freshened at intervals, with a chemical stimulant, such as a sulphuric acid paste, often applied to prolong flow; resin runs into a container below. Tapping rules specify the minimum girth of trees to be tapped, the number and width of blazes per tree, the height of tapping, rest periods between tapping cycles, and the cessation of tapping some years before final felling. More recently, borehole methods, in which resin is collected through a small hole drilled into the sapwood into a closed container, have been tested and promoted in some places because they produce cleaner resin and smaller wounds. Resin tapping increases fire risk in pine forests because resin-soaked blazes burn readily, so fire protection is part of tapping management. Sal tapping for ral is generally destructive and is discouraged in many working plans.
Tannins are polyphenolic compounds that bind proteins; they convert animal hides into leather and are also used in inks, medicines and as wood adhesives. Hydrolysable tannins, such as those of myrobalans, and condensed tannins, such as those of wattle and mangrove barks, are the two main groups. Important tanning materials include myrobalans, the dried fruits of Terminalia chebula (harra), rich in tannins and also a major Ayurvedic drug (haritaki); the bark of black wattle (Acacia mearnsii), the leading commercial source of condensed tannin in southern Africa and planted in the hills of South India; the bark of babul and avaram (Senna auriculata), traditionally used in South Indian tanneries; mangrove barks such as Rhizophora and Ceriops, whose harvest has damaged mangroves; and the wood of quebracho in South America. Synthetic and chrome tanning have reduced demand for vegetable tannins, but vegetable-tanned leather remains valued.
Katha and cutch are prepared from the heartwood of khair (Senegalia catechu): chips of heartwood are boiled, and the concentrated extract yields katha, a crystalline product chewed with betel leaf, and cutch, a dark residue used in dyeing and tanning. Khair felling for katha is regulated in many states because of overexploitation.
Before synthetic dyes, most textile colours came from plants and insects, and natural dyes are again in demand for craft textiles, food and cosmetics. Forest sources include the red-brown cutch from khair; the orange-yellow dye from the flowers of Butea monosperma (palas); kamala, an orange powder from the fruit hairs of Mallotus philippensis; annatto (Bixa orellana), a cultivated shrub whose seed coat yields an orange food colour; myrobalans, used as mordant and dye; Morinda (al), whose roots give red; and lac dye from the lac insect, discussed later. Indigo is mostly from cultivated Indigofera. Natural dyes usually need mordants, metal salts or tannins that fix the dye to the fibre, and the choice of mordant changes the colour. Their production is small but supports craft livelihoods and can add value to forest products collected by communities.
Forest fibres are used for rope, mats, baskets, paper and textiles. Bhabar or sabai grass (Eulaliopsis binata), a perennial grass of dry slopes in the Siwaliks and central India, has been an important raw material for paper and is twisted into rope; its cultivation on degraded slopes also controls erosion. Munj (Saccharum munja) provides fibre for rope and mats. Bark fibres come from climbers such as Bauhinia vahlii (mahul), whose bark is made into rope and whose leaves are stitched into plates, and from trees such as Sterculia villosa and Grewia species. Leaves of palms such as Phoenix and Borassus, and of screw pines (Pandanus), are woven into mats and baskets. Bamboo and cane, the most important fibre-like materials, are treated in a separate chapter. Fibre extraction often involves retting, the soaking of bark or stems in water so that microbes loosen the fibres, followed by beating and washing.
Flosses are fine, silky fibres attached to seeds, used for stuffing pillows, mattresses and life jackets. Kapok, from the seed pods of Ceiba pentandra, is light, water-resistant and buoyant, and is produced mainly in South-East Asia. Semal floss comes from the fruits of the silk cotton tree (Bombax ceiba), widely collected in India. Calotropis yields a floss of lesser value. Flosses have been largely replaced by synthetic fibres for many uses, but remain valued in some local and niche markets. Collection of whole fruits before they open and split, and drying in the sun, gives clean floss; seeds are separated by beating.
