Plant diversity assessment of selected forest sites of Gaya district of Bihar, India

Regular inventorization and monitoring of biodiversity is paramount for its conservation and sustainable utilization. Gaya district of the Bihar is endowed with rich biodiversity. For proper understanding of plant diversity, quantitative status of the vegetation is essentially required. The aim of the study was to assess different forest sites of the Gaya district of Bihar in India for their plant diversity. Study was carried out in these randomly selected eleven forest sites (Site I to Site XI). A total of 174 species belonging to 150 genera and58 families(48 Dicotyledons, 7 monocotyledons and 3 pteridophytes) were reported from all eleven study sites. Five largest families in the area were Poaceae (22 spp.), Fabaceae (14 spp.), Asteraceae (11 spp.), Rubiaceae (9 spp.) and Acanthaceae (7 spp). Different diversity attributes such as Important Value Index (IVI ), Species richness, Shannon Wiener index, Concentration of dominance and Evenness for tree, shrub and herb layers were estimated. For different sites highest IVI values for tree, shrubby and herbaceous layers were reported.Shannon wiener Index values for tree, shrubby and herbaceous layer of Nagobar site were estimated3.376, 1.986 and 2.350 respectively. Tree diversity was highest at Nagobar site whereas shrub and herb diversity was also reasonably better than most of the sites. Hence, it was revealed from the study that Nagobar site was most diverse site in the Gaya district. Study will be immense use for officials of forest department, researcher, students etc. for carrying out conservation and management work. Similar kind of study should be carried out in different forest sites of the country to get capture the status of the plant diversity for conservation and sustainable utilization.