Estimates of biomass in Indian forests

Forest volume inventories are valuable source of data for estimating above-ground biomass density and the carbon stored in biomass of forests. In view of the importance of biomass estimates in the global carbon (C) cycle, the present study estimates the biomass and the C contained in biomass of Indian forests for the year 1993, using species-wise volume inventories for all forest strata in various states. The above-ground biomass densities ranged from 14 to 210 Mg ha(-1), with a mean of 67.4 Mg ha(-1), which equals around 34 Mg C ha(-1). As most of the biomass is concentrated in lower diameter classes of potentially large species, the low biomass estimates in Indian forests implies that there is a large potential to sequester carbon over several decades to continue if left undisturbed. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.