Biodiversity and ecological assessment of different plant communities in Batakote block of lidder forest division of Jammu and Kashmir

Phytosociology is the study of the characteristics, classification, relationship and distribution of plant communities and it is useful to collect to describe the population dynamics of each species studied and how they relate to the other species in the same community. Phytosociological studies are essential for protecting the natural plant communities and biodiversity as well as understanding the changes experienced in the past and continuing on in to the future The present study, titled “Phytosociological analysis of trees and plant species in Batakote block of the Lidder Forest Division of Jammu and Kashmir” was carried out to examine the variation of diversity and community structure of plant and tree species. The results revealed that these four different altitudes harbor a total of 53 plant species belonging to 37 families. Of these reported 53 plant species, 14 species were trees, representing 10 families and 10 species were shrubs belonging to 8 families. The number of herbaceous species was 29 representing 22 families. Among trees, Pinus wallichiana was dominant at all four altitudes with IVI values of 95.17, 103.56, 97.90 and 83.81, respectively. Among shrubs, Parrotia jacquemontiana was dominant at altitude 1 with IVI value of 62.87. At altitude 2^ndSambucus wightiana was dominant having IVI value of 50.88 and Rosa rubiginosa was dominant at altitude 3^rd and 4^th with IVI values of 64.98 and 67.51, respectively. Among herbs, Cynodon dactylon withIVI value of 83.59 was dominant at altitude 1^st. Fragaraia vesca was dominant at altitude 2^nd and 3^rd with IVI values of 89.70 and 131.73 , respectively. Aconitum heterophyllum with IVI value of 122.37 was dominant at 4^th altitude. Out of four altitudes, altitude 2^nd reported the highest number of species followed by 1^st, 3^rd and 4^th, respectively.