STRUCTURE AND COMPOSITION OF WOODY ELEMENTS IN TIRTHAN AND SAINJ VALLEY OF GREAT HIMLAYAN NATIONAL PARK AT KULLU, HIMACHAL PRADESH
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Date
2019-07
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UHF,NAUNI
Abstract
ABSTRACT
The present investigation entitled Structure and Composition of woody elements in Tirthan and Sainj valley
of Great Himalayan National Park at Kullu, Himachal Pradesh” was carried out in three different elevation i.e. Lower
zone (1500-2000 m.), Mid zone (2000-2500 m.) and Upper zone (2500-3000 m.) of Tirthan and Sainj valley separately in
Great Himalayan National Park. In every elevational zone, 12 quadrats of 10 m X 10 m (100 sq m) size determined by
species area curve method were randomly laid to study tree species. In each quadrat, a sub-quadrat of 5m X 5m (25 sq m)
size for study of shrubs and sub-quadrat of 2 x 2 m (4 sq m) to record natural regeneration was selected. The generic
spectrum of vegetation in Tirthan and Sainj valley of Great Himalayan National Park comprised of 156 woody elements
which included 58 tree species and 98 shrub species. Tirthan valley was comprised of 113 woody elements where as in Sainj
valley total of 95 woody elements were reported, hence in terms of floral composition Tirthan valley was rich. In both
Tirthan and Sainj valley, number of forest species decreased periodically from lower elevation to upper elevation. Tree
density (Individual/ha.) in Tirthan valley was 683.33, 758.34 and 816.67 for lower zone, mid zone and upper zone
respectively. Likewise in Sainj valley it was 716.67 for lower zone, 791.67 for mid zone and 836.67 for upper zone. In
Tirthan mean density of tree vegetation increased along elevation, Similar results in the forest of Sainj valley also. The shrub
density (Individual/ha.) in Tirthan was 2866.67, 1900, 2866.67 for lower, mid and upper zone respectively while in Sainj it
was 2400 for lower, 1766.67 for mid and 1133,33 for upper zone of the valley. In both the valleys of GHNP shrub vegetation
decreased along the elevation. In both the case of tree and shrub vegetation, density was correlated with avg. basal area.
In Tirthan valley, Pinus wallichiana at lower zone (IVI 58.7), Picea smithiana at mid zone (IVI 50.43), Quercus
semecarpifolia at upper zone (IVI 70.79) were the dominant tree species. Likewise in Sainj valley dominant tree species at
lower zone was Cedrus deodara (IVI 64.62), at mid zone was Abies Pindrow (IVI 65.39) while at upper zone was Quercus
semecarpifolia with IVI 81.41. In shrub layer of Tirthan forest, dominant species at lower zone was Desmodium triflorum, at
mid zone was Indigofera heterantha while at upper zone it was Rosa sericea. In Sainj valley Rubus ellipticus, Sorbaria
tomentosa and Rosa sericea were the dominant shrub species at lower, mid and upper elevations respectively. In case of both
trees and shrubs vegetation, Sorenson’s and Jaccard’s indices of similarity showed maximum per cent of similarity in same
altitudinal ranges. Most of the tree and shrub species were characterized by contagious type of distribution while random and
regular patterns were recorded for few species only present at different altitudinal ranges of Tirthan and Sainj valley. Natural
regeneration at different elevation of Tirthan and Sainj valley revealed, Maximum regeneration success at mid altitudinal
range among all the three elevations. The primary data for DBH of trees present at different elevational zone of Tirthan and
Sainj valley was subjected to find out the expected number of trees in each diameter class and its significance was tested by
using Kolmogorov-Smirnov test statistic. Gamma distribution was observed best fitted for lower elevation of both the
valleys, weibull was best fitted for mid and upper elevation of Tirthan valley while, normal and lognormal were best fitted
for mid and upper zone of Sainj valley respectively to estimate the number of trees in various diameter classe
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