Flora of Charali Tropical Sal Forest

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Description

Charali Tropical Sal Forest (officially known as Charali Nichajhod Forest) is located (26.653º and 26.605º N; 88.035º and 88.064º N) in Jhapa district of Koshi Province of Nepal. The forest is dominated by Sal (Shorea robusta). The forest boundary touches the areas of Mechinagar, Bhadrapur, Birtamode and Arjundhara municipality. This forest falls under Kanchenjunga Landscape. It covers an area of 1718.47 hectares. Forest as a whole is divided into five Community Forest (CF) (Sundar Nichajhod CF, Pragati CF, Hariyali CF, Chandragadi CF and Hatemalo CF). Based on field visit of forest officers done around 2071/72 BS, major associated trees species found in this forest are Lagerstroemia parviflora, Terminalia alata, Schima wallichi, Bomax ceiba, Dalbergia sissoo, Trewia nudiflora and Albizia lebbeck. Important Non-timber Forest Product (NTFPs) found in this area are Asparagus racemosus, Rauvolfia serpentina and Smilax aspera.

Eastern Nepal is one of the major hubs of biodiversity in Nepal. There have been numerous studies which explore vegetation, wildlife and other associated aspect of biodiversity in other parts of Nepal, however, only few tends to focus on Eastern Nepal, particularly in Tropical belt. In recent years some researches have been focused in the tropical sal forest of Jhapa district. Despite of recent commendable approach to study the Tropical flora in Eastern Nepal, the Charali Sal forest (officially known as Charali Nichajhod forest) is still untouched by any study. Illegal harvesting of NTFPs, disturbance like selective felling, encroachment, uncontrolled grazing, annual forest fires, and invasion of alien species has deteriorated the habitat condition and altered the species composition of Tropical Sal Forest, thus suppressing the growth and regeneration of native species. So, we proposed a research process which aims to study and document the floristic composition of this fragment of Tropical Sal Forest, which will also let us know the present conservation status of plant species present in this forest that will assess the outcome of current management practices and may provide baseline information to formulate future management strategies. This dataset is not complete, it will be regularly updated. At present, it contains the occurrence data of 10 species only.

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