POPULATION STRUCTURE AND REGENERATION PATTERN OF TREE SPECIES ALONG THE ALTITUDINAL GRADIENT IN A TEMPERATE FOREST OF WESTERN HIMALAYA, UTTARAKHAND, INDIA

Garhwal Himalaya is the part of the western Himalaya which is known for its unique vegetational wealth. We 
investigated the unexplored Radi top forest of Rawain range of upper Yamuna forest division in order to formulate 
plant conservation and management strategies. Several field expedition tours were undertaken during 2020 and 2023
for data collection in the study area.Ten quadrats of 10m×10m size were laid randomly in each study sites for tree 
layer, while 20 quadrats (size 5×5m) for saplings and 40 quadrats (size 1×1 m) for seedlings nested within each tree 
quadrat to study the regeneration status. The level of tree species appearing "good" regeneration differed from 22.2-
50%. Albeit the general regeneration status was fairly high in the study region, there is a decent level of tree species 
in all the forest sites that showed "poor" (9- 25%), "fair" (22.2-44.4%), or "no" (12.5- 22.2%) regeneration.
Symplocos paniculata, Aesculus indica and Cornus macrophylla are the prevailing species in the forest, showed 
"poor" regeneration. A majority of tree species exhibited the reverse j-shaped d-d curve in diameter class 
distribution that indicates good and fair regeneration status. Tree species which shows poor regeneration status 
should be conserved ex situ and some actions are needed for the maintenance of their population by foresters or 
forest official’s significantly positive correlation of slopes, seedlings, saplings, trees with altitude was recorded. The 
study suggests that richness of seedling, sapling and adults of tree species are largely regulated by the altitude and 
climatic factors.