Development of ground vegetation under exotic tree plantations on restored coal mine spoil land in a dry tropical region of India.

ABSTRACT

Restoration of mine spoil is a prime need for coal industry. The study of ground cover vegetation provides essential information about the species diversity and their successional trends during the restoration. The present study was conducted to analyze the structure and biomass accumulation of ground vegetation developing in different plantation stands of an opencast coal mine spoil in a dry tropical region. Different plantation stands showed variations in species diversities. Exotic herbs were more dominant in comparison to native herbs. Pennisetum pedicillatum, an exotic herb showed maximum Importance Value Index in most of the plantation stands. Total number of species varied between 12-18 in different plantation stands. Speces richness and evenness increased with increasing age of the plantations. Variations in total biomass accumulation of ground vegetation were also significant among different plantations. These results suggest that reforestation programme with exotic species on coal mine spoil has been successful in colonization of ground vegetation under different plantations. Gravellia pteridifolia plantations showed most successful ground cover among different plantation stands.