Pongamia Pinnata

Pongamia Pinnata trees are normally planted along the highways, roads and canals to stop soil erosion. Billions of trees exist all over India. If the seeds fallen along road side are collected, and oil is extracted at village level expellers, thousands of tons of oil will be available for Lighting the Lamps in rural area. It is the best oil for lighting. Since these are spread over a large area, collection of seeds for BioDiesel manufacture is not viable. (A compact plantation can support a BioDiesel plant).
Pongamia Pinnata is called as Koroch in Bangladesh. There, it is a fresh water flooded plant / tree. The seedlings of Koroch can survive in 1.5 meters deep water submergence / inundation for five to six months duration at a stretch. There are nearly 30,000 square km of water reservoirs in India. This tree can be cultivated in such water storage reservoirs up to 1.5 meters depth and reap additional economic value from unused reservoir lands.

Pongamia Pinnata is one of the few nitrogen fixing trees to produce seeds containing 30 to 32% oil. It is often planted as an ornamental and shade tree. This specie is commonly called Pongam, Karanj, or a derivation of these names.