Vegetation Analysis of the Tirumala Hills, Andhra Pradesh

Paper reports on a detailed vegetational analysis of Tirumala Hills forest, Andhra Pradesh. The seven hills are of great tourist and religious importance as the holy shrine of Lord Venkateswara. More that 50,000 people flock to the shrine daily for darshan of the deity. Floristically these hills are very rich. Interesting to mention here the occurrence of seven endemic species viz., Cycas beddζmei, Shorea tumbuggaia, Boswellia ovalifoliolata, Pterocarpus santalinus, Terminalia pallida, Syzygium alternifolium and Pimpinella tirupatensis. Study was conducted in the year 2002, and the vegetation was sampled through random sampling method. The result presented in four groups. In Group 1: Hardwickia binata and Pterocarpus santalinus were main dominating species having density of 183 trees/ha and 133 trees/ha. The total trees, saplings and seedlings density of the whole stand was 667 trees/ha, 2167 saplings/ ha and 483 seedlings/ha, respectively. In Group II the structure of the tree component consisted 27 species of over 10 cm dbh. The trees, sapling and seedlings density of the whole stand was 551, 1274 and 980 individuals/ha respectively. In Group III The community consisted 40 species of which two, Ehretia laevis and Pterocarpus santalinus were dominant species. The total sapling and seedling density was 1087 and 847 individuals/ha. Group IV comprised mainly exotic speceis with 18 tree in which Anacardium occidentale, Grevillea robusta and Peltophorum ferrugineum were the dominant species.