Annual Report - IHBT

CSIR-IHBT Annual Report 2010-11For ecological analyses of the landscape, latest high resolution satellite data (IRS LISS III and LISSIV satellite sensors) and 1:15000 topographic maps were used. The forest management maps werealso scanned and digitized for Range and Beat boundaries.At present, there are one Reserve Forest (RF), 13 Demarcated Protected Forests (DPF) and 417newly notified DPFs in the entire forest division. The new DPFs form 80-85% of the forest area.The boundaries for these new DPFs were identified from the forest topo-sheets and digitized fortheir actual area estimation.A total of 200 species of plants were encountered in the whole district. Of which, populationdata of ca.150 species was recorded. The voucher specimens were deposited in the herbarium ofthe institute.Ecological characterizationA study was undertaken to describe the vegetation of Kinnaur on a multiple scale in threecontrasting landscapes and to assess the extent of fragmentation using satellite images. Kinnaur(30°22’40”N to 33°12’40”N and 75°47’55”E to 79°04’20”E), a north-eastern frontier districtin H.P., spans over an area of about 6400km 2 and has a heterogeneous landscape. It has threesubdivisions, Pooh, Kalpa and Nichar. The species diversity of vegetation communities and theirsoil physico-chemical characteristics were also compared. The total landscape area (TLA) coveredby natural vegetation is 285415.80ha with Nichar (Fig. 3), Kalpa (Fig. 4), and Pooh covering65142.16, 52901.93 and 167371.71ha area, respectively. Pooh, the largest block lying in the eastwas poor in terms of landscape composition as compared to Nichar. Though rich in LSE, theextent of fragmentation was highest in Nichar. It has higher mean values of species diversity thanother blocks. This was in contrast to the Pooh landscape, where the patch as well as the speciesdiversity were the lowest. The mean values of soil physico-chemical characteristics in the threeblocks showed that the available N and P significantly differentiate the landscapes. The meanvalues for soil bulk density, pH, EC and available P were significantly higher, but the values forsoil porosity, saturation percentage, moisture percentage, organic C, available N and K, total N andK, and C/N ratio were low in Pooh as compared to Kalpa and Nichar.5