Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

IMPACT OF SUB WATERSHED IMPLEMENTATION AT PANDOGA IN SWAN RIVER CATCHMENT AREA OF SHIVALIK FOOTHILLS H.P., INDIA ON LIFE FORM AND BIOLOGICAL SPECTRUM

Bindu Sharma, Sujata Bhattacharya and Sunil Puri

Abstract

Pandoga sub watershed is located in the Swan River Catchment Area of Una district of Himachal Pradesh (India). Una district lies in Shivalik foot hills of Western Himalayan region. Shivalik foot hills are well known for the degraded and fragile nature. Swan river was main river of the area too known as sorrow of district as it causes hazards to human life and to natural resources. To combat these ecological problems sub watersheds implemented along the drainage of swan river und swan river integrated watershed management; pandoga sub watershed was the one of them. Field Survey was conducted to assess the floral composition, life form and biological spectrum. Results revealed 136 species belonged to 112 genera and 49 families. The floristic composition enumerated: 27.21% trees, 12.50% shrubs, 45.59% herbs, 5.88% climber, 6.62% grasses, 1.47% Sedges and 0.73% of parasite. Dicots (87.75%) had high percentage as compared to Monocots (12.24%). Dominant families in accordance species contribution were Fabaceae, Asteraceae, Euphorbiaceae, Malvaceae and Poaceae. Life-form percentage in descending order was Phanerophytes (41.17%), Therophytes (36.76%), Chamaephytes (9.55%), Cryptophytes (4.41%), Hemicryptophytes (7.35%) and Geophytes (0.73%) high percentage of phanerophytes and Therophytes indicate phanero-therophytic Phytoclimate of the study area. A high intergeneric competition with the generic coefficient (83.08%) was observed. These results point out high biotic stress prevail in the study area.