Assessment of Growth Performance of Casuarina equisetifolia Clones in Tropical Region of Jabalpur District of Madhya Pradesh, India

Casuarina equisetifolia L., commonly known as the Casuarina or Australian Pine, is a fast growing, evergreen tree native to the coastal regions of Southeast Asia, Australia, and the Pacific Islands and can be useful in carbon sequestration and in afforestation programme in tropical forest. An experiment was laid out at Tropical Forest Research Institute, Jabalpur (M.P.) India with an aim to assess the growth performance of Casuarina equsetifolia clones namely IFGTB CH-1, IFGTB CH-2, IFGTB CH-3, IFGTB CH-4, IFGTB CH-5, IFGTB CH-6, IFGTB CH-7, IFGTB CH-9, IFGTB CH-10 in tropical region of Madhya Pradesh comes under Kaymore plateau and Satpura Hills agroclimatic zone of the state. The results revealed that the clone IFGTB CH-5 produced the maximum volume per m3 followed by the Clone IFGTB CH-2 and IFGTB CH-4 because of the highest survival percentage among the all clones and maximum carbon stock was found in clone IFGTB CH-5 (0.044 tonnes) followed by CH-2 (0.028 tonnes), CH- 4 (0.026) and minimum carbon stock was found in CH-1 (0.016). Thus, Clone CH-5 is recommended for this region under afforestation programmes due to its fast growth within a short period of 2 years, quick pulpwood yield and maximum carbon sequestration.