Community Structure and Plant Diversity of Community Based Religious Conserved Forests of Garhwal Himalaya, India

Abstract

The present study was carried out in four community based religious conserved forests areas i.e., Ansuiya Devi, Ulkagari, Maroor and Jameshwar in Garhwal Himalaya. The aim of the study was to access the ecological and diversity status. The selected sites have status either of reserve forest, communal forest/Van Panchyat or a combination of these apart from having several temples of religious significance. Study was conducted following the stratified random sampling technique by placing random quadrats of 10 m × 10 m size at forest floor. A total of 240 species of plants were recorded from the four study sites, which varied from 93 in Jameshwar to 119 in Ansuiya Devi. The density of these forests ranged from lowest of 782 trees/ha in Jameshwar to 1352 trees/ha in Maroor. The total basal cover (TBC) for trees showed a range of 31.67 m2/ha in Ulkagari to 84.34 m2/ha in Ansuiya Devi. Distribution pattern of whole herb and shrub layers were found contagious whereas only three tree species were found randomly distributed. Shannon diversity index (Hʹ) for tree species was recorded highest in Ansuiya Devi (2.93) whereas; lowest value (2.10) was recorded in Maroor. Species richness (Margalef index) for trees ranged from 3.29 to 4.35. The study is a pioneer in the aspect and can be helpful in making protocols and policy implications to protect these sites by involving local communities in biodiversity conservation outside the protected area network.