Page 6 - Major Gum Resin-E-Book

PREFACE

he importance of gums/ resins from global and national perspectives can be seen
Tthrough their potential for livelihood support to more than 50 million forest and sub-
forest dwellers, especially in around 70 of the 150 disadvantaged districts enlisted by the
Planning Commission of India. Millions of people throughout the world and especially in
developing countries are dependent on gums and resins for their livelihood.
Due to diverse climatic conditions in country, distribution of flora across India is quite
assorted. Single tree is known by various vernacular names by local population in different
regions; whereas, large number of species and subspecies are popular with a single name.
For example, name ‘kikar’ is being used for variety of acacia species including Acacia
nilotica, A. senegal, A. tortolis, A. mollisima, A. fernaciana, etc. Also, different species of plants
belonging to same genus look morphologically similar which create confusion in exact
identification of the gums produced from them. Superior gums are being adulterated with
low quality similar looking gums, knowingly or unknowingly. This is creating hurdles in
maintaining consistency in quality of gums which is adversely affecting their trade and
export.
Hence, a photographic ready reckoner dedicated for gum/ resin plants was indeed required
for correct identification; giving brief details about their morphology, distribution and
highlighting important uses of the gum/ resin products. We are happy to bring in this book
which will be a pioneering step towards this direction. In this book, original photographs
of different plant parts like leaves, flowers, fruits, seeds, bark and whole tree appearance
are compiled for identification of different major gum / resin plants of India. Effort was also
made to show their habitat on the map of India which gives bird’s eye view about their
distribution in the country. The book gives important information to readers regarding
various vernacular names, common and botanical name of the plants as well as information
on potential of their gum/resin products for various applications compiled from available
scattered references. This book will help traders, exporters, stakeholders, forest officials,
nature activist and researchers working in this area for study and conservation of these
plants as also for getting genuine samples of the gum/ resins for medicinal, food purpose
and other targeted uses. The constructive suggestions are invited for further improvement.
N Thombare, VD Lohot, N Prasad and KK Sharma

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