Biodiversity Mapping Survey/Study in Kaziranga National Park (KNP) Vegetation and Flora Final Report Prepared by Dr. Swapna Prabhu Systematic Botanist 1. Introduction The Asian Development Bank (ADB) funded Assam Integrated Flood and Riverbank Erosion Risk Management Investment Program (AIFRERMIP) aims to improve the reliability of flood and riverbank erosion risk management system in flood prone areas in the Brahmaputra River Basin in Assam. This program focuses on three selected subprojects, namely Palasbari/Gumi, Dibrugad and Kaziranga (adjacent to Kaziranga National Park), while strengthening policy, institutional and knowledge bases. The Flood and River Erosion Management Agency of Assam (FREMAA) is the executing agency which is a multi-disciplinary special purpose vehicle anchored to the Water Resources Department (WRD) of the State Government of Assam. The riverbank improvement works planned for the Kaziranga subproject will tentatively consist of porcupine screens, sluice gates and almost 20 km of raising and strengthening of existing dykes. The EIA studies carried out earlier state that no negative impact of the project is expected in terms of increase in the sedimentation level during the construction phase. With implementation of the mitigative measures, the overall impact of the project is likely to be positive on the biological environment except in terms of loss of trees which will be mitigated with the help of proposed plantation programmes. Based on the suggestion from Forestry and Environment Department (FED) additional morphological and hydrological analyses were conducted w.r.t. KNP subproject to ascertain the positive impacts of proposed physical works of the project. While the proposed structural measures at Kaziranga subproject area were designed avoiding alteration of hydraulic and hydrological conditions in the KNP, having full understanding of the present conditions of vegetation, flora and fauna of the KNP is essential. Although the Kaziranga subproject under the AIFRERMIP is generally found acceptable by the forest department, it is prudent to conduct this study to create a benchmark to monitor effect, if any, of intervention in the surrounding area under the present programme. This study can be replicable and be of value in respect of similar other interventions in the area. With this background the study/ survey was undertaken by Bombay Natural History Society to address the following objectives: 2 2. OBJECTIVES 1. Establish baseline data and survey protocols for future biodiversity monitoring. 2. Establish sound, repeatable field methods appropriate for local conditions. 3. Establish rigorous methods for collection and management of data and specimens, including the production of high quality photographic documentation with use of cameras. 4. Identify the vegetation types at community level. 5. Benchmark floral diversity and its distribution. 6. Provide natural history information on the documented species. 7. Documentation of management practices and identification of management zones. 8. Prepare information, databank, on the diversity of the KNP which can be made available for the purpose of education and outreach. 9. Share detailed data and information of KNP and develop stronger coordination among the Forest Department and FREMAA (Flood and River Erosion Management Agency of Assam). 3 3. METHODS The entire study area was extensively as well as intensively traversed during the pilot field visit in order to map the important physical features of the KNP such as the forest anti-poaching camps, roads, water bodies, forest patches, grasslands etc. (Fig. 1). During subsequent visits (undertaken during the period March 2015 to December 2015) we conducted vehicular transect surveys for detailed data collection. Employing systematic plot sampling methods was not feasible in the study area due to various reasons including inaccessibility to many of the remote areas, and risk from elephants, rhinos and buffalos in particular areas. Since Forest Anti- poaching Camps are located evenly throughout the KNP and approximately 1 km far from each other and are very well connected by the vehicular roads these paths were used as transects to collect detailed data on vegetation and flora (Fig.1). Vegetation and flora Major plant communities were identified, mapped using GPS (Garmin 72) and the dominant associations were noted for each community identified. Efforts were made to record all the species encountered along the transects and describe their habit, and their phenological status at that time in the field. The species recorded thus were catagorised into trees, shrubs, herbs, scandents including herbaceous and woody climbers and epiphytes. The species were identified using local florae and other available literature. The final checklist also includes species mentioned in the available literature, from the same or similar habitats, and are very likely to be present in KNP. The recorded species were allotted conservation status based on previous studies and available literature. Developing vegetation maps We used freely available images from the Landsat 8 satellite imagery (30m resolution) for land cover classification of Kaziranga National park (KNP). Multisession images, winter (LC81360412014306LGN00, 2014-11-02) and summer (LC81360412015085LGN00, 2015-03- 26), were used to increase the accuracy of classification of vegetation types based on their phenology. Pansharpening of the images was conducted before classification in order to increase spatial resolution of the image (15m). Supervised vegetation classification was carried out using data collected from the ground truthing points (n=110). KNP was classified into eight land cover categories such as dry grassland, wet alluvial grassland, alluvial semi-evergreen forest, mixed deciduous forest, sand, sand with vegetation, wetland and water body. All this spatial analysis was carried out in ArcGIS10.1 and QGIS 2.8.3. 4 Map 1 the administrative boundaries, locations of forest anti-poaching checkposts and network of vehicular roads which were used as transects for the detailed surveys. 5 4. BACKGROUND OF VEGETATION STUDY OF THE KNP Floristic studies in N. E. India has earlier been carried out mainly by Hooker (1872- 1897), Griffith (1848), Kanjilal (1934-1940), Bor (1940), Deb (1981-83) Fischer (1921), etc. Numerous research papers, Ph.D thesis, books, floras, manuals etc. have come out from this region. Kanjilal and his co-workers (1934-40) explored the then Assam and published ‘Flora of Assam’ in four volumes (Vol. I-IV). These volumes mainly dealt with trees and shrubs with few herbs and occassionally mentioned some of the established cultivar species. It was Bor (1940) who published the fifth volume of ‘Flora of Assam’ to deal with Poaceae. B. Baruah (1978) studied ‘Systematics of Orchids in the Brahmaputra valley’. Hajra and Jain (1996) studied the two main National Parks of Assam i.e., Kaziranga and Manas. Contribution of Borthakur (1981) on Ethnobotanical Studies of Karbi-Anglong (Mikir Hill District) about the information of indigenous way of utilization of plants by those of Karbi people added to the floristic knowledge of the region. Barua et al. (1988) surveyed the primitive angiosperms of North-East India and enlisted as many as 133 different primitive angiosperms. Rao and Verma (1972) had taken the initiative of publishing ‘Materials towards the Monocot Flora of Assam’ and brought out a publication in the Bulletin of BSI. But a number of families of Monocotyledones are still left out. The work on taxonomic and floristic research of present Assam has been initiated and activated by Chowdhury. In addition to literature cited above, a good number of research papers on floristic study in different parts of Assam have been published in journals and periodicals from time to time. Borthakur (1976) being the pioneer in the field of ethnobotanical studies in Assam has studied the medicinal uses of plants among tribes of Mikir Hills (Karbi Anglong) while Baruah and Sarmah (1984) studied the medicinal uses of plants by Bodos. Jain and Borthakur (1980) published the ethnobotany of the Mikirs of India. Diversity in cane and bamboo resources is the speciality of diversity of Assam. Goswami et al. (2003) published a paper on ‘Need of developing Canetum in protected areas of N. E. India for conservation of Cane resources’. ‘Diversity and Distribution of Bamboos of Assam’ has been published by Barooah and Borthakur (2003) where they described 3 new species of bamboos from Assam. Borthakur et al. (2001) also worked out and published ‘The ferns of Assam’. The latest publication on the floristic composition of Assam is ‘Assam’s Flora’ (Present Status of Vascular Plants), a book published by the Assam Science Technology and Environment Council, 2005 compiled and edited by S. Chowdhury. The book 13 enumerates 4273 species of vascular plants of Assam in its present circumscription. These include 40 sp. of fern allies, 315 sp. of ferns, 23 sp. of gymnosperms and among angiosperms 2823 sp. of dicotyledones and 1072 sp. of monocotyledons. Though some of these studies cover Kaziranga National Park partially, exclusive work in this area is lacking. Heavy floods, land dynamics and constantly changing landforms, high risk from 6 wildlife are some of the important factors which make most of the areas within park inaccessible which have impacted largely on the explorations of this area. This document used first hand field data as well as secondary information compiled from