Most forest fibres are sold raw at low prices. Value is added by grading and cleaning, by twisting into rope, by weaving into mats and baskets, and by craft production for urban and export markets. Cooperatives and self-help groups that organise collection, processing and marketing have raised incomes in some areas. Sustainable harvest of fibre plants, especially bark-fibre climbers and palms, needs rules on how much bark or how many leaves may be taken and how often.
Essential oils are volatile, aromatic mixtures, mostly terpenes and related compounds, produced in glands, ducts or cells of plants. They are extracted mainly by steam distillation, in which steam passes through the plant material and carries the oil vapour to a condenser, where oil and water separate; by hydrodistillation, in which material is boiled in water; by solvent extraction, which yields concretes and absolutes for delicate flowers; and by cold expression for citrus peels. Oils are used in perfumery, flavouring, pharmaceuticals, aromatherapy, cosmetics and insect repellents. The CSIR Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP) at Lucknow is a leading Indian research centre for aromatic crops and their processing.
Sandalwood oil, distilled from the heartwood of Santalum album, is among the most valuable essential oils; it is regulated in India along with the tree, and Australian sandalwood (S. spicatum) and plantation-grown S. album now supply much of the world market. Eucalyptus oil is distilled from leaves; oil from Eucalyptus globulus and some other species is rich in 1,8-cineole and used medicinally, while oil from the lemon-scented gum (Corymbia citriodora) is rich in citronellal and used in perfumery and repellents. Cedarwood oil is distilled from the wood of deodar and other conifers. Agarwood oil from infected Aquilaria heartwood is extremely valuable and regulated under CITES. Pine needles and turpentine yield further compounds.
Several aromatic grasses grow wild and are cultivated in India. Lemongrass (Cymbopogon flexuosus and C. citratus) yields an oil rich in citral; palmarosa (C. martinii), native to central India, yields an oil rich in geraniol; citronella (C. winterianus and C. nardus) yields citronella oil used in repellents; rosha grass is a local name for palmarosa; and vetiver (Chrysopogon zizanioides) yields an oil from its roots and is also planted for soil conservation. Many medicinal herbs, such as tulsi (Ocimum species) and mints, are also aromatic. Collection of aromatic grasses from the wild is giving way to cultivation on farms and degraded land, which offers income to farmers and pressure relief to forests.
Oil quality is judged by its chemical composition, usually by gas chromatography, and by physical properties such as specific gravity, optical rotation and refractive index; international standards specify acceptable ranges for traded oils. Adulteration with cheaper oils or synthetic compounds is common and harms trust. Small, simple field distillation units allow communities to produce oil close to the source, reducing transport of bulky leaves and grasses, but quality control, fuel for boilers and access to buyers are common constraints.
Medicinal plants supply the codified systems of medicine of South Asia, Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani and Sowa-Rigpa, as well as folk medicine and modern pharmaceutical and herbal industries. Estimates of the number of plant species used medicinally in India range into several thousands, and a large share of the raw drugs traded comes from wild collection, much of it in forests. India's National Medicinal Plants Board, set up in 2000, supports conservation, cultivation, research and marketing. Many species important in trade are also described in Laisha's Ayurveda dravya pages, which give their classical properties and uses: for example amalaki (Phyllanthus emblica), haritaki (Terminalia chebula), bibhitaki (Terminalia bellirica), arjuna (Terminalia arjuna), guggulu (Commiphora wightii), sarpagandha (Rauvolfia serpentina), chandana (Santalum album), rakta chandana (Pterocarpus santalinus), ashoka (Saraca asoca), guduchi (Tinospora cordifolia), shatavari (Asparagus racemosus), ashwagandha (Withania somnifera), jatamansi (Nardostachys jatamansi), ativisha (Aconitum heterophyllum), kutaja (Holarrhena pubescens), kalmegha (Andrographis paniculata), khadira (Senegalia catechu), nimba (Azadirachta indica) and devadaru (Cedrus deodara). This manual deals with their sourcing from forests and farms.
