Species diversity is the number of different species found in a particular area. However, conservation biologist often uses the term species diversity even when they are actually referring to species richness, i.e. to number of present species (Harrison et al., 2004). Dibrugarh district located in the upper Assam is well known for its biological richness. Similarly, the study area i.e., the Dibrugarh University campus is also having a good number of species diversity. The biological diversity found in the study area is often related to its vegetation cover, which is categorized into evergreen, semi-evergreen, deciduous, semi-deciduous and coniferous/alpine/others. The Botanical garden inside the campus has been considered as one of the protected area covering an area of 4.63 hectares. It is famous for rare, valuable trees, fruits, medicinal herbs etc. Apart from that the north eastern part corner of the campus also having some forest covers including a tea garden. The present study involves identification and mapping of species diversity of prominent tree, grass and herbs in selected quadrants available in the study area. Plant communities are classified according to structure of canopy or type (tree, shrub or herbaceous) and dominance of taxa. The study is mainly based on primary data collected for the field study. For density analysis of species, 15 major species are taken for study and area is divided into 200m X 200m grids. The herbaceous plants are identified and analysis through quadrant method. The major 5 selective site are taken for study includes both grazing and non-grazing. Out of 103 herbaceous species there are 35 major species are identified which prominent inside the study area. These species are again classified into two broad i.e. Annual and Perennial. For canopy cover analysis of trees there are major 100 species are taken and average canopy area was measured.
Environmental issues like deforestation, biodiversity loss, soil erosion, siltation, wetland shrinkage, river bank erosion, etc. in drainage basin perspectives today are in a rapid flux triggered by population growth and developmental activities. Focusing on the Lower Digaru River basin of North-East India,the present study investigates the changes in theLand Use / Land Cover (LULC)trend using geospatial techniques and the cause-effect relationship by identifying the various environmental issues operating within the study area. The study area has been classified into nine LULC classes: dense forest, openforest, scrub forest, fallow land, barren land, cropland, dense scrub, mixed built-up land, and water body. The results revealed that the area under dense forest has drastically declined from 60.25 % to 16.63 % during 1999-2020. In contrast, the other important categories like Mix built-up land (8.11 % to 14.05 %), scrub forest (2.1 % to 25.11 %), barren land (0.2 % to 6.63 %) and open forest (11.9 % to 18.34 %) show an increasing trend of change during the said period. Post-classification comparison of the classified images based on the transition matrix indicated that approximately 40 % of the total area under forest had been converted to scrub forest, followed by 25.09 % to open forest and, most significantly, 5.22 % to mix built-up land during 1999 -2020. Increasing population pressure and growth of economic activities like the establishment of brick industries, coke industries, and sand mining were the major driving forces for such LULC changes. Environmental implications like wetland shrinkage, river bank erosion, alteration of human occupation and economy, etc., were the study area’s prime concern. The findings suggest that integrated watershed management and land use planning should be implemented in the Lower Digaru River Basin.
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