Forest Soil & Land Reclamation Division, Forest Research Institute, Dehra Dun 248006, India

Forest Informatics Division, Forest Research Institute, Dehra Dun 248 006, India

Soil organic carbon has been ignored since long because it was treated as a dead biomass. After the awareness of climate change, its importance has been recognized worldwide. Carbon remains in the soil for much longer duration than the carbon in the vegetation that the soils support. A study was undertaken to estimate the Soil Organic Carbon Stock under forests in Haryana state of India. SOC stock under different forests in Haryana was estimated and data reveals that maximum SOC stock (58.24 t ha^-1) was under chir (Pinus roxburghii), followed by dhak (B. monosperma) (51.41 t ha^-1), miscellaneous forests (43.55 t ha^-1) and the least was under sal (Shorea robusta) (40.97 t ha^-1). Organic carbon stock under chir was 33.73 % and 42.15 % higher as compared to miscellaneous and sal respectively. SOC stock under miscellaneous was 6.30 % higher as compared to sal. Maximum SOC stock was in the forests under north circle (4326371.19 t which is 54.89 % of total SOC stock of Haryana forests) and the least was in central circle (1078400.07 t, 13.68 % of total SOC stock of Haryana forests). Maximum organic carbon stock was in the soils in Panchkula district i.e. 21,16,652.22 tons which was 26.85 % of the total SOC stock in Haryana followed by in Yamunanagar district which contains 11,13,145.25 t which was 14.12 % of total stock of Haryana. Among the Wild life sanctuaries, Conservation reserves and National parks, maximum SOC stock was under wild life sanctuaries (1.09 million tons) which was 66.65 % of the total SOC stock under NP, WLS and CR, followed by conservation reserves (0.30 million tons) which was 18.43 % of total SOC stock in NP, WLS and CR and the least was in national parks (0.25 million tons).

Keywords: Forests; Forest circles; Mitigation potential; Soil organic carbon stock; Wild life sanctuaries.