Many medicinal plants are threatened by overharvesting, especially species whose roots, rhizomes, bark or whole plants are collected; by habitat loss; and by slow growth or narrow ranges. Examples include high-altitude Himalayan herbs such as jatamansi, kutki (Picrorhiza kurroa), atis (Aconitum heterophyllum) and kuth (Saussurea costus); bark drugs such as ashoka, whose bark has been widely substituted or adulterated; guggul, whose overtapping has made it threatened; and Himalayan yew for taxol. Some are listed under CITES: kuth in Appendix I, and jatamansi, kutki, Rauvolfia serpentina, Taxus wallichiana and red sanders in Appendix II; India also restricts the export of a list of wild-collected medicinal plants.
Conservation combines in situ and ex situ approaches. Medicinal Plant Conservation Areas, a network of forest sites established from the 1990s in southern and other states with the Foundation for Revitalisation of Local Health Traditions and state forest departments, protect wild populations and their habitats. Threat assessments using IUCN criteria, through Conservation Assessment and Management Prioritisation workshops, identify priority species. Ex situ conservation uses herbal gardens, field gene banks and seed banks. Sustainable collection rules, cultivation and certification reduce pressure on wild stocks.
Good collection practice depends on the plant part. For fruits and leaves, harvest only part of the crop and leave enough for regeneration and wildlife; for bark, take only strips from part of the circumference so that the tree is never girdled, and allow wounds to recover; for roots and whole plants, harvest only mature plants after seed set, leave a proportion of the population untouched, and rotate harvest areas. Collection calendars, harvest quotas set from resource inventories, and training of collectors put these principles into practice. The World Health Organization's guidelines on Good Agricultural and Collection Practices (GACP) for medicinal plants (2003), and national GACP guidelines, cover identification, collection, post-harvest handling, storage and documentation.
Cultivation reduces pressure on wild populations and gives more uniform, traceable raw material. Species such as ashwagandha, shatavari, kalmegha, safed musli, lemongrass and many others are now widely cultivated, and agroforestry systems combine medicinal herbs with trees. Cultivation of slow-growing high-altitude species is more difficult, and cultivated material sometimes differs in active compounds from wild material. Correct identification, using voucher specimens and, where needed, chemical or DNA testing, is essential to prevent substitution and adulteration, which are widespread in the herbal raw-drug trade.
The quality of a herbal raw drug depends as much on handling after collection as on the plant itself. Plant parts must be cleaned of soil and foreign matter, dried promptly in shade or with controlled heat to a safe moisture content to prevent moulds and loss of active compounds, and stored in clean, dry, ventilated places protected from insects and rodents. Poor drying and storage lead to fungal contamination, including aflatoxins, and to loss of potency. Quality standards for raw drugs are set in pharmacopoeias, such as the Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India, which give tests for identity (botanical and microscopic characters, chemical markers), purity (foreign matter, ash values, extractive values, moisture) and safety (heavy metals, pesticide residues, microbial load). Testing by accredited laboratories and documentation of the source and handling of each lot allow buyers to trust the material and give collectors who follow good practice a better price.
India has one of the largest bamboo resources in the world, with well over a hundred species in many genera and a bamboo-bearing area that the Forest Survey of India estimates at several million hectares; the latest State of Forest Report should be consulted for the current figure. Bamboos grow in most forest types, abundantly in the North-East, central India, the Western Ghats and the Andamans, and on farms. Dendrocalamus strictus, Bambusa bambos, Melocanna baccifera, Bambusa tulda, Dendrocalamus hamiltonii and Bambusa balcooa are among the most important species. The National Bamboo Mission, launched in 2006 and restructured in 2018, supports bamboo plantations, nurseries, processing and marketing. The 2017 amendment of the Indian Forest Act, removing bamboo grown outside forests from the definition of a tree, has eased its harvest and transport on private land. Bamboo identification and biology are covered in dendrology, and its silviculture in silviculture of species.
Bamboo culms are harvested when mature, generally at three years or older, because younger culms are weak and their removal harms the clump; current-year and second-year culms are left to support new growth. Culms are cut low, just above the first or second node, with a clean cut, and congested clumps are thinned. Harvesting is usually done in the dry season, when starch content is lower and insect attack less. Bamboo is very susceptible to borer beetles (such as Dinoderus species) and fungi because of its starch content and lack of natural durability, so it is treated before use: traditional methods include soaking in water to leach starch, smoking and lime washing; preservative methods include soaking or diffusion in boron compounds (borax and boric acid), and sap displacement methods such as the Boucherie process, in which preservative is forced through freshly cut culms. Processing includes splitting into strips and slivers, weaving, bending with heat, and the manufacture of bamboo mat boards, laminated bamboo, flooring, panels, charcoal and pulp.
