Impact of Mining on Forests and Its Biological Diversity at Kirandul Iron Ore Mines , Dantewada , South Bastar , Chhattisgarh : A Case Study

Mining activities have several impacts on the environment. In our study, emphasis was given to assess biodiversity in one of the leading iron ore mining sites of Bailadila-Kirandul Iron Ore Mines (KIOM) of Dantewada District, South Bastar of Chhattisgarh. Habitat fragmentation, loss and deforestation are highly prevalent in the area. However, the study reveals high species richness of 110 and 253 plant species in core and buffer zone respectively. Canopy cover was found to be within 10 to 40% and in places in the buffer zone canopy cover with > 40% was recorded. Species diversity index indicates the instability of vegetation structure in the area with indices of 1.44 in core and 1.88 in buffer zone. Although species richness is high, about 10 floral species (7 herbs, 3 trees) are recorded under REET (Rare Endangered Extinct Threatened) species while locally endangered floral species are 6 and locally critically endangered are 4. Similarly, 208 faunal species belong to 10 faunal groups was recorded out of which 34 species are listed in different Schedules of Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. Therefore, it is an urgent need for planning to undertake appropriate management strategies to conserve biodiversity in the area.


Introduction
Significant and potential risks are found for tropical forests in the world due to mining processes.Globally, over the past 10 years, the mineral production have risen (Kooroshey et al., 2014).A study by Sonter et al., 2017 shows loss of Amazon forest of about 11,670km 2 area deforestation between the years 2005 to 2015 where 9% of the loss is contributed by mining leases.The area that includes extensive forest resources, in some of which mining-directly and/or indirectly-is thought to have contributed to significant deforestation (Swenson et al., 2011).Similarly, gold mining at Peruvian Amazon also resulted in deforestation (Asner et al., 2013).A sharp increase in mineral prices can result in a surge in mining activity, which contributes to deforestation in some locations.A study by the University of Puerto Rico found that tree cover loss in the Madre de Dios region of Peru has increased significantly since 2007 as a result of artisanal gold mining (Alvarez-Berríos & Aide, 2015).Area of land involved in mining is small but it affects the surrounding area along with its species, and it is very intensive and very destructive (Mather, 1991;Sands, 2005).Mining is a lucrative activity promoting development booms which may attract population growth with consequent deforestation.The deforestation rate due to mining activities in Guyana from 2000 to 2008 increased 2.77 times according to an assessment by the World Wildlife Fund-Guianas (Staff, 2010).Similarly, in the Philippines, mining, along with logging, has been among the forces behind the country's loss of forest cover: from 17 million hectares in 1934 to just three million in 2003 or an 82 per cent decline (Docena, 2010).Nearly 2,000 hectares of tropical forest in the Municipality of Coahuayana in the State of Michoacán (south-western Mexico) will completely be destroyed by mining iron minerals planned by the Italo-Argentine mining company TERNIUM (Anonymous, 2008).Similarly, Nyamagari hills in Orissa India currently threatened by Vedanta Aluminum Corporation's plan to start bauxite mining will destroy 750 hectares of reserved forest (Griffiths & Hirvela, 2008).Massive and unchecked mining of coal, iron ore and bauxite in Jharkhand, India has caused large scale deforestation and created a huge water scarcity (Anonymous, 2011).In return for US$3.8 billion of investment, the agreements between the State government of Jharkhand, India and mining companies, there will be a massive land acquisition which will deforest no less than 57,000 hectares of forest and displace 9,615 families, many of them located in legally protected Scheduled Areas set aside for indigenous peoples in the State (Mullick & Griffiths, 2007).Moreover, Roads constructed to support the mining operations will open up the area to shifting agriculturists, permanent farmers, ranchers, land speculators and infrastructure developers.For instance the core of Brazil's Amazon development strategy were infra-structure development projects such as roads providing access to frontier regions, mining area and large hydroelectric reservoirs (Mahar, 1988;Fearnside & Barbosa, 1996;Carvalho et al., 2002Carvalho et al., , 2004)).
Therefore, one of the key underlying assumptions about biodiversity management is that native species and ecological processes are most likely to be maintained.To maintain and strengthen the biodiversity management recommendations are primarily aimed at managed forests.The recommendations are designed to promote long term stand level maintenance and recruitment of important structural attributes such as: wildlife, diversity of species, special or unique habitats for floral and faunal wealth, riparian areas and wetlands, coarse woody debris, horizontal and vertical structural diversity.
