VIDYARTHI VIGYAN MANTHAN (VVM) 2020-21

INDIAN CONTRIBUTION TO ADVANCEMENT IN SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY (ICAST)

(FROM 1947 TO 1980)
SLC EXAMINATION (SENIOR GROUP)

Since independence, science and technology in India have received considerable attention
and occupied a central position in policy making. The science and technology is one of the
country's invaluable assets. India was also perhaps ahead of several other countries in
terms of Science and Technology due to evolution of a fine institutional framework and
devoted scientists. Several agencies like universities, academic institutions, national
laboratories and autonomous research institutions contributed their might. The numbers
enrolled annually into higher education rose considerably soon after independence. This
helped our country to stand up to the challenge of global competition.
The growth of scientific institutions in first few decades brought into existence a sizeable
growth in science and technology. Various central government initiative: CSIR, Department
of Space (DoS), Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), Department of Science & Technology
(DST), Department of Ocean Development (DOD), Agriculture, etc. to name a few, helped
in early progress.
India is still a largely agro-based economy, and therefore lot of importance was given to
development of agricultural and agro-based products. The Department of Space and the
Department of Defense Research & Development have funded a few major research
centres. Ocean development is another emerging area which in future will require trained
manpower in abundant numbers. A reference has been made to manufacturing
technology. CSIR and DAE were prominent in the first three plan periods. Thanks to two of
the great institution builders in post-independent India, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar and Dr
Homi J. Bhabha.
Dr Homi Bhabha set up an economic study wing in DAE as early as in 1955 with nuclear
power in mind and this has paid off. DAE has given rise to the nuclear power programme
and did the daunting tasks of designing, building and operating, nuclear power plants. Fuel
for the power reactors has to be extracted from a resource that contains mere 0.05%
uranium and this has been done! Further, technology for the heavy water production has
had to be developed. We see that heavy water plants have been built, are being operated
and the product is exported as well. The multidimensional nuclear programme has had an
impact on some agricultural products (e.g. 90% of all urad grown in Maharashtra and 11 %
of breeder groundnut seeds used in the country are based on Trombay mutants) and
contributed to the growth of nuclear medicine in the country. Similarly CSIR has had a
substantial influence over chemical, agrochemical, pharmaceutical and petroleum
industries and products. Twenty five percent of all of chemical pesticides used in the
country are based on CSIR technology.

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preparation of high purity nuclear materials, such as uranium, thorium, zirconium, etc.,
production of fuel elements for reactors, production of heavy water, health and safety
instrumentation to nuclear waste management.
Though the country had a rich and varied tradition of fundamental research, organized
studies in nuclear science began only in 1945, with the establishment of the Tata Institute
of Fundamental Research. Thereafter, in 1954, a major part of the work on atomic energy
was moved to Trombay, where a multi-disciplinary centre for research and development
(the Atomic Energy Establishment, Trombay) was set up. In 1967, the centre was renamed
as Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) in memory of its founder.

