Wildlife and Ground Flora

Ground vegetation which includes herbs, shrubs, climbers, ferns, fern allies, grasses, sedges, bamboos etc., has a very important role to play in the conservation of soil, microclimate, various faunal constituents and to maintain a balance between flora and fauna. While the botanists have only listed the names of these constituents, the foresters actually realized the importance of ground flora, their interaction with animals and values as indicator species. Yet the foresters have primarily manipulated ground flora for obtaining natural regeneration of commercially important tree species. Intensive climber cutting has been the part and parcel of forestry practices to save the valuable commercial trees from getting deformed. This book has given the fish-fauna (Ichthyofauna) a special status for inclusion in the definition of wildlife and has highlighted it’s linkage with various other fauna and flora in the conservation areas. This treatise also presents a realistic picture i.e. the status of ground flora, based on both qualitative and guantitative analysis. Various factors responsible for depletion of ground flora has also been discussed in short. The authors have projected the status of ground flora of the districts of Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri and such research studies should act as a model for similar studies elsewhere ground flora of 16 sites (14 other sites of different states of the country) have been presented to show that broad constituents are the same and all moist and wet forests present similar picture as of the two districts under thorough study. In fact the ground vegetation of the study area is one of the richest in the country and presents an ideal habitat for a wide variety of animals and birds. From the findings of the qualitative as well as quantitative studies the authors have drawn conclusion that the ground flora is very rich in the study area which is being depleted due to heavy biotic pressure; the frequency and density analysis speaks of the status of some conspicuous flora. Most interesting study centers round the inter-relationship between flora and fauna which has been presented in the form of various charts. The authors have in-pointed that every constituent of flora and in fact, every species of the ground vegetation has its part to play in the conservation of wildlife, highlighting its importance as food and shelter for both macro and micro animals.