With over 1.2 billion people, India is home to one sixth of the total world population. Ahmadabad is the largest city and former capital of the Western Indian State of Gujarat, with a population of more than 6 million. There is a need to raise large scale successful tree plantations by planting tall seedlings to address growing environmental problems in the city of Ahmadabad. The biggest is air pollution reduction, as the city struggles to comply with air quality standards.

it is difficult to find good quality hardwood in Gujarat. Most of the wood for furniture comes from the local market. The timber supply is mainly from trees outside of forests, followed by farm-forestry and imports. Solitaire trees with many branches are not the best quality for making good products of furniture. Also the left over wood from the saw mill factory is sold as fuel-wood supply for the local market.

In Gujarat district the local trade supplies only a very poor quality wood like Mango and Neem tree, which comes from farmers land. Therefore Gujarat is importing a lot of quality hardwood such as Teak and Mahogany for the furniture industry. It comes from all over the world, even Poplar wood from Belgium (photo). Also softwood is imported for the plywood factories.

Veneers are thin layers of wood usually obtained by rotary cutting timber logs obtained from trees. Rotary cut means that the logs are rotated along their longitudinal axis using machines, and a cutter peels layers (slices) from the log while it is being rotated. These thin slices of wood (called veneers) are then pressed and bound together using phenol resins.

The plywood market in India is largely dominated by the so-called unorganized sector. Locally made plywood is readily available in most places. Plywood is made by glueing several layers of wood veneer (thin sheets of wood) over each other with the grain pattern alternating at right angles in every subsequent layer. A plywood sheet is made up of at least 3 veneers (plies) if not more. Number of plies are always an odd number. When more number of veneers are used, the thickness as well as the cost of the plywood increases.

PUM Netherlands Senior Experts received a request for advice, how to design fast growing tree plantations. The request came from a Designer, and Provider for house hold and office furniture. As there is a shortage of high quality wood they would develop their own plantations. Genetically improved cloned planting stock of eucalypts, poplars and acacias has transformed the productivity and profitability of plantations. The yield tables of various trees usually come from countries with a rainfall of 2000-4500mm. With a rainfall of 300mm till 1000mm a year in Gujarat, drip irrigation can't compensate for all this.

Through lack of rainfall and rainfall in a short period, most of the plantations need to be irrigated. The traditional way to irrigate the land, is flood irrigation. Because you have to level the area with machines it is not the best way for bush land. A better system for the plantation is drip irrigation, also known as trickle irrigation. In this system the water falls drop by drop at the position of the roots. If managed properly, this method can be the most water-efficient method of irrigation.

The domestic furniture market in India is highly unorganized with regional players offering stiff competition to leading furniture companies. Traditional sawmills build up a large expertise to be able to saw useful sizes from the locally produced timber wood. The carpenters in the smaller factories have the skills to transform this wood into doors, windows, frames and tables.

Adornments and decoration of the trucks is widespread in India. It’s a common belief among the truck owners of India that a beautiful truck is good for business and therefore the owners decorate their trucks with ornamental designs and vivid colours. Mirror work on the front and back of vehicles and wooden carvings on the truck doors are commonly used. Quality hardwood is used for the wood frames. The most expensive thing is the change of the cab, a wooden one is more suitable for the local climate.

India - Qujarat - Ahmedabad