The prime objective of the atomic energy programme, as defined in the Atomic Energy Act
of 1948 is the development, control and use of atomic energy solely for peaceful purposes,
namely, the generation of electricity and the development of nuclear applications in
research, agriculture, industry, medicine and other areas. To achieve this objective, efforts
were initiated to build up a versatile infrastructure of research facilities, trained scientific
and technical manpower, raw material processing centres and the know-how and
capability to manufacture nuclear components and electronic equipment to support the
atomic energy programme and make India truly self-reliant.
Thus, India started work on the peaceful utilization of nuclear energy at a time when it
was essentially very much of a frontier science, into which a few developed countries
alone had ventured.
The nuclear fuel cycle strategy which India would follow was chalked out by Dr. Bhabha at
the same conference in 1954, namely a first stage of natural uranium reactors for
producing power and plutonium, a second stage of plutonium based fast breeder reactors
for producing power and more plutonium as well as uranium-233 using thorium, and a
third stage of uranium-233-thorium breeder reactors for producing power.
In spite of innumerable hurdles which had to be overcome and notwithstanding other
hurdles which may be encountered in the future, India has not deviated from its carefully
chosen path of using atomic energy for peaceful purposes.
Exploration, Mining and Extraction of Atomic Minerals
Geological investigations established the presence of rare earth deposits in the beach
sands of Kerala in 1930s. In fact, private companies had been processing and even
exporting these sands and certain processed products since 1911. Similarly, occurrence of
uranium minerals was reported in 1940s. However, detailed geological surveys for
uranium and thorium were initiated only in 1950.
The investigations conducted for uranium indicated that almost all major deposits are
located in the peninsular shield, the major part of the reserves being in the state of Bihar.
This provided tremendous impetus for intensifying efforts in other similar favourable
environs in the country, as also to the development of various techniques and
instrumentation required at various stages of exploration.
The exploration work done also helped in adding to the knowledge and understanding of
various geological processes governing the formation of uranium in what are identified as
sandstone type of deposits.
It also helped in developing certain instruments. For example, a direct reading survey
meter was developed which could directly display the equivalent uranium concentration in
digital form. This instrument could work on just four standard size batteries. A gamma-ray
spectrometer was designed for estimating uranium and thorium concentrations.
Instead of depending on foreign collaboration in uranium exploration activities, India
decided to develop the techniques on its own. This led to not only the development of
inter-disciplinary manpower and team work, but also survey techniques more
appropriately suited to local conditions.
In 1952 a rare earths production plant was set up at Alwaye in Kerala to process monazite
from the beach sand deposits. This plant produces uranium-thorium concentrate as a by-
product. By 1955 a thorium plant was set up at Trombay to recover from this by-product
thorium nitrate (which is widely used in the gas mantle industry) and uranium fluoride.
This plant is still in operation and has provided all the thorium needed for various research
and development programmes. The construction of a uranium plant was started in 1957 at
Trombay and the first ingot of uranium of nuclear purity was produced in 1959. This plant
was primarily put up in order to gain first hand experience in the production of nuclear-
grade uranium metal. It had practically no teething troubles and still continues to be in full
production.
Technology has also been developed for recovery of uranium as a by-product of copper.
Laboratory studies followed by pilot plants established the economic feasibility, and
uranium recovery plants have been set up adjacent to copper mines at Surda, Rakha and
Mosaloni in Bihar.

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The conversion of 'yellow cake' into nuclear-grade uranium and, thereafter, the fabrication
of fuel elements was developed completely indigenously in India. On the basis of
development work carried out at Trombay, the preliminary flow sheet for a conversion
and fuel fabrication plant was finalised by the end of 1957. The fabrication plant was
completed in less than 20 months. The first fuel elements for the CIRUS reactor was
fabricated by mid-1959 and the fuel elements for half of the first charge of CIRUS were
made by mid-1960. Thus, about twenty years ago, India had already developed and built a
fuel fabrication plant fully based on indigenous technology.
The Trombay plant, in addition to being used for the production of fuel elements for
India's research reactors, has also been used for R&D on new fuels and materials. Thorium
oxide and sintered thorium metal pellets have been produced for irradiation experiments.
All the thorium oxide pellets required for India's Fast Breeder Test Reactor have also been
fabricated.
The fabrication of plutonium fuel is an extremely difficult task because of its toxicity and
has to be carried out in glove boxes. At Trombay, another important event was the
fabrication of the plutonium oxide fuel elements for the PURNIMA reactor in the
plutonium metallurgy laboratory built in 1970.
With the successful demonstration of the technology developed in Trombay, a Nuclear
Fuel Complex was set up in Hyderabad in 1971 for conversion of yellow cake into ceramic
grade natural uranium oxide and imported hexafluoride into enriched uranium oxide, for
processing the zircon sand to zirconium and various finished zircalloy components such as
tubes, sheets, rods and wires, and for making sintered uranium oxide pellets and
fabricating the required fuel elements. The Nuclear Fuel Complex was an example of
successful translation of indigenous R&D into industrial operations.

Heavy Water Production

Heavy water is used as a moderator and coolant atomic reactors. With the objective of
achieving self-sufficiency plans for the indigenous production of heavy water were
formulated as early as 1954. Based on initial investigations, it was concluded that heavy
water production would be economical if set up in combination with nitrogenous fertilizer
production. To start with, a heavy water plant based on electrolysis of water technology,
was set up at the Nangal fertilizer factory. It has a capacity of about 14 tonnes per year
and has been in operation since 1962.
Meanwhile R&D on heavy water technology at Trombay continued. First, a heavy water re-
concentration facility was set up in 1962 for upgrading downgraded heavy water from the
‘CIRUS’ and ‘ZERLINA’ reactors. Later, an upgrading test facility was also set up based on
the electrolysis process.

