Biogeochemical Basis of Plant Diversity On Gandhamardan Hills of Eastern Ghat in Orissa India

Abstract

India is a country with incredible geographical diversity together with plurality in society, economy, language, religion, culture and ethnicity. India has taken significant steps in inventorising her vast and diverse biological heritage. Forests are home to more than 80% of all terrestrial species of animals, plants and insects. Forest is a dynamic natural resource because of the ecosystem cycles as well as its anthropogenic interactions. Since forest and hydrology are closely associated, morphometric analysis of 67 drainage basins has been done to assess their control on the forest cover of Gandhamardan hills. Assessment of biodiversity in forests is important since it provides an indicator to represent the state of conservation of forest ecosystems. This, in turn, can help evaluate and monitor sustainability of biological resources as well as compare stability, productivity and ecosystem functions of forests in temporal and spatial scales. The most commonly used Shannon-Wiener and Simpson indices were used in the present work to compare biodiversity values between plant communities. As per Forest Survey of India report (2019), the total forest and tree cover of the country is 8,07,276 Km2 (7,12,249 Km2 forest cover and 95,027 Km2 tree covers) which is 24.56% (21.67% forest cover and 2.89% tree covers) of the geographical area of India. The forest cover in the state of Odisha is 51,618.51 Km2 which is 33.15% of the state s geographical area. The rural population of India is about 68% of the total population and to the note; a significant part of it is dependent on the forests for meeting the needs of fuel wood, fodder, small timber, bamboo and NTFPs. newline