Status of Flora in Protected Areas the Case Studies of Satpuda, Bandhavgarh, Indravati and Madhav National Parks of Madhya Pradesh, India

Attempts have been made for the first time to workout the biodiversity indices for flora in the four Pas, i.e., the Bandhavgarh (BNP), Indravati (lNP), Madhav (MNP), and Satpuda (SNP) National Parks of Madhya Pradesh following standard sampling techniques and formulae. The values of Shannon-Wiener biodiversity indices as computed are found to be 2.508, 2.226, 1.842 and 1.815 respectively for MNP, SNP, INP and BNP. The values of the index of evenness have also been computed which are 0.753,0.668,0.581 and 0.581 respectively for MNP, SNP, INP and BNP. The highest t.value and degree of freedom (df) found for INP while lowest in MNP which reveals that the two types of the selected forest sites (areas) are significantly different upto certain extent in terms of the diversity of dominant species in INP, while not in case of MNP. Thus the areas of these PAs with lower diversity indices needed to be given more attention for protection and conservation of biodiversity. In fact, these areas being peripheral to territorial divisions are more affected by the biotic pressures from the adjoining villages which need to be minimized. Thus the study is not only of academic interest but relevant for management of the Protected Areas.