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As the country had opted for heavy water reactors for its nuclear power programme,
mainly because this reactor type uses natural uranium fuel, it then became necessary to
also concurrently embark on the construction of heavy water production plants. For the
first heavy water plant at Kota, the hydrogen sulphide water exchange process, which was
developed indigenously at Trombay and proven on a pilot scale, was chosen.

Research Reactors
The Government of India created the Atomic Energy Establishment, Trombay (AEET) with
Dr Homi J. Bhabha as the founding director on 3 January 1954. It was established to
consolidate all the research and development activities for nuclear reactors and
technology under the Atomic Energy Commission.
In 1954 it was decided to build a 1 MW swimming pool type reactor (APSARA) and
although such reactors were readily available in sale from some developed countries, it
was considered that valuable experience would be gained if Indian scientists and engineers
were to undertake the task. By 1955 the design was finalized and by the following year
construction was completed and the reactor became critical or operational by mid-1956.
Under the conditions prevailing then, this was recognized as a remarkable achievement as
even among countries then considered advanced in the nuclear field, only a handful had
built their own reactors. In 1956, ‘APSARA’ was the only reactor in Asia outside the USSR.
‘APSARA’ reactor is being used for the production of isotopes and for experiments in
physics.
In 1956 it was decided to build ‘CIRUS’, a 40 MW natural uranium heavy water moderated
reactor, with Canadian collaboration. Indian personnel were associated with the Canadian
in all stages of construction, installation and commissioning of this reactor. An important
achievement was the entirely indigenous fabrication of half of the initial fuel charge in a
fuel fabrication plant that had been set up with indigenous R&D and know-how. The
reactor became critical in mid-1960 and continues to operate providing valuable
production, experimentation and training facilities.
In early 1961, a zero energy reactor, ‘ZERLINA’, was commissioned. This was designed and
built by Indian scientists and engineers. It was using natural uranium as fuel and heavy
water as moderator. The reactor was used for studying new reactor concepts and
components.
In mid-1972 ‘PURNIMA’, a zero energy fast reactor, was put up for experimentation in fast
reactor physics. The plutonium oxide fuel elements for this reactor were fabricated in
glove boxes in a special fabrication plant at Trombay. Later in 1984, it was modified to
‘PURNIMA II’ which used uranium-233 fuel.

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During early 1970s a strong need was felt for building a research reactor with higher
neutron flux to meet the growing demand of radioisotopes and advanced research in basic
sciences. This led to the setting up of a research reactor at BARC which was named
‘DHRUVA’. The ‘DHRUVA’ reactor is India's largest nuclear research reactor.
Most of the major components of this reactor such as the reactor vessel, fueling machine,
heat exchangers, coolant, circulating pumps, etc. were fabricated in Indian workshops
including the workshops of BARC. This reactor serves as a tool for research in frontier
areas of nuclear science and technology and is meant for producing a number of
radioisotopes of high specific activity.
‘DHRUVA’ with its facilities gives increased impetus to basic and applied research, and to
the production of radioisotopes and their application in the fields of medicine, agriculture
and industry.
Thus, in the field of research reactors, India is entirely self-reliant.

Power Reactors
It was recognized in the late 1950s, that apart from hydro-electric and thermal power
based on coal, India would also have to rely on nuclear power for meeting the growing
energy needs. Realizing that the uranium resources in the country are rather limited
whereas the thorium reserves are the world's largest, a three stage nuclear fuel cycle
strategy was laid down in 1954. The first stage reactors are neutral uranium fueled
producing power and by-product plutonium, the second stage reactors would be using
plutonium as well as uranium-233 from thorium in the blanket and third stage breeder
reactors would be based on self-sustaining thorium-uranium-233 cycle.
For putting up India's first power station, the Tarapur site near Bombay in western India
was chosen in 1958 after a comprehensive survey of a number of possible sites all over the
country.
Tarapur Atomic Power Station was constructed initially with two boiling water
reactor (BWR) units under the 1963 -123 Agreement between India, the United States, and
the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Later in 1980s two more power reactors, one at Rawatbhata in Rajasthan and other is
Kalpakkam in Tamil Nadu became operational.

