From Director's Desk

India is among the leading producers of gums and resins, harvesting about 2.80 lakh tonnes of these valuable natural products. Of these, about 80 % are gums, 19 % are resins, and a small fraction is of gum¬resins. India is  traditionally the largest producer of lac, guar gum and karaya gum. In recent  years, there has been a revival of interest in natural resins and gums extracted from forests by rural and tribal people who depend on these resources to sustain their livelihood. Two-fold increase in demand is expected due to realization for eco-friendly and safe natural materials for human contact and consumption.

Dr. Bangali Baboo
Director

Of the recorded forest revenue, about 60% comes from minor forest products including gums and resins. The sector supports about 50 million population inhabiting forests and sub-forest 'areas and 70% of employment in the sector is in minor forest produce. Developing minor forest products like natural resins and gums based economic activities in these areas have the potential of poverty alleviation and to maintain required forest cover or  vegetation in managing the climate change.

 For sustained  economic  development in and outside forest areas as also deserts, mountains and degraded lands, human intervention for plantations of economic value is essential. The interventions so far, largely focused on exploitation of these resources and plantations, if any, of less-economic value trees such as fast-growing ones. Economically important plantations are expected to ensure sustained development with stable environment. Gums and resins are low volume, high value produce. These can be processed to add value in quality for higher returns. In some products value-addition through primary processing alone results in l manifold economic returns.

 Keeping in view the immense potential of these natural, non-toxic and bio-degradable products, the Council decided to include these as part of the regular research programme at the Indian Lac Research Institute and renaming it as Indian Institute of Natural Resins and Gums (IINRG). The institute with new mandate would undertake research on various aspects of production, processing, product development and value-addition of all plant resins, gums and gum-resins. In order to address the tapping and primary processing of region-specific gums and resins outreach programme in a network mode is also being considered. The efforts are likely to boost sustainable development in the disadvantaged areas.