State Forest Department Nursery Seedling

State forest departments across the central-Indian sal belt — Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, West Bengal and Assam — maintain nurseries that raise sal (Shorea robusta) seedlings from locally collected seed for use in government afforestation, Joint Forest Management (JFM) plantations and distribution to farmers under social forestry schemes. These nurseries use seed collected from nearby natural sal forests, which means the seedlings are adapted to local soil, rainfall and temperature conditions — a significant advantage for survival. The seedlings are typically polybag-raised, 30–50 cm tall at distribution, and available at highly subsidised rates (often free under afforestation schemes). The main limitation is that seed quality depends on the parent stand — degraded forests yield inferior seed — and sal's recalcitrant seeds must be sown within days of collection, so nursery operations are tightly seasonal (May–June collection, immediate sowing, monsoon-season distribution).

Plant typeSeedling (government nursery)
Maturity30+ year rotation
Yield potentialStandard timber yield; locally adapted seed source for the state's sal belt
Disease resistanceStandard; watch for sal borer in mature stands
SoilLaterite to sandy loam (local provenance)
SeasonAll seasons

• Spacing2 × 2 m to 3 × 3 m, thinned progressively

Actual yield depends on sowing time, soil, irrigation, weather, seed quality and crop management.

• Jharkhand
• Chhattisgarh
• Madhya Pradesh
• Odisha
• West Bengal
• Assam

• FRI Dehradun Improved Seed Source

  Seedlings raised from seed collected from FRI Dehradun's managed seed-stands and clonal seed orchards — the premier central research source for improved sal planting material in the sub-Himalayan belt.

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• Coppice / Root-Sucker Regeneration

  Sal regenerates vigorously from coppice shoots (from cut stumps) and root suckers — the dominant natural regeneration mechanism in managed sal forests across central India.

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• Stump Planting (Nursery-Raised)

  Nursery-raised sal seedlings are cut back to a stump (15–20 cm shoot + 20–25 cm taproot) before planting in the field at monsoon onset. This standard forestry technique gives better survival than direct seeding and is the most common planting method for sal in government afforestation programmes.

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