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Year : 2004 | Volume
: 2
| Issue : 2 | Page : 365-375 |
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Regeneration of Amla, an Important Non-Timber Forest Product from Southern India
R Ganesan, R Siddappa Setty
Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), 659, 5th A Main Road, Hebbal, Bangalore 560 024., India
Correspondence Address:
R Ganesan Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), 659, 5th A Main Road, Hebbal, Bangalore 560 024. India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |

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Amla fruits collected from Phyllanthus emblica and P. indofischeri are an important non-timber forest product for the indigenous Soliga community in the Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple Wildlife Sanctuary, India. Seedlings, saplings and trees of these two congeners were monitored over three years in ten 0.1 ha plots each to assess and compare their regeneration status. The densities of seedlings and of adult trees of both species were similar, but the density of saplings of P. emblica was lower than that of P. indofischeri. The size class distribution of P. indofischeri, but not of P. emblica, followed the inverse J-shaped curve typically associated with regenerating populations, suggesting a higher mortality of seedlings and saplings of P. emblica than of P. indofischeri. Furthermore, re-sprouting individuals-presumably a response to damage by fire or grazing-constituted a larger proportion of the population in the case of P. emblica and may constitute a future population bottleneck. We suggest that anthropogenic pressures other than harvest could be responsible for differences in population structure between these two species, which are managed under similar harvest intensities and subject to similar disturbance regimes. |
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