Oak Forest is in the process of being replaced by Pinus in Nainital

Abstract

An oak forest is an extremely important component of the hill forest ecosystem but on account of anthropogenic changes, this is under a process of replacement by Pinus roxburghii, a much tougher and adaptable species in times of climate change. Foresters are responsible to hasten this process without understanding the repercussions of an irreversible and undesirable change in the ecosystem. The forest fire schemes have not been able to contain the spread of forest fire across the country, therefore, it needs an effective structural change. The oak forest of Sat Tal-8 and Sat Tal-9 would have been converted into a complete oak forest, which was initiated and would have been brought to a logical conclusion. But this could not happen and it also failed on account of lack of interest in the successors. Oak forest is very rich in flora and fauna and this is estimated that the herb layer density is higher (234.5 m-2) when compared to Chir forest (119.58 m-2). The biomass is also reportedly higher in Oak than in the Chir forest. Today, Nainital hill forests have become infested with alien invasive flora, destroying the essence of pristine hill forests. Temperature is also rising fast with the rainfall receding substantially in Nainital over a period of the last thirty years therefore, impacting its flora and fauna adversely. The moisture regime of the topsoil in the Oak Forest has also come down remarkably and they all combinedly bring in a change in its species composition.