Page 92 - e-Book
P. 92

As the cover of natural growth forests is thinning fast, managed forests considered as are the
               only choice for the conservation of wild plants(Pande, 1999). Most of the studies in India are

               concerned  with  vegetation  analysis  of  Shorea  communities  and  have  compared  plantation
               forests with natural forests(Pandey & Shukla, 2001, 2003; Shankar, 2001; Shankar, Lama, &

               Bawa, 1998) .However in Odisha few studies with respect to structure and function of the
               vegetation  cover  of  only  moist  deciduous  forests  of  Similipal  Biosphere  Reserve  is

               available(Bal, 2002; A. Mishra, 2007; RK Mishra, Upadhyay, Bal, Mohapatra, & Mohanty,

               2006;  R.  K.  Mishra,  2002;  Misra,  Upadhyay,  &  Mohanty,  2003;  Mohanty  et  al.,  2005).
               HadagarhWildlife  Sanctuary  is  lagged  behind  in  this  regard  of  theundergone  changes  and

               community ecology.Thus, the present study was undertaken.


               STUDY SITE

               Hadagarh  Wildlife  Sanctuary  situated  at  about  180km  North  West  of  the  capital  city  of
                                                                                                        th
               Bhubaneswar  is  very  rich  in  biodiversity.  It  was  declared  as  wildlife  Sanctuary  on  6
                                                                                     th
               December 1978 and declared as Mayurbhanj Elephant Reserve on 29  September 2001. It
                                                                                                0
                                                                                0
                                                    0
                                         0
               lies  between  Latitude  21   12'  to  21   26'  N  and  Longitudes  86   12'  30”  to  86   21'  30”
               E.Hadagarh  Wildlife  Sanctuary  comes  under  the  administrative  control  of  Keonjhar  and
               Mayurbhanj districts. This sanctuary is stretch over an area of 608.902 Sq. Km. and the core
               area is 191.06 sq. km. It includes 18 villages and 2 Reserve forests namely Boula Reserve

               forest of Anandapur and Satkosia Reserve forest of Karanjia and total water spread of Salandi
               water reservoir.



               MATERIALS AND METHODS
               Eight sites were identified starting from near human occupancy extending up to the core, which were

               evenly distributed in all the directions of the Hadagarh Wildlife Sanctuary. In the study sites sampling
               was done by quadrat method (Kershaw & Looney, 1985; R Mishra, 1968) Twenty quadrats of 20m ×
               20m, 5m × 5m and 1m × 1m were laid down at each site for trees, shrubs and herbs, respectively

               keeping a distance of approximately 200 m in between quadrats for data collection(Menon, 1997).
               The number and size of the quadrats were determined following the species area curve and running
               mean method given by (Kershaw & Looney, 1985; R Mishra, 1968), respectively. Species were

               collected and identified in terms of local names in the fields by verbal interaction with local people as
               well as forest authorities and their taxonomic positions were ascertained consulting flora of Odisha
               (Saxena & Brahmam, 1994) and the Botany of Bihar and Odisha(Haines, 1961)and the herbarium






                                                           82
   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97