Vegetation Pattern of Commercially Important Trees in Evergreen Forests of Baratang Island, Andamans

Baratang Island, spread over an area of 238 km and one of the main constituents of the ‘Great Andaman’ group are characterized by dense tropical forests. The Tropical Evergreen Forests was studied for its regeneration status, composition and species diversity of commercial tree species both in the felled (worked) and un-felled (unworked) areas. It was noticed that the tree layer in evergreen unworked forest was dominated by Dipterocarpus spp. with the highest IVI of 28.76 and the second most dominant species is Knema andamanica with IVI 26.21 followed by Myrstica andamanica with IVI 18.16 but in worked area Dipterocarpus spp. retained its dominance with highest IVI of 55.36 while Knema andamanica occupied second position with IVI 27.20 followed by Pometia pinnata with IVI 20.90. It was found that felled areas have more number of tree species (84) than the unfelled. The composition of the species need to be maintained to manage these fragile areas so that the biodiversity rich areas are intact in its natural form.