Bamboo has thousands of uses: construction and scaffolding, housing in the North-East and South-East Asia, furniture, mats, baskets, handicrafts, musical instruments, paper pulp, edible shoots, fodder, fuel and charcoal, and engineered products. Its rapid growth, renewability and carbon storage make it attractive as a substitute for wood and plastics, though its durability and fire resistance need attention in design.
Canes are the stems of rattans, climbing palms of the genera Calamus and Daemonorops, found in the evergreen forests of the North-East, the Western Ghats and the Andamans and throughout South-East Asia. Harvested canes are cut to length, the spiny sheaths removed, and then cured (by boiling in oil or by sun drying), scraped, graded, straightened or bent with heat, and made into furniture, baskets and handicrafts. Overharvesting has depleted wild rattans in many areas; harvest rules that leave young stems and protect clumps, and rattan cultivation in forests and plantations, aim to sustain supply.
Forests supply many foods. Mahua (Madhuca longifolia) is among the most important trees for forest communities of central India: its fleshy, sweet corollas fall in the hot season and are collected, dried and eaten or fermented and distilled, and its seeds yield a fat used in cooking, soap and confectionery. Chironji (Buchanania lanzan) yields valuable kernels used in sweets. Amla (Phyllanthus emblica) fruits are eaten and processed into preserves and medicines. Tamarind, jamun, ber, wild mango, bael (Aegle marmelos), wood apple and karonda supply fruit. Sal seeds are collected for sal butter, a fat used as a cocoa butter substitute. Karanja (Pongamia) seeds yield a non-edible oil used for soap and biodiesel. Chilgoza pine seeds from the dry inner Himalaya, walnuts and wild apricots are important nuts in the mountains. Collection timing, drying, storage and grading strongly affect quality and price.
Wild edible mushrooms are an important food and income source. Morels (Morchella species), known as guchhi, are collected in spring in the temperate forests of the western Himalaya and command very high prices in trade. Termitomyces species, which grow from termite mounds, are collected during the monsoon in many parts of India. Collection requires knowledge to avoid poisonous species, and morels must be dried carefully. Overcollection and the effects of forest disturbance on mushroom production are concerns, though because mushrooms are the fruiting bodies of underground fungi, careful picking does not necessarily harm the fungus itself.
Honey and beeswax are collected from wild colonies of the giant rock bee (Apis dorsata), which builds large single combs on cliffs and tall trees; the Asian hive bee (Apis cerana), which nests in cavities and is also kept in boxes; the dwarf bee (Apis florea); and stingless bees, which produce small quantities of prized honey. Honey hunting is a traditional skill of many forest communities, but destructive methods, such as burning bees and cutting whole combs, kill colonies and reduce future harvests. Sustainable methods use smoke instead of fire, harvest only the honey part of the comb and leave the brood, and are promoted through training and through organisations of honey collectors. Forest honey has growing markets, especially when its origin and quality are assured.
Lac is a resin secreted by the lac insect, Kerria lacca, which lives on the twigs of host trees and sucks their sap. India is one of the world's largest producers, mainly from Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Odisha. Two strains are cultivated. Kusmi lac, of higher quality, is grown mainly on kusum (Schleichera oleosa), and also on ber and some other hosts; its two crops per year are known as aghani and jethwi. Rangeeni lac is grown mainly on palas (Butea monosperma) and ber (Ziziphus mauritiana); its crops are katki and baisakhi. Lac is cultivated by inoculating pruned host trees with brood lac, twigs bearing mature female insects about to release larvae, which settle on the new shoots. When the crop matures, encrusted twigs are cut (stick lac), and the lac is scraped, crushed, washed and dried to give seed lac, which is melted and filtered to make shellac. Shellac is used in varnishes, food and pharmaceutical coatings, cosmetics and electrical insulation, and lac dye is a by-product. The ICAR Indian Institute of Natural Resins and Gums at Ranchi, founded in 1925 as the Indian Lac Research Institute, leads research on lac and gums. Host tree management by pruning and rotation is essential, and lac cultivation is a significant income source for forest communities.
