Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

FLORISTIC DIVERSITY OF PIRANMALAI FOREST OF EASTERN GHATS, TAMIL NADU, INDIA

C. Pitchairamu and K. Muthuchelian

Abstract

Biodiversity is absolutely essential for stability of different ecosystems and proper functioning of their food chains/ webs. Historically man has lived with diversity but unfortunately man has been the greatest enemy of diversity even from the prehistoric times.The mere fact that biodiversity has been diminishing whereas human population is escalating reflects that human heads are increasing at the cost of biodiversity. Species diversity ,population structure and dispersion patterns of all trees, Sapling, Seedlings, Shrubs, Herbs and Climbers were inventoried in a tropical dry deciduous forest in the Piranmalai forest, Eastern Ghats, India.The study sites include two Disturbed areas Nehru park (site I) and Foot hill (site II), two moderately disturbed areas Vannar lruppu (site III) and Alaguchokkan (site IV) and two undisturbed areas Veerappan kovil (site V) and Dharga area (site VI).All the six sites received about the same rainfall within 7 Km radius and these sites form a continuous stretch of tropical forests ranging from 200m to 800m altitude. Diversity index, dominance index, species richness and evenness index revealed a progressive reduction in diversity with increasing disturbance.A total of 82 plant species (16 Trees, 21 Shrubs, 28 Herbs and 17 Climbers) were inventoried.