The high altitude wildlife areas of western Arunachal Pradesh

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Chapter 3 Vegetation types identified and mapped included (clockwise, from top left) Rhododendron Scrubland, Forest Clearings, Broadleaved Forest including Rhododendron (right centre) and oak Quercus spp. (right below), and Conifer Broadleaved Forest. b) High-altitude Grassy Meadows (HGM): High-altitude grassy meadows occurred between 4350 and 5250 m. These were open, rocky areas with graminoids and forbs as the dominant life form. The woody vegetation was very restricted, and trees were absent. Towards the higher altitudes, the landscape was relatively drier. These high altitude meadows are used extensively for sheep grazing in summer. Plants include species such as Stipa, Saxifraga, Artemesia, Leontopodium, restricted dwarf Rhododendron, etc. c) Dwarf Rhododendron Meadows (DRM): These meadows with graminoids and forbs, but dominated by a mat of very dwarf Rhododendron sp. (rarely exceeding a height of 0.5 m) occurred between 4200 and 4600m. Other plants included species of Anaphalis, Fagopyrum, Juncus, Aster, and Anemone. These meadows are used for summer grazing by sheep and yaks. d) Rhododendron Scrubland (RSL): Rhododendron scrubland, forming a Krummholz vegetation fringing the tree line, occurred between 4000 and 4300 m. This included large patches of Rhododendron interspersed with alpine meadows. The Rhododendron layer varied between 1 m at higher altitudes to 3 m in the relatively lower areas. The 20
Mapping species composition was variable, including plants such as Berberis, Rosa, Fagopyrum, Anaphalis, Allium, Pedicularis, Potentilla, Bistorta, Rheum etc. Many open areas had a mat of moss. This vegetation zone is used for summer grazing by yaks, cattle, and cattle-yak hybrids. Rhododendron is heavily used as fuel-wood by the herders. e) Conifer Broadleaved Forest (CBF): Conifer-broad leaved forests were distributed across a wide elevational range from 3000 to 4200 m. This forest type was variable in species composition and appearance, ranging from open fir Abies densa – Juniperus patches to closed, homogenous stands of fir. While fir was the predominant conifer, other species included Larix, Tsuga, Picea, J. recurva, and J. indica. The broad leaved tree species were dominated by Rhododendron, but also included Acer, Quercus, etc. The understorey included species of bamboo, Daphne, Rubus, and several ferns. The tree branches were covered with a thick mat of moss. These forests are used for collection of bamboo, Illicium griffithi fruits, and for timber extraction (mainly fir, but also some Juniperus). In relatively lower altitudes, they are grazed by mithun, mithunyak hybrids, and mithun-cattle hybrids. f) Broadleaved Forest (BLF): Broad leaved, oak dominated forests occurred mostly below 3000 m. Other tree species included Rhododendron, Acer, etc. Most of the forests were degraded due to human use, as most villages in the region lie within this altitudinal zone. The tree branches are often moss covered. These forests are used for grazing cattle, mithun, and cattle-mithun hybrids. People also collect oak leaf-litter for manure, as well as extract bamboo and timber from these forests. Fig. 1. A map showing vegetation types found at elevations above 2750 m in Tawang and West Kameng Districts, Arunachal Pradesh. 21
Page 2 and 3: Mishra, C., Datta, A. & Madhusudan,
Page 5: The High Altitude Wildlife of Weste
Page 9: Acknowledgements The need for this
Page 12 and 13: Chapter 1 Wildlife of Arunachal’s
Page 14 and 15: Chapter 1 The Buddhist Monpa, the m
Page 16 and 17: Chapter 1 drawings of the several m
Page 18 and 19: Chapter 1 30. Datta, A. (1999) Smal
Page 20 and 21: Chapter 2 past to occur in the Mukt
Page 22 and 23: Chapter 2 Table 2. A comparison of
Page 24 and 25: Chapter 2 Comparison of survey area
Page 26 and 27: Chapter 2 Table 4. A comparison of
Page 28 and 29: Chapter 2 References 1. IUCN. (2003
Page 32 and 33: Chapter 3 Fig. 2. The proposed high
Page 35 and 36: The road ahead Chapter 4 Conserving
Page 37: The road ahead livestock insurance
Page 40 and 41: Appendix 1 Pradesh, which is anothe
Page 42 and 43: Appendix 1 N. goral hodgsoni 25 . N
Page 45 and 46: The Tawang macaque Appendix 2 A rep
Page 47 and 48: The Tawang macaque Most of our sigh
Page 49: The Tawang macaque provisionally id
Page 52 and 53: Appendix 3 COMMON NAME LATIN NAME T
Page 54 and 55: Appendix 3 COMMON NAME LATIN NAME T
Page 56 and 57: Appendix 4 81. Parochetus sp. 82. P
Page 58 and 59: Appendix 5 node 6 . Besides their a

The high altitude wildlife areas of western Arunachal Pradesh

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?