Tendu or kendu (Diospyros melanoxylon) leaves are used to wrap bidis, small hand-rolled cigarettes, and are one of the largest NTFPs by value and employment in central and eastern India. To produce tender, uniform leaves of the right size, tendu bushes and coppice shoots are pruned or cut back (bush cutting) in the dry season before the new leaves flush, and leaves are collected in the hot season, dried, sorted into standard bundles and packed. In several states, such as Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Odisha, tendu trade was nationalised, with state agencies or cooperatives buying leaves at fixed rates from collectors and selling them to bidi manufacturers, and some states share net profits with collectors. Large numbers of people, many of them women, earn seasonal income from tendu collection, while the health harms of bidi smoking raise ethical questions about the trade.
Wild and semi-domesticated silks are forest-based. Tasar silk is produced by the caterpillars of Antheraea mylitta feeding on trees such as asan (Terminalia elliptica), arjun (T. arjuna) and sal in central and eastern India. Muga silk, a golden silk unique to Assam, comes from Antheraea assamensis feeding on som (Persea bombycina) and soalu (Litsea) trees. Eri silk is produced by Samia ricini, mainly on castor. Other regional products include myrobalans, sal seeds, karanja seeds, broomgrass (Thysanolaena latifolia) in the North-East, leaf plates from sal and Bauhinia vahlii, and Indian gooseberry. Each has its own collection season, processing and market, often managed through state cooperatives and federations.
A harvest is sustainable if it can continue indefinitely without reducing the population, its regeneration or the ecosystem functions it supports. Assessing this requires knowing the size and structure of the resource, its growth and reproduction, and the effect of harvest on survival and recruitment. Resource inventories estimate stocks and yields using adapted sampling designs, covered in forest inventory and sampling; yield studies on marked plants measure how much product each plant gives; and demographic studies with matrix models predict how populations respond to different harvest intensities. Participatory monitoring with collectors records harvests and resource condition over time. For most NTFPs, such data are scarce, so precautionary harvest limits and adaptive management are used.
Harvest rules set the amount, timing, method and frequency of collection. Typical elements include minimum size or age of plants to be harvested; the proportion of a crop or population that may be taken; leaving seed trees and part of the fruit crop; non-destructive methods, such as cutting leaves rather than uprooting plants, tapping within prescribed limits, and stripping bark in patches; rotation of harvest areas; closed seasons during flowering and seeding; and bans on harvesting rare or threatened species. Rules must be practical for collectors and enforced by community institutions as well as forest departments to work. Some NTFPs can be produced sustainably at much higher levels by enrichment planting and management, such as lac host trees, bamboo, rattan and medicinal herbs.
Certification provides market recognition for sustainably and fairly produced NTFPs. Forest management certification under the Forest Stewardship Council can include NTFPs within a certified forest management unit, with specific requirements for their sustainable management. The FairWild Standard, launched in 2008, sets ecological, social and fair-trade requirements specifically for wild-collected plants, including medicinal and aromatic plants, and supports a certification scheme used by companies sourcing wild herbs. Organic certification covers wild collection under national organic standards when collection areas and methods meet the rules. Good Agricultural and Collection Practices for medicinal plants and geographical indications for regional products also signal quality and origin. Certification costs, the small scale of many collectors, and the difficulty of verifying wild harvests limit its reach.
A value chain is the sequence of activities and actors that bring a product from collection to final consumer: collectors, local traders, wholesalers, processors, manufacturers, exporters and retailers. In typical NTFP chains, collectors receive a small share of the final price, because they sell raw, ungraded products in small quantities, lack storage and credit, have little market information, and may be indebted to traders. Value chain analysis maps the actors, prices, margins and constraints at each stage and identifies points where collectors can gain, such as grading, primary processing, storage, collective selling and direct links with manufacturers.
