Abstract
Homestead forests are declining day by day in Bangladesh because of industrialization, deforestation, and a huge number of populations. Industrialization needs land acquisition to establish industries, especially different power plants. Due to the acquisition of homestead forest land; forest vegetation, biodiversity, and ecological habitat are declining rapidly in Bangladesh. The government and public give little bit less importance to this homestead forest, but in the different ecological and economic aspects, it is very significant for the country and society. Valuation of homestead vegetation such as trees, shrubs, and herbs and their ecological diversity, especially bird’s species, and to make understandable how homestead forests were lost due to the power plant implementation. This research investigations help, to comprehend the homestead's current situation of homestead vegetation and the bird's species diversity in the project area. Quadrat sampling methods were used for the homestead vegetation survey and transect line methods were used for the bird's survey. This research study was conducted to identify different vegetative compositions, species distributions, biodiversity, and quadrates of samples randomly selected in the homestead forest area that was acquired for the power plant. There were 35 forest vegetative species found in the study area, and a total 374 individual species were found in the sampling area. There are 35 genera and 19 families of these species. Moreover, Mahagoni-Swietenia mahagoni is the is the dominant species (35), and Mango-Mangifera indica is the second dominant species recorded in the project study area. The Shannon diversity index was calculated H = 3.21 and the Simpsons diversity index D = 0.95 and it is defined the moderately higher diversity index found in this study area. 46 birds’ species were found in the filed study area compared to another power plant project like Rampal Coal-based power plant at the homestead forest, and a bird survey counted 48 plant species and 50 avifauna. These two project results indicate that a huge number of plant species were cleared-cut from the project area, and lots of birds lost their habitats due to this project establishment not only that but also others ecological diversity severely damaged. It is very important to take initiatives to protect homestead Forest vegetations and biodiversity. Both government and non-government parties should come forward to preserve sustainable natural resources for the next generation.
Key Words
Floristic composition, species distribution, Biodiversity, Ecology, IUCN, Ecological zone, conservation.