Plutonium Metallurgy
From the very inception of India's nuclear energy programme, the potential of plutonium
for unlocking the huge energy reserve of India's limited uranium resources (estimated at

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60,000 tonnes) and abundant thorium resources (estimated at 320,000 tonnes) and, for its
peaceful potential as a nuclear reactor fuel offering energy thousand times greater than all
available fossil fuels, have been recognized. The advantage of plutonium as a fissile fuel is
its high breeding ratio (the number of neutrons produced per neutron absorbed).
Plutonium metallurgy was introduced in India in 1960, when a group of scientists and
technologists at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC); successfully isolated minute
beads of this highly fissile metal by calciothermic reduction of plutonium tetrafluoride.
Since then, there has been an enormous scale up of production and investigation of this
metal, its alloy and compounds. A sophisticated plutonium metallurgy laboratory facility
set up in Trombay now manages the production and intensive utilization of plutonium for
generation of nuclear power and simultaneous breeding of the fissile materials.

Radio Isotopes
The benefits of nuclear science are being disseminated as the country has developed
expertise to manufacture radioisotopes for use in wide ranging fields like medicine,
industry, agriculture, hydrology and scientific research.
The isotope division of Bhabha Atomic Research Center endured as the backbone in the
supply of indigenously produced medical radioisotopes in research reactors ‘APSARA’
(1958) and ‘CIRUS’ (1960). Till 1980s about 400 radioactive isotopes and labelled
compounds were being produced by BARC. Among the methods of artificial isotopes
production, bombardment of stable element with neutrons in a nuclear reactor is the most
important one and is being followed by the large-scale production of isotopes in the
country. Radioisotopes so produced are purified and later converted into suitable physical
or chemical forms for different uses.
During production of isotopes, samples are irradiated in specially designed tray rods. A
tray rod can hold 72 capsules of 2.2 cm diameter and 7.5 cm length containing samples for
irradiation. The tray rods are installed in fuel channels as required, and are cooled by
heavy water. The one power fuelling machine is used for loading and unloading of the tray
rods. The tray rods permit enhanced production of a variety of radioisotopes such as
iodine-131, chromium-51, and molybdenam-99. Besides, Indian reactors are also
producing iodine-125, an important radioisotopes used in radioimmunoassay and iridium-
192, required for the fabrication of intense gamma ray sources used in compact
radiography cameras.
Use of radioisotopes helps to study the functioning of different parts and organ systems of
the body, such as the liver, the kidneys and the spleen, thus enabling the detection of
different disease states. Scanning of essential organs, such as the thyroid, the liver and the
kidneys, using radioisotopes is being performed in various hospitals of the country. By

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studying scans of tumours their treatment by surgery or radiotherapy can be more easily
planned. In the field of radiotherapy, radioactive iodine is being used in the therapy of
hyperthyroidism and thyroid cancer.
BARC has also developed methods for the fabrication of a variety of radiation sources for
cancer therapy. Radiation therapy which uses gamma rays from radioisotopes is an
effective method of treating various types of cancer. Cobalt-60, iridium-192, caesium-137
and gold 198 are some of the commonly used radioisotopes produced by BARC for this
purposes. Besides, BARC has developed methods for the fabrication of a variety of sources
used in both teletherapy and brachytherapy techniques. In teletherapy a collimated beam
from an intense gamma source house in a lead shield is directed towards the tumour
region. Fabrication of teletherapy sources involves remote encapsulation of multi kilocurie
quantities of radioisotopes such as cobalt-60 in facilities known as hot cells. Application of
discrete source in body cavities is known as brachytherapy. This method is being used for
the treatment of carcinoma of cervix and cancer of the breast.
The Important Milestones (Till 1980)
12 March, 1944 Dr. Homi Bhabha writes to Sir Dorab Tata Trust seeking financial
support for starting nuclear research in India.
19 December, 1945 Tata Institute of Fundamental Research is inaugurated.
15 April, 1948 Atomic Energy Act is passed.
10 August, 1948 Atomic Energy Commission is set up.
3 August, 1954 Department of Atomic Energy is created.
1 August, 1955 Thorium Plant at Trombay started.
4 August, 1956 APSARA atomic reactor—the first in Asia—started functioning.
30 January, 1959 Uranium Metal Plant at Trombay produced nuclear grade
uranium.
10 July, 1960 CIRUS reactor started functioning.
14 January, 1961 ZERLINA reactor started functioning.
12 January, 1967 AEET is renamed as Bhabha Atomic Research Centre
6 September, 1970 Uranium-233 is recovered from irradiated thorium.
18 February, 1971 Plutonium fuel for PURNIMA is made at Trombay.
18 May, 1972 PURNIMA-I reactor started functioning.
18 May, 1974 Peaceful nuclear explosion experiment at Pokhran.

