{"id":130518,"date":"2026-10-25T11:57:19","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T06:27:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=130518"},"modified":"2026-10-25T15:11:33","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T09:41:33","slug":"girdling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/girdling\/","title":{"rendered":"Girdling"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Girdling Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In an attempt to save over 500 trees, which were girdled allegedly by encroachers in Karka village deep inside the Udanti Sitanadi Tiger Reserve (USTR) recently, the Chhattisgarh forest department is seeking expert help \u2013 in the form of a \u201csurgery\u201d or bridge-grafting technique.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Girdling<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Girdling is a<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">commonly used habitat and forest management technique<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">that <\/span><b>deadens a tree without felling it<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for a specific purpose.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Girdling involves the <\/span><b>removal of bark and cambium <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">from the target tree <\/span><b>using continuous and connected cuts<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that<\/span><b> completely encircle the entire tree.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It <\/span><b>destroys the cambium<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> so <\/span><b>no growth can occur<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><b>disrupts the flow of water and nutrients <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">in the tree.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As a result, <\/span><b>roots are starved of nutrients,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and the <\/span><b>plant cannot grow more stems and foliage.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Unless the plant can heal<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> over the wound, <\/span><b>it will die.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Uses:<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Girdling is often used to control or<\/span><b> eradicate large woody species where physical removal <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of woody biomass would be <\/span><b>undesirable<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, unpopular, or <\/span><b>cost prohibitive.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Killing an undesirable tree in place by girdling also has the <\/span><b>benefit of leaving standing snags for wildlife.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Additionally, there is<\/span><b> lower visual impact<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> where the sudden removal of an entire stand would affect the area&#8217;s aesthetics. Since<\/span><b> die-off is gradual<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (taking months to years), the <\/span><b>visual change<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in the area is <\/span><b>slower<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Killing mature trees slowly can also give <\/span><b>replacement plantings time to grow<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This technique generally has a<\/span><b> low impact on cultural resources, erosion,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><b>surrounding habitat<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> because it is <\/span><b>highly selective<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><b>does not disturb soil.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>What is Cambium?<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a <\/span><b>layer of actively dividing cells between xylem<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (wood) <\/span><b>and phloem <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(bast) tissues that is <\/span><b>responsible for the secondary growth of stems and roots.\u00a0<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>In secondary growth<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a <\/span><b>plant grows wider.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Contrast this to primary growth, in which a plant grows taller.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cambial cells divide to produce secondary xylem cells toward the central axis of the stem and secondary phloem cells toward the outside.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The cambium originates from undifferentiated cells that have retained their embryonic capacity for continued growth and differentiation.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A cambium may also form within callus tissues\u2014masses of cells that grow over the injured surface of a wound, leading to healing.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>In a typical woody stem,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the <\/span><b>arrangement <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">from outside to inside is:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Bark \u2192 Phloem \u2192 Vascular cambium \u2192 Xylem \u2192 Inner stem<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>What is Bridge-Grafting?<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A bridge graft is an example of a <strong>r<\/strong><\/span><b>epair graft.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is done to <\/span><b>rescue established trees that have been girdled<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> by mechanical damage or animals.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bridge-grafting consists of<\/span><b> connecting the cambium layers above and below the girdled area.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This process <\/span><b>restores the flow of carbohydrates<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> from the leaves down to the roots, thereby<\/span><b> allowing the tree to continue its normal life <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">processes.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The connection or <\/span><b>bridge is usually made with scions (Bridge Wood).<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Scions are taken from <\/span><b>dormant one-year-old stems.\u00a0 <\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>News: <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/india\/chhattisgarh-seeks-expert-help-for-surgery-to-save-over-500-damaged-trees-10930043\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><b>IE<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Girdling is a commonly used habitat and forest management technique that deadens a tree without felling it for a specific purpose. Read more about Girdling, Uses, Latest News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":130560,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[11149,21,22,23],"class_list":["post-130518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","tag-girdling","tag-prelims-pointers","tag-upsc-current-affairs","tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","no-featured-image-padding"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130518"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130518\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":130559,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130518\/revisions\/130559"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}