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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
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Bhubaneswar is very rich in biodiversity. It was declared as wildlife Sanctuary on 6
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December 1978 and declared as Mayurbhanj Elephant Reserve on 29 September 2001. It
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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
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