ANTHROPOGENIC PRESSURE ALONG ALTITUDINAL GRADIENT IN ...

J. Environ. Res. Develop. Journal of Environmental Research And Development

Vol. 7 No. 1, July-September 2012

Short Communication (NS-1) ANTHROPOGENIC PRESSURE ALONG ALTITUDINAL GRADIENT IN A PROTECTED AREA OF GARHWAL HIMALAYA, INDIA Bhat Jahangeer A.*, Kumar Munesh, Negi Ajeet K. and Todaria N.P. Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, HNB Garhwal Central University, Srinagar (Garhwal), Uttarakhand (INDIA)

Received May 05,2012

Accepted September 10,2012

ABSTRACT The present study was carried out in a largest protected area of Garhwal Himalaya and this is an attempt to assess the anthropogenic pressure along altitudinal gradient in Madhmeshwar area, India which is the interior part of Kedarnath Wildlife Sanctuary. The anthropogenic pressure was investigated by the estimation of tree density, density of cut stumps, basal cover, lopping percentage and dung piles in different altitudinal zones. A total of five altitudinal zones were made from 1550 to 3550 m asl with a gap of 250 m and at each altitudinal zone a total of twenty sampling plots of size 100 m2 were taken. The results revealed that altitudinal zone-II (2000-2200 m) was under higher anthropogenic pressure among all the altitudinal zones followed by altitudinal zone-III (2450-2650 m) and altitudinal zone-I (1550-1750 m). The reason behind the high anthropogenic pressure in the altitudinal zone-II might be due to forests close to human habitation are more prone to disturbance than the forests which are away from the human habitation.

Key Words : Anthropogenic pressure, Himalayas, Altitudinal zone, Disturbance, Kedarnath Wildlife sanctuary

as major causes of biodiversity loss. 5 Despite The worldwide destruction of vegetation has been remoteness and inaccessibility of parts of the high continuing at an alarming rate due to variety of altitude Himalayas, forests have been suffering causes.1 Human impacts are more devastating to from a high level of exploitation pressure by the land and biota than those occurring naturally. human beings leading to biodiversity loss and habitat Humans have extensively altered the global degradation. In the Himalayan region, the chronic environment, changing global bio-geological form of disturbances are those in which people cycles, transforming land and enhancing the remove only a small fraction of forest biomass in mobility of biota. Many species have been the form of grazing, lopping, surface burning and eliminated from areas dominated by human litter removal at a given time but the process year and ecosystems influences.2 The last few decades have seen an continues unabated year after 6 get no time for recovery. Himalayan forests, unprecedented destruction of global forest cover.3 however, are strongly impacted by anthropogenic Degraded forests are on the increase and now activities.7 Grazing activity by large number of form a large proportion of tropical landscapes.4 herbivores also influence numerous processes The anthropogenic disturbances include associated with the recruitment of individuals to a deforestation, grazing, lopping of tree branches plant population.8 There are several studies on for fodder and fuelwood, removal of leaf and wood anthropogenic disturbances in Garhwal Himalayas.9 litter from the forest floor and frequent fire. But in protected areas of Garhwal Himalayas such In India, habitat destruction, over exploitation, studies have not been carried out, thus the aim of pollution and species introduction are identified present study was to assess anthropogenic *Author for correspondence disturbance along altitudinal gradient in a protected 62

INTRODUCTION



area (Kedarnath Wildlife Sanctuary) of Garhwal Himalaya, India.

ha , dung piles ha-1 and lopping intensity (%) was carried out according to established methods.13,4

MATERIAL AND METHODS

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The study was carried out in Madhmeshwar area, India which is the interior part of Kedarnath Wildlife Sanctuary in Western Himalaya of Uttarakhand located between the coordinates of 30° 35' 42"- 30° 38' 12" N, 79° 10' 00"-79° 13' 00" E. The area of Sanctuary falls under the IUCN management Category IV (Managed Nature Reserve) in the bio-geographical Province 2.38.12 of Himalayan highlands. The Kedarnath Wildlife Sanctuary (KWLS) established in 1972 is one of the largest protected areas in the Western Himalaya located in Chamoli-Rudraprayag districts of Uttarakhand.10 The area covered by the Sanctuary is 97517.80 ha (25293.70 ha in Chamoli district and 72224.10 ha in Rudraprayag district). The sanctuary lies in the upper catchment of the Alaknanda and Mandakini Rivers, which are major tributaries of Ganges. The sanctuary comprises of a broad range of altitudinal gradients from nearly 800 m in the lower part which experiences sub-montane climate to almost 6000 m asl forming the Great Himalayan range, including alpine regions. The area receives 300 cm of annual precipitation of which the rainy months (June-August) contribute approximately 60%. The relative humidity varies from 35 to 85% annually. There is moderate to heavy snowfall during winter (December-February), even in lowaltitude areas. The mean maximum temperature varies between 4° C (January) and 33.5°C (June). Data has been collected from 2009-2011 from five altitudinal zones along altitudinal gradient with an altitudinal interval of 250 m between every altitudinal zone. All the plots were at least 55 m vertically and 150 m horizontally apart along the altitudinal gradient. The size of the sampling plots was 100 m2 and the numbers of such 100 m2 plots were 20 covering an area of 2000 m2 at every altitudinal zone. The anthropogenic pressure was estimated in terms of tree density/100 m2 11 which was calculated by dividing the total number of sampling plots studied to the total number of individuals of a species in all the sampling plots at each altitudinal zone while TBC m2 ha-1 (total basal cover)12 was calculated by multiplying the values of mean basal area of a species with density of the same species. The number of cut stumps

