Regeneration Status and Floristic Composition of Natural and Plantation forest Ecosystems of Barnawapara Wildlife Sanctuary, Chhattisgarh, India

The present work aimed to study the regeneration status, species composition in natural and plantation forests of subhumid tropics in Barnawapara Wildlife Sanctuary during 2009-2010. A total of 33 species of 17 families were encountered. Regeneration status in all the study sites were dissimilar. Closed natural forest (960 stems/ha of seedlings and 220 stems/ha of saplings) displayed the better regeneration followed by open natural forest (350 stems/ha of seedlings and 90 stems/ha of saplings) and teak plantations (340 stems/ha of seedlings and 40 stems/ha of saplings) respectively. However under teak plantation Lagerstroemia parvilora has shown better regeneration. Tree stand density varied from 520 to 990 stems ha^-1 having basal area ranging from 21.50 to 47.30 m² ha^-1. It is evident that natural forest has an edge over plantation forest in terms of regeneration, species composition.