Vegetation character and species diversity of the Panshet Catchment

The present note elaborates the vegetation character and plant diversity in the Panshet Dam Catchment,studied during six months of field survey in 2014 (July-December) as part of a project undertaken byEcological Society and supported by Global Forest Watch.As floral species are directly related to climatic type, especially rainfall, therefore the Panshet catchmentwas divided into high, medium and low rainfall zones. The floral species survey was conducted in relationwith these zones.The focus of present study was to relate species composition with physical factors like altitude andclimate. To study the vegetation character of the catchment, species level surveys of various vegetationcategories like tall canopy forests, devrais, shrubbery and others, were undertaken and the speciescomposition of each vegetation category was recorded. Moreover, species occurrence over rainfall zones wasrecorded. Identification of rare, endemic and specialist species was equally important to gauge thevegetation character and ecological value. Other observations included dominant species and invasivespecies.