Species in Nepal - The Sal tree (Shorea robusta)

The enduring hardwood with sweet fragrance

In the lowland parts of Terai, you can sometimes end up in a forest comprising entirely of one tree species, the majestic sal tree. Standing in a sal forest is a completely different experience from the nearby diverse and dense jungles.

The tree trunks are long and straight, and there is plenty of light. During spring, while the sal trees are in blossom, the air is filled with a strong, sweet and pleasant smell.

Sal is a hardwood species that is unusually resistant to rotting and to attacks of hungry insects. The local saying has it that a sal will grow for a 100 years, then it will fall down, and then it will lay there intact for another hundred.

A sought-after building material
Due to high demand, the species is about to become endangered. Protection measures have now been taken in time, without waiting for the species to end up at the verge of extinction.

Thus there is a good reason for optimism: the future generations may well be able to sense the peculiar feeling of being in the middle of a vast sal forest, with sunlight around and the air filled with the sweet smell of spring.