-1

Among the altitudinal zones, the highest tree density was 5.30 trees/100 m2 in the altitudinal zone-I (1550-1750 m) followed by 4.25 trees/100 m2 in the altitudinal zone-III (2450-2650 m) and the lowest value of density was 1.50 trees/100 m2 in the altitudinal zone-V. The other values of density were 2.85 trees/100 m2 and 3.70 trees/ 100 m2 in the altitudinal zone-II and altitudinal zone-IV (Table 1). The total basal cover m2 ha-1 followed same trend as showed by tree density in all altitudinal zones. The density and total basal cover were recorded as decreasing with increase in altitude except altitudinal zone-II (2000-2200 m) and it is because of close human habitation in this altitudinal zone. The reduction in the tree density and tree basal cover in the altitudinal zone-II (2000-2200 m) in present study, agrees with the findings of several workers e.g.11,15-17 They all observed similar result and found reduction in the tree density and basal area with increased disturbance intensity. Ramirez-Marcial et al.,18 in their study also reported decreasing density and basal area with disturbance intensity in montane rain forests in Chiapas, Mexico. Smiet 19,20 correlated the basal area with the rate of disturbance and observed stem density declines with disturbance. The altitudinal zone-V (33503550 m) was also having lowest values for density and total basal cover which may be because of high altitude and this altitudinal zone was close to tree line and climatic conditions were harsh. Cierjacks et al21 reported in their study that tree regeneration is generally known to be limited in harsher environments and tree line stands should be no exception to this. Kumar and Ram22-26 reported in their study that in central Himalayan forests low elevation forests were close to human habitation and had high disturbance frequency, while high elevation forests were situated far from the human habitation and had low disturbance. The density of cut stumps was highest (110 ha 1 ) in the altitudinal zone-II (2000-2200 m) followed by 30 ha -1 in the altitudinal zone-III (2450-2650 m), where as altitudinal zone-IV (2900-3100 m) and altitudinal zone-V (3350-3550 m) recorded no cut stumps. Tree lopping percent was also highest (7.39%) in the altitudinal zone63


II (2000-2200 m) followed by (1.13%) altitudinal zone-III (2450-2650 m) while altitudinal zoneIV (2900-3100 m) and altitudinal zone-V (33503550 m) were observed without lopped trees (Table 1). Prasad (2010) observed 179 cut stems ha -1 and 40% lopping in highly disturbed zone which was higher than our recorded values. Highest dung piles (145 ha -1 ) were recorded in the altitudinal zone-II (2000-2200 m) followed by 15 ha-1 and 10 ha-1 dung piles in the altitudinal zone-III (2450-2650 m) and altitudinal zone-I (1550-1750 m) respectively and there was no Table 1 : Parameters of Parameters


presence of dung piles in the altitudinal zone-IV and altitudinal zone-V (Table 1). Prasad (2010) also reported 280 dung piles ha -1 in highly disturbed zone. The reason behind the lowest values of our study for cut stems, lopping percentage and dung piles might be because our study area was a protected area (Wildlife Sanctuary) and cutting for fuelwood, grazing and collection of fodder are strictly prohibited but restrictions on collection of fodder and fuelwood is difficult to enforce as the villages are inside the protected area. anthropogenic pressure

Zone-I

Zone-II

(1550-1750m)

(2000-2200m)

Total Tree Density/100 m2

5.30

2.85

4.25

3.70

1.50

Density of Cut Stumps ha-1

20

110

30

-

-

37.96

14.72

32.37

27.63

2.91

Lopping percentage of trees

0.47

7.39

1.13

-

-

-1

10

145

15

-

-

TBC m2 ha-1

Dung piles ha

CONCLUSION The present study concludes that the anthropogenic pressure was highest in areas near human settlements and thus inspite of its protected status, Kedarnath Wildlife Sanctuary is not free from anthropogenic pressure which is due to presence of certain villages inside the sanctuary as the inhabitants depend on the sanctuary resources for their daily needs.

3.

4.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The authors are thankful to University Grants Commission, New Delhi, India for awarding RFSMS (Research Fellowship in Sciences for Meritorious Students) to Mr. Jahangeer A. Bhat for conducting this research work. We are also grateful to PCCF-wildlife Uttarakhand and DFO Kedarnath Wildlife Sanctuary for providing necessary permissions.

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Zone-V

(2450-2650m) (2900-3100m) (3350-3550m)

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