Amit Chawla

Vascular plants, Kinnaur, Himachal Pradesh, India

In the present study, we provide a checklist of the vascular plants of Kinnaur district situated in the Himachal Pradesh state of India in the western Himalaya. This checklist includes 893 taxa ( viz ., species, subspecies and varieties) belonging to 881 species of angiosperms and gymnosperms distributed among 102 families and 433 genera, and 30 species of pteridophytes. Information about the growth habit, threat and endemicity status is also provided. Our results show that family Compositae is by far the most species rich family with 122 species, followed by Poaceae (69), Rosaceae (58), Leguminosae (49) and Lamiaceae (38). Among the genera, Artemisia is the most diverse genus with 19 species, followed by Potentilla (14), Saussurea (13), Polygonum (11), Astragalus (10), Lonicera (10) and Nepeta (10). Similar to other regions in the western Himalayan range, family-to-genera ratio was 1:4.25 and the genera-to-species ratio was 1:2.04. Out of 893 taxa, our checklist includes 606 herb species, 63 trees, 108 shrubs, 28 climbers, 67 graminoids and 21 sedges and rushes. Of all the species recorded, 108 (12.2%) are endemic to western Himalaya and 27 (3%) are placed under IUCN threatened categories. The present checklist on the flora of Kinnaur provides an important baseline data for further quantitative studies on the characteristics of plant communities in this region and will help in the identification of priority conservation areas.

Characterization of Solang valley watershed in western Himalaya for bio-resource conservation using remote sensing techniques

The development activities in mountainous region though provide comfort to the human being and enhance the socioeconomic status of the people but create pressure on the bio-resources. In this paper, the current status of land use/landcover and the vegetation communities of the Solang valley watershed in Himachal Pradesh of Indian western Himalaya has been mapped and presented using remote sensing. This watershed area was dominated by alpine and sub-alpine pastures (30.34%) followed by scree slopes (22.34%) and forests (21.06%). Many tree, shrub, and herb species identified in the study area are among the prioritized species for conservation in the Indian Himalayan Region. Thus, scientific interventions and preparation of action plans based on ecological survey are required for conservation of the Solang valley watershed.

Regeneration Pattern of Tree Species in Forested Landscapes of Himachal Pradesh, Western Himalayan Region, India

The present work was conducted to assess the regeneration pattern of dominant tree species in the forested landscapes of Himachal Pradesh, India. The study was conducted in four agro-climatic zones viz., zone I, zone II, zone III and zone IV, of the state at 58 locations during 2002–2007. Stratified random quadrat sampling was employed to estimate regeneration pattern of tree species by classifying them into seedling, sapling and adult stages. The analysis of data was carried out using MS excel while it was spatially represented in Geographic Information System environment. The regeneration pattern was divided in to four classes namely good, fair, poor and no regeneration. A total of 23 forest landscape elements (LSEs) dominated by 18 tree species were observed at the surveyed localities. These tree species are representative of the western Himalayan ecosystem. The number of seedlings, saplings and adults ranged from 0 to 2,700/ha, 0 to 1,500/ha, and 20 to 1,470/ha, respectively in different LSEs. Picea smithiana was observed to posses highest number of seedlings (2,700/ha) and saplings (1,500/ha) in zone IV and zone III, respectively. Cedrus deodara, on the other hand, had the maximum number of adults (1,470/ha) in its pure patch in Shimla in zone III. The results showed that amongst the four agro-climatic zones, the zone I in general had a trend of poor to no regeneration while other zones generally had fair regeneration. Zone I and zone II had poor, fair and no regeneration pattern. The trees in zone III and zone IV had good regeneration pattern in addition to poor, fair and no regeneration. Based on the results of present study, it is suggested that efficient measures are needed to conserve and to increase the tree regeneration growth in zone I of the state, whereas special efforts should be made to maintain the luxuriant forest status in rest of the agro-climatic zones of Himachal Pradesh.