Arboreal Taxa Diversity of Tropical Forests of Gandhamardan Hill Range, Eastern Ghats, India: An Approach to Sustainable Biodiversity Conservation

Abstract

The rich biodiversity repository of Gandhamardan hill ranges, Eastern Ghats, India is under severe threat from various magnitudes such as deforestation, unsustainable collection of medicinal plants, invasion of alien species, forest fire, urbanization and habitat destruction. The Protected Forests (PFs) have lost a number of wild species from their natural habitat pose to loss of biodiversity. The hill range having two preservation plots of 100ha each identified in Nrusinghanath (SITE-I) and Harishankar (SITE-Ⅱ) range as study area. The present study inventoried a total of 10775 trees belonging to 91 tree species within a 17.6 hectare sampled area (441 plots). The predominant tree species are Diospyros melanoxylon, Madhuca indica, Cleistanthus collinus, Anogeissus latifolia, and Lagerstroemia parviflora. The Shannon-Weiner index (H') is 3.92 (SITE-Ⅰ) and 3.31 (SITE-Ⅱ) with Simpson's value 1.0. This value indicates that the tropical moist deciduous forests are also species diverse systems. Mean stand density was 671 ha^(-1) in SITE^(-1) and 565 ha^(-1) in SITE-II. Stem density and species richness have consistently decreased with increasing girth class of tree species from 50 cm girth. The present study on phyto-diversity of tree species and participatory approaches on sustainable use of natural resources will provide the baseline information for effective and sustainable biodiversity conservation of tropical moist deciduous forest.