Preliminary study on flora of Orchha wildlife sanctuary (Madhya Pradesh), India.

Abstract

Assessment of flora species which form an integral part of animal ecology, in wildlife based protected areas is necessary before any meaningful conservation work can commence. Understanding floral diversity is important for helping forests managers to evaluate the complexity and resources. Substantial literature is not available on floral diversity of the Orchha Wildlife Sanctuary as a ready reference and thus require to take up study of flora of the sanctuary to fill the gap. Orchha Sanctuary is situated between Betwa and Jamni rivers of Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh. The total area of the sanctuary is 45.86 square kilometer, which includes both land and water bodies. The extensive floristic exploration of Orchha Wildlife Sanctuary was carried out. The floristic composition was recorded by making visual observations. Specimen samples were collected at different reproductive stages to prepare herbarium and substantiate their correct identity. Forests in Orchha Sanctuary are Southern Tropical Dry Deciduous Forests and Kardhai Forests. The forests are predominately covered by Teak and Kardhai. Other species like Haldu, Sejha, Arjun, Saja, Khair, Achar and mahua are scattered all over the area. 42 genera of Angiosperms comprising 23 families occured in the Sanctuary. The prominently represented family in terms of highest number of genera is Leguminosae comprising 11 genera. The study on floral diversity in the sanctuary will serve as a basic tool that will enable other researcher and managers of the sanctuary to further take up studies on biodiversity assessment and vegetation structure.

Carbon sequestration in different pools of tiger reserves and territorial forests of Madhya Pradesh, India

“…Dominance of teak indicates rightful protection and regulation on its felling by the government due to its exceptional contribution in increasing carbon stock of dry deciduous forests of central India. Various studies report co-domination of Lannea coromandelica, Lagerstroemia parviflora (Majumder et al, 2013; Khan et al, 2019) [18,15] , Madhuca indica and Terminalia tomentosa (Shrivastava et al, 2017) [25] corroborating the results for their significant contribution in the carbon stock in the studied forests. Protection from livestock grazing and anthropological interference has significantly contributed to higher litter and herbaceous biomass production in TRs.…”