India’s Contribution to the field of Agriculture (Till 1980)

Agriculture is considered as one of the major step of human evolution. Agriculture could
greatly relieve man of daily struggle for food. It also made humans from wanderer to food
gatherer to food grower. Just imagine if we all have to worry about our breakfast, lunch
and dinner as soon as we get up. In past maybe we would have to walk miles to gather
handful of fruits or even hunt to get belly full. But thanks to agriculture you just have to

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visit nearby shop and get food of your choice. Off course now a day we have started
hunting food items online and order it for a doorstep delivery.
For past couple of centuries the human population is expanding at phenomenal rate.
Initially agriculture provided food for survival and civilization provided security for this
growth. But slowly human growth surpassed agricultural produce. Scientific development
came to rescue and tried to bridge this gap.
In any country political will and people’s participation are the key factors in policy making.
In India, The Ministry of Agriculture (Now The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers
Welfare) is the apex body for formulation and administration of the rules and regulations
and laws related to agriculture in India.
In ministry of Agriculture “The Department of Agriculture Research and Education” was
established in 1973. It controlled following autonomous bodies.
1. Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)
2. Central Agricultural University (CAU), Imphal
3. Dr Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa, Bihar
4. Rani Laxmi Bai Central Agricultural University, Jhansi, UP
Since its independence, India has made immense progress towards food security. Indian
population has tripled, and food-grain production more than quadrupled. There has been
a substantial increase in available food-grain per capita.

Agriculture plays the most crucial role in balancing the socioeconomic profile of India and
occupies the center stage in the country’s economic welfare. Indian agriculture is a
diverse and most extensive sector. Since Independence, the country has witnessed
significant increase in food-grain production (green revolution), oilseeds (yellow
revolution), milk (white revolution), fish (blue revolution), and fruits and vegetables
(golden revolution). Agriculture has been the backbone of the Indian economy and it will
continue to remain so for a long time. It has to support almost 17 per cent of world
population from 2.3 per cent of world geographical area and 4.2 per cent of world’s water
resources.

Land Use Pattern

The basic factor in agriculture is land. Knowledge about land use pattern is vital to
understand whether the utilization of land in India is at its full potential or far from its full
potential. In India the barren and uncultivable land was 13.02% in year 1951-52 which is
reduced to 6.58% by 1981-82. On the other hand net sown area increased from 41.48% in
1951-52 to 46.64% in 1981-82.
In India the classification of land has had its roots in agricultural statistics. Till 1950, the
land in India was broadly classified into five categories: (i) Area under forests; (ii) Area not
available for cultivation; (iii) Uncultivated lands including current fallows; (iv) Area under
current fallows; and (v) Net area sown. But then it was realized that such a classification
did not give a clear picture of the actual area under different categories of land use
required for agricultural planning. Hence, a reclassification was adopted from March 1950.
Under it, land in India now classified under nine different categories. These are as: (i)
forests; (ii) barren and uncultivable lands; (iii) land put to non-agricultural uses; (iv)
cultivable wastes; (v) permanent pastures and other grazing lands; (vi) miscellaneous tree
crops and groves not included in the net area sown; (vii) current fallows; (viii) other
fallows; and (ix) net sown area.
After independence in 1947 India relied on imports and food aid to meet the
requirements. The Integrated Production Programme (1950s) focused on food and cash
crops supply respectively, followed by five years plans. Land reclamation, land
development, mechanization, electrification and development of agriculture oriented
'package approach' of taking a set of actions instead of promoting single aspect soon
followed under government supervision. In 1965 and 1966 severe draught made the policy
makers in our country to reform its agricultural policy. First Indian Agricultural Research
Institute and later The Indian Council of Agriculture Research did immense work in this
endeavour. Dr. B. P. Pal was the first Director General of The Indian Council of Agriculture
Research in 1965.

