Forest Composition in Relation to Socio-economic Status of People at Three High Altitudinal Villages of a Part of Garhwal Himalayas

The present study was conducted in the Keflarnath Forest Division, involving three high altitude villages to study the involvement of local inhabitants/villagers with the forest and their effect on forest composition and regeneration status. Investigation revealed that the average firewood and fodder requirement of the study area was 1093.35 kg/day/village and 4758.65 kg/day/village, respectively. Whole of this firewood is extracted from the adjacent forest. However, the fodder extracted from the forest was maximum 1211.14 kg/day at Sari village and minimum 838.24 kg/day at Makkumath village. The rate of exploitation of forest resources was verified by vegetation analysis where no regeneration has been recorded from all the adjacent forests of the selected villages. The total basal cover of all the species was highest (76.47 m²/ha) at Sari and lowest (46.94 m²/ha) at Krokhi village. The values are comparatively higher than the earlier reported values (5.61.59.39 m²/ha) for similar type of forest, again indicating the greater biotic pressure to the forest. Quercus leucotrichophora was found associated with Lyonia ovalifolia and Rhododendron arboreum in the study sites.