India has used several institutional approaches to NTFP marketing. State nationalisation of key products, such as tendu leaves, sal seed and some gums, gave state agencies and forest development corporations a monopoly on purchase, intended to protect collectors from exploitation, with mixed results. Cooperatives and federations, such as state minor forest produce cooperative federations, organise collection, processing and sale. The Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India (TRIFED), set up in 1987, promotes tribal products. The scheme for the marketing of minor forest produce through a minimum support price and development of value chains, introduced in 2013–14, set minimum prices for a list of products that has since been expanded, with state agencies buying when market prices fall below them. The Pradhan Mantri Van Dhan Yojana, launched in 2018, supports Van Dhan Vikas Kendras, clusters of tribal self-help groups that process and market NTFPs. The Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act and the Forest Rights Act give communities ownership and rights over minor forest produce, so that gram sabhas can collect, process and sell it themselves.
Practical measures that raise collectors' incomes include organising collectors into groups that sell collectively and negotiate prices; providing working capital so collectors are not forced to sell immediately; training in quality collection, drying, grading and storage; primary processing near the forest, such as making leaf plates, decorticating seeds, distilling oils or processing lac; market information through mobile phones; branding, certification and geographical indications for distinctive products; and partnerships with responsible companies. These measures must be matched with sustainable harvest rules, because higher prices can also increase pressure on the resource. Successful NTFP enterprises combine secure rights, sustainable management and fair markets.
Experience in India and elsewhere shows what makes NTFP enterprises work. Groups of women collectors processing sal leaves into machine-pressed plates, communities distilling lemongrass or eucalyptus oil, lac growers organised to buy brood lac and sell shellac, honey collectors marketing branded forest honey, and bamboo artisans' cooperatives producing furniture for urban markets have raised incomes where they combined secure access to the resource, training in quality, working capital, simple technology suited to local conditions, and reliable buyers. Failures often follow when enterprises depend on subsidies alone, when prices collapse after a boom, or when increased harvest depletes the resource. Monitoring both incomes and resource condition is therefore part of good enterprise support.
A student should be able to name the sources (with botanical names) and uses of the main gums, resins, tannins, dyes, fibres, flosses, oils, medicinal plants, edible products, lac and silks; describe resin tapping, lac cultivation, tendu bush cutting and bamboo harvesting and treatment; explain sustainable harvest principles and certification; and describe the institutions and laws governing NTFP rights and marketing in India. Field visits to collectors, processing units and markets give essential understanding.
A forester five years into service supervises resin tapping and tendu operations, plans lac host-tree management and bamboo harvests, conducts NTFP resource inventories, sets harvest prescriptions in working plans, supports gram sabhas and self-help groups exercising rights over minor forest produce, organises training in sustainable collection and processing, and helps link collectors to fair markets and minimum support price procurement.
A senior forester shapes NTFP policy and enterprises at state level: designing value chain interventions, managing state cooperative or corporation operations, setting tapping and harvest rules, coordinating with medicinal plant boards and bamboo missions, supporting certification and geographical indications, and resolving conflicts between conservation, community rights and commercial interests.
A researcher studies the ecology and economics of NTFPs: demographic effects of harvesting, yield and sustainability models, cultivation and domestication of medicinal plants, chemical quality and adulteration, value chain performance, the impact of rights and institutions on livelihoods and resources, and the design of certification. Such work informs harvest rules, policy and enterprise development.
This manual gives sources, methods and institutions; it does not give current prices, minimum support price lists, production statistics or state-by-state rules, which change often and should be taken from the latest official sources. Tapping, harvest and lac schedules are described in principle; local working plans and research institute guidelines give the specifications. Medicinal uses and doses of plants are not given; for classical properties see the dravya pages, and for therapeutic use consult qualified practitioners. Wildlife products are excluded. The silviculture of NTFP trees and bamboos is covered in silviculture-of-species, and their identification in dendrology.
Original practice questions written to the syllabus and pattern of the exams named in each question's examTags. They are not past papers and do not reproduce any board's questions.
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