Green Revolution
India adopted policy reforms focused on the goal of self-sufficiency. Green revolution
guided us towards our goal and ushered India in more promising era. Green revolution was

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an idea put forth by Dr. Norman Borlaug by introducing dwarf variety of wheat in Mexico.
Dr. Mankombu Sambsivan Swaminathan propagated this idea in India. The Green
Revolution within India commenced in 1966. Swaminathan has been called the "Father of
Green Revolution in India" for his role in introducing and further developing high-yielding
varieties of wheat in India. From 1972 to 1979 he was director general of The Indian
Council of Agricultural research. Besides improved varieties of crop it also addressed the
issues of water, fertilizer and pesticide usage.

Use of Hybrid Varieties

Introduction of genetically improved high yielding crops like hybrids of rice, wheat, maize,
pearl millet cotton, chickpea, cowpea, etc. are important milestones.
Rice is produced all over India. It is the most grown crop in India. The total production in
1965-66 was reported to be about 860 kg per hectare but in next couple of decades the
productivity grew almost six fold. Krishnaswamy Ramiah, was reported to have
contributed to the FAO sponsored Indo-Japonica Hybridization programme which yielded
the nitrogen responsive rice varieties of ADT 27 in India. He also evolved a number of
varieties of rice which include GEB 24, ADT 3, CO 4 and CO 25. The GEB 24 variety is a
progenitor for 83 rice varieties developed across countries. Ramiah was one of the first
scientists who advocated for standardization of gene symbols for rice.
Wheat is second most important crop. It is grown especially in the northern regions of our
country. The decision to adopt superior yielding, disease resistant wheat varieties in
combination with better farming methods helped to improve productivity. The initial
increase in production was centred on the irrigated areas of the states of Punjab, Haryana
and Uttar Pradesh. The state of Punjab earned the distinction as country's breadbasket.
With introduction of dwarf varieties like Sonora 64 the production showed steep rise. The
new varieties developed were also resistant to a fungal disease called rust. Subrahmaniam
Nagarajan a wheat pathologist worked on wheat rust and its elimination.
Sorghum is important millet sown in our country. Its hybrid varieties like CK64A released in
1964 had a grain yield of 3000 kg per hectare. But variety like 1036A Swarna had 3500 kg
per hectare and 2077A x CS3541 released in 1975 had yield of 3800 kg per hectare.
Neelamraju Ganga Prasad Rao was geneticist and plant breeder, known for his efforts in
developing hybrid varieties of sorghum.
Chickpea (channa) is susceptible to attack by another fungal disease called Aschochyta
blight. Development of its disease resistant variety was a major breakthrough. Equally
remarkable was development of resistant variety of pea for fungal disease powdery
mildew and resistant variety of green gram for a viral disease called yellow vein mosaic.

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Pulses and Oil Seeds
Pulses are yet another crop which supplements the need of proteins in diet. Earlier
cropping pattern could take lesser production due to longer maturity cycle. But
development of short duration varieties of moong, urad, cowpea and arhar (toor) helped
in increasing the production. All India Coordinated Pulse Improvement Project was taken
by Indian Council for Agriculture Research.
In the early period after independence attention was given to the dryland farming. Oil
yielding crops were cultivated in this region which also reduced our dependence on oil
imports. Dryland farming suffered due to non irrigation of these areas. But technologies
were developed to conserve moisture in soil by deep tillage, surface cultivation and stable
mulching.

Conserving Water
The animal drawn traditional ploughs have a limitation of ploughing depth. They could
plough 25 to 35 cm deep resulting in compact subsoil underneath. This compact subsoil
did not allow percolation of water. Use of tractor driven plough solved the problem. These
ploughs dig to the depth of 60 to 70 cm and off course allows percolation water many fold.
Stable mulching is very eco-friendly method of leaving soil covered with grass, leaves and
other vegetable matter that reduces the exposure of soil to sun and thereby reducing
water loss.
Plants like Acacia (babool) and Azadirachta indica (neem) are very suitable for increasing
the forest cover in arid (dry) regions. Fruit plants which can grow in dry region are like
pomegranate, (Zizypus) ber, amla, guava etc. to name a few.

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