Utility, deterioration and preservation of marine timbers in India

IRG/WP 05-40314

B Tarakanadha, M V Rao, M Balaji, P K Aggarwal, K S Rao

Timber is extensively used in India in the marine environment for various purposes due to its several advantages over modern materials. Infact, its use is increasing in recent years, finding wider and wider applications and this scenario is not going to change in the near future. Though, the bio-deterioration problem is found very severe in tropical waters, still indigenous methods are widely employed for the protection of fishing craft and the present level of chemical treatment is well below 5% of total timber used. This is due to socio economic problems of the potential timber user groups, unavailability of treatment plants in the coastal areas, lack of awareness in user groups, etc. In this paper, types of fishing craft used in the country, timber uses in the marine environment, bio-deterioration losses, research conducted on bio-deterioration aspects at various places and methods applied for the protection of wooden structures are presented.


Keywords: Fishing craft, marine borers, fouling organisms, timber species, protection methods, wood preservatives, bio-deterioration losses

Conference: 05-04-24/28 Bangalore, India


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