Impact of Biotic Interferences on Shankaracharya Forest Ecosystem

The present study is an attempt to document the impact of biotic interferences in Shankaracharya forest ecosystem, Kashmir (India). The cumulative effect of the biotic interferences was significantly seen in the reduction of the vegetation cover. The present study revealed that the prominent factor for the exploitation of the vegetation cover of the study area at herbaceous level is simple human interference. The increasing disturbance not only disturbs the plant species diversity, richness and evenness significantly but various plant species are near to get eliminated from impacted area by different kinds of interferences like tourism pressure, trespassing, vehicular disturbances, military activities etc. High number of species were recorded at undisturbed site than disturbed site.