Vegetation Dynamics in Plantation Sites of Collieries

摘要

Mining operation exerts long lasting effects on the ecosystem and environment. The key impactincludes deforestation, degeneration and degradation of natural resources, environmental pollution,health risk, ecological and socio-ecological instabilities. The magnitude of impact depends on themethods, scale and mining activity concentration, technological interventions etc. The study wascarried out in three plantation sites to evaluate the floristic structure, composition, diversity and litterbiomass. In different sites a total of 4 tree species, 5 sapling species, 18 seedling species and 7 shrubspecies were found. A total of 440 trees ha -1 were encountered in eucalyptus plantation, 480 trees ha -1 inteak plantation and 960 trees ha -1 in mixed plantation. The total density of saplings, seedlings andshrubs ranged from 60-860 saplings ha -1 , 2400-8960 seedlings ha -1 and 240-960 shrubs ha -1 ,respectively, across the sites. The total litter biomass varied from 1.98-4.01 t ha -1 , being lowest at teakplantation and highest under eucalyptus plantation. The mining activities resulted in an appreciabledamage to natural vegetation and its dynamics. A long term strategy is essential for restoration andconservation of the fragile ecosystem of collieries.