Species Diversity, Forest Community Structure and Regeneration in Banke National Park

Banke national park, located in Banke district of western Nepal with an area of 550 sq. km was established as the tenth national park in 2010 A.D. Forest community structure, species diversity and natural regeneration were studied in the Park. A total of 1067 plots at every interval of 200m were laid by line transect method for the study. In each plot three concentric rings of radii of 10m, 5m, and 1m were laid down for the study of trees, shrubs/saplings and herbs/seedlings respectively. The park was floristically rich with a total of 113 species of trees representing 57 genera and 28 families. Similarly 85 species of shrubs including climbers and 107 species of herbs including herbaceous climbers, and grasses were recorded. The obtained results from the size class distribution of the trees resembling inverse ‘J’ shape indicated the good regenerating capability of the forest in the park. Fifty eight species of saplings and 40 species of seedlings of trees were recorded. From the quantitative study of the trees, the dominant species was Shorea robusta based on IVI (important value index) values, which was followed by Terminalia alata, Anogeissus latifolius, Mallotus philippinensis, etc. The total density stand (D) and basal area (BA) of the park were 291.48 trees/ha and 21.13 m2/ha respectively. The highest density (D) and the basal area (BA) of S. robusta was 46.07 trees /ha and 5.07m2/ha respectively. The species diversity index (H) of the tree species in BaNP was 1.32, with species evenness (J) of 0.64 and index of dominance (C) of 0.08. A total of seven forest community types were estimated in the Park. The size class distribution diagram of all trees showed right skewed (inverse J shaped) pattern indicating a good regenerating capability of the forest. The regeneration of S. robusta, T. alata and A. latifolius were higher in comparison to other tree species which was indicated by the higher seedlings and saplings density of them. S. robusta was the dominant with saplings density of 200.49 / ha and seedlings density of 27153.4 /ha.Nepal Journal of Science and Technology Vol. 16, No.1 (2015) pp. 17-30