BIODIVERSITY OF SURLI GHAT REGIONS OF MAHARASHTRA

The term ‘Biodiversity’ refers to ‘the variety and variability among living organisions and the ecological complexes in which they occur’. It observes forest patch, a part from the plants and animals, numerous micro-organisms, which cannot be seen with our naked eyes also occurs in the soil

Trivedy; et. al. (1994) forests are renewable source and contribute substantially to economic development of a country India is a country, which has a rich diversity of the biogeographically distinct regions due to varying physical conditions and species grouping. More than 42% of Indian landmass is occupied by Deccan Peninsula while most biodiversity rich zones are the Western Ghat and North East.

Surli Ghat and adjoining area is most important wildlife sanctuaries in Southern Maharashtra. A systematic study of this sanctuary has not been carried out previously. Hence during this project, the work of scientific study is carried out with respect to biodiversity of plants and animals as well as ecological aspects of this important sanctuary. Krishna and Koyana river basin is near to the Western side of reserved forest. The reserved forest lies in a drought prone area and comprises semi-decidous hills. As per Champion and Seth (1967) classification of Surli Ghat forest type if described on Southern Tropical Thorny forest. The detailed report is as given below.
Chapter – I, II, & III.