Description
M/S Bishen Singh Mahendra Pal Singh Biodiversity Characterisation at Landscape Level in Jammu & Kashmir Using Satellite Remote Sensing and GIS by Department Of Biotechnology
Biodiversity Characterization at Landscape Level in Jammu & Kashmir using satellite Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System Jammu & Kashmir is situated in North-Western parts of Himalayan Biodiversity hot spot region of India. It has unique climatic and physiographic conditions represented by hot semi-arid tropics in the south to dry cold alpine trans-Himalayan region in the north. The state has four National parks and 15 Wildlife sanctuaries and Wular lake is first Ramasar site. Complex terrain has led to high ecosystem diversity and endemism. About 42 per cent of the total geographical area has natural vegetation. And about 20 per cent of it is alpine and receives heavy snow-fall. It harbors more than 5000 known plants species in Indian sub-continent. From biodiversity conservation perspective the region holds key position as it is the meeting ground of several floristic and faunal elements of north Asiatic-European, Mediterranean, far-east Asian and semi-arid Indian sub-continental forms. This is first of its kind of study and data in the state of Jammu & Kashmir in the Phase III of the project. Forest/vegetation has been mapped in to 25 types on 1:50,000 scale using two season IRS LISS III satellite data. These are broad phenological types, pure and mixed formations. Baseline data on floristics has been generated by laying nearly 600 sample plots with geolocations. Species richness indices and endemism have been established for different forest types for better comparison and decision making. The book contains forest/vegetation type-wise number of species of trees, shrubs and herbs and also a list of dominant plant species in different ecosystems. Lists of endemic 30 (species), economically (266 species) and medicinally (167) important species have been provided. Details of their habit, forest types and uses compiled from literature survey have been appended.