Forests

Lal Suhanra

Lal Suhanra is the largest national park in the region and a UNESCO-recognised biosphere reserve: desert, scrub forest, wetland and plantation inside one boundary. It is the reason blackbuck exist here at all. Its long-term risk is not dramatic — it is quiet encroachment at the edges and firewood cutting inside.

Canal-side plantations

The strips along canals and roads are the district's most productive tree asset and its most vulnerable. They hold dust, shade the water, feed livestock, and disappear silently when a stretch is auctioned or cut for a road widening. We map them annually so that losses are visible.

Farm woodlots

A single row of trees on a field boundary raises yields inside the field by cutting wind stress, and pays the grower back in fodder and timber. It is the fastest available route to more tree cover in an intensively farmed district, because it does not compete with the crop.

Which species, honestly

Eucalyptus grows fast and drinks hard; on a falling water table it is the wrong default. Native and naturalised species that hold up here: kikar (acacia), shisham, jand, karir, neem, date palm, ber and sukhchain. We plant to site conditions rather than to whatever the nursery has in surplus.