FOREST MENSURATION
                 DIRECTORATE OF FORESTS
               GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGAL
                            Forest Management    1
    This edition is published by
    Development Circle,  
    Directorate of Forests,
    Government of West Bengal,
    2016
    Aranya Bhavan
    LA – 10A Block, Sector III
    Salt Lake City, Kolkata,
    West Bengal, 700098
    Copyright © 2016 in text
    Copyright © 2016 in design and graphics
    All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored 
    in any retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, 
    electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without 
    the prior written permission of the copyright holders.
      2         Forest Management
            
                                                                                            For Mensuration 
                                                        PREFACE 
            
            Forest Mensuration deals with measurement and quantification of trees and forests. 
            Acquaintance with the techniques and procedures of such measurement and quantification is 
            an essential qualification of a forest manager. As part of the JICA project on ‘Capacity 
            Development for Forest Management and Training of Personnel’ being implemented by the 
            Forest Department, Govt of West Bengal, these course materials on Forest Mensuration have 
            been prepared for induction training of the Foresters and Forest Guards. 
            
            The subjects covered in these materials broadly conform to syllabus laid down in the guidelines 
            issued by the Ministry of Environment of Forests, Govt of India, vide the Ministry’s No 3 - 
            17/1999-RT dated 05.03.13. In dealing with some of the parts of the course though, some  
            topics  have  been  detailed  or  additional   topics   have   been   included   to   facilitate 
            complete understanding of the subjects. The revised syllabus,with such minor modifications,is 
            appended. 
            
            As the materials are meant for the training of frontline staff of the Department, effort has been 
            made to present theories and practices of  forest  mensuration  in  a  simple  and  
            comprehensive manner.  Use  of  mathematical  tools,  where  unavoidable,   has  been  made   
            in  simple  and  elementary  form.  It  is  to  mention,  however,   that   knowledge   of 
            elementary Mathematics, including Geometry, Trigonometry and Mensuration is essential to 
            understand the subject. 
            
            Preparation of the course materials needed study of many books and articles including those 
            available in internet. In particular following books have been found very useful to obtain inputs 
            For the course materials,and their contribution is thankfully acknowledged. 
            1. Elementary Forest Mensuration by M R K Jerram et al.Thomas Murby &  Company,  London 
            2. Forest Measurements by T Eugene Avery. Mcgraw-Hill Book Company 
            3. Forest Mensuration by Chaturvedi and Khanna. International Book Distributors Dehradun 
            
            Efforts that have gone into making of these course materials will be rewarded if the frontline 
            staff of the forest department find them useful in their daily activities. 
            
            
                Kolkata,June 2015                                      
            A Basu Ray Chaudhuri IFS (Retd)                             N K Pandey, IFS 
            For IBRAD (Consultant)                                     Chairman, SPMU, Forest 
                                                                       Department, Govt of WB 
                A Basu Ray Chaudhuri, IFS (Retd)                                 N K Pandey, IFS 
                    For IBRAD (Consultant)                              Chairman, SPMU, Forest Department, 
                                                                                Govt of West Bengal
                                                               Forest Management                             3
                                                                                              Page 1 of 11 
              
              
                                                SYLLABUS
               Forest Mensuration (9 hours), excursion 1day
               1.Basicmathematics         Units of measurement of length, area,volume,      1 hour
                                          weight, and density under British and metric 
                                          systems and their conversionfactors
               2. Measurement of          -breast height dimensions                         1 hour
               Standing Trees -           -use of tape- ordinary/ diameter type and 
               Girth/diameter and         calipers and their advantage anddisadvantages
               heightmeasurement          -measurement of height usingaltimeters
               3.Volumemeasurement        - Tree shape*, taper*                             2hours*
                                          -volume of standing trees
                                           - form factor, formheight*
                                          - measurement of felledtrees*
                                          -volume of logs using quarter girthformula
                                          - pole*
                                          -stacked volume of firewood and use of reducing 
                                          factor
               4.Yieldassessment          - Volume table – kinds of volume table* –         4hours*
                                          preparation of volume table* – application* –
                                          construction of local volume table fromgeneral 
                                          volumetable*.
                                          - Increment of individual trees andmeasurement 
                                          of samplewoods*
                                          - Yield Tables* - application* –preparation of 
                                          yield tables*
                                          - point sampling, theory of pointsampling*, 
                                          wedgeprism
               5. Enumeration of          -total enumeration                                    1  hour
               growing stock              -partial enumeration, kinds of sampling*,
                                          sampling unit*, sampling intensity*, elementary 
                                          statistical computations*
               * These are modifications to the MoEF-syllabus, indicating revision/addition of topics.
            4                     Forest Management