Quantity of Carbon Sequestration in Dailong Biodiversity Heritage Site
– Part 1 -

Kh Hitler Singh *

Introduction to Dailong Village : Dailong is located near Tamenglong HQs at a road distance of about 8 Km on the Tamei-Tamenglong Road. It is one of the oldest villages in Tamenglong and it was earlier known as Poudailong which means Stone village because of the presence of large stones in the Village.

The people belong to Rongmei Tribe and follow Christianity. There are 234 families with a population of 1634 as per the 2011 population census. The male and female population is 819 and 815 respectively.

The present Chairman of the village is Keijinbui Gonmei. The conservation of Forest in the village dates back to about fifty years. All kind of shifting cultivations had been stopped since last twenty-thirty years on the upper catchment of the village which is demarcated by the Tamei-Tamenglong road. The villagers turned to being Forest Conservationists because of the imminent scarcity of water in the village.

At the early stage they did not have much knowledge about ecosystem services, climate moderator and positive impact of biodiversity conservation. The village also has one NGO working for environment and forest namely DEEPS- Dailong Ecology and Environment Presentation Society, Dailong.

Dailong Ecology and Environment Presentation Society, Dailong was awarded the Indira Priyadarshini Vriksha Mitra award in 2001 for outstanding contribution in afforestation and wasteland development under voluntary agencies category which was awarded in 2004.

Before the establishment of Dailong Ecology and Environment Presentation Society, Dailong the villagers were pioneers in the conservation of Forest in the Hill District. Over the years due to the population explosion demand for areas for shifting cultivation has been on the rise and shifting cycle has been greatly reduced.

In spite of all such happening in the nearby village; Dailong could protect more and more area under forest cover and they never carried out shifting cultivation on the upper catchment side of the village land. The village authority controls the forest.

Seeing the potential of the biodiversity found in the Forest; the State Government had declared an area of 11.25 Sq Km of Community Forest as Dailong Biological Heritage Site vide its Order No24/3/2017-For &Envt; Dated the 23rd May, 2017.

But of late there was extreme pressure from some of the villagers for felling trees for bonafide requirement from inside the Biodiversity Heritage Site. In such situation Government of India, State Government or Multinational Companies may kindly think of helping the Community for sustaining the Conservation Work at Dailong in perpetuity.

For apprising the public leaders, top level officials and general public; it is imperative to put an approximate monetary value to the Dailong Forest standing over an area of 11.25 sq km.

For approximate valuation of the Forest stand; we would employ the value of Carbon sequestrated in the Forest till date. Carbon sequestration is the process by which atmospheric carbon dioxide is taken up by the trees, grasses and other plants through photosynthesis and stored as carbon in biomass (trunks, branches, foliage and roots) and soils.

Total Volume of Above Ground Biomass for 21 plots of 10 m X 10 m quadrate plot size.

Plot No. Geo-coordinate No of trees Volume (Cum)
1 Latitude. 24.988Ú Longitude.93.513Ú 9 2.6363
2 Latitude. 25.0114Ú Longitude.93.528Ú 9 5.4584
3 Latitude. 24.99Ú Longitude.93.50Ú 5 3.2485
4 Latitude. 25.01Ú Longitude.93.52Ú 7 4.5383
5 Latitude. 25.0105Ú Longitude.93.5298Ú 10 3.9282
6 Latitude. 25.024Ú Longitude.93.530Ú 10 4.5644
7 Latitude. 25.014Ú Longitude.93.322Ú 8 3.4429
8 Latitude. 25.029Ú Longitude.93.539Ú 8 4.1544
9 Latitude. 25.292Ú Longitude.93.590Ú 14 4.743
10 Latitude. 25.015Ú Longitude.93.322Ú 13 5.0062
11 Latitude. 25.0155Ú Longitude.93.3229Ú 18 4.1259
12 Latitude. 25.0338Ú Longitude.93.5418Ú 15 2.9775
13 Latitude. 25.0333Ú Longitude.93.5418Ú 17 6.303
14 Latitude. 24.988Ú Longitude.93.513Ú 8 3.9906
15 Latitude. 25.0154Ú Longitude.93.5380Ú 4 2.1687
16 Latitude. 25.01558Ú Longitude.93.5356Ú 7 1.7183
17 Latitude. 25.01557Ú Longitude.93.5356Ú 7 5.6197
18 Latitude. 24.9915Ú Longitude.93.5049Ú 7 10.0033
19 Latitude. 25.1544Ú Longitude.93.5340Ú 13 8.8418
20 Latitude. 24.9916Ú Longitude.93.5049Ú 9 1.5151
21 Latitude. 25.00825Ú Longitude.93.5223Ú 10 9.952208 98.9365

As it is a very huge task to measure the whole stand of Dailong Forest, we had taken the simple statistical method of random sample survey. We formed two survey parties from the staff of Tamenglong Forest Division.

We had laid 21 (twenty one) sample plots of 10m X 10m quadrate plots. The trees (above 30 cm in girth) found in each plot are measured for GBH (Girth at Breast Height) and its height in metre on 26/04/2022 & 27/04/2022. Further Dailong Village Protection Volunteers had assisted us. The following officials with the writer were in the survey parties.

Shri Joel Gangmei RFO Tamenglong,
Shri Yumnam Seityabrata Singh Forester
Km. Phaomei Blessing Forester
Shri Mark Kamei Forester
Shri Chandramani Asheibam Forester
Shri Kiungaanang Gonmei Forest Guard
Shri P. Dinkhaibou Forest Guard

The data collected are analyzed to find out the total standing Biomass above the ground level. The total volume of standing trees is 98.9365 cum per 0.21 Ha. Thus by simple extrapolation of this result all over the area of 1125 ha of Dailong Biodiversity Heritage site the total standing tree volume is worked out to 530016.9643 cum.


(The article is intended for general awareness and for academic purpose. The views and comments are writer’s own; not necessarily that of Forest Department, Government of Manipur. The writer would like to thank Shri Armstrong Pame IAS and Shri Praveen Kumar Nigam IFS, DFO/Tamenglong for their kind suggestion and support. Any suggestion and further views are cordially invited and can be communicated to kharibamhitlersingh028 @gmail.com .)

To be continued ...