Forest volume inventories are valuable source of data for estimating above-
ground biomass density and the carbon stored in biomass of forests. In view
of the importance of biomass estimates in the global carbon (C) cycle, the
present study estimates the biomass and the C contained in biomass of Indi
an forests for the year 1993, using species-wise volume inventories for all
forest strata in various states. The above-ground biomass densities ranged
from 14 to 210 Mg ha(-1), with a mean of 67.4 Mg ha(-1), which equals arou
nd 34 Mg C ha(-1). As most of the biomass is concentrated in lower diameter
classes of potentially large species, the low biomass estimates in Indian
forests implies that there is a large potential to sequester carbon over se
veral decades to continue if left undisturbed. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Lt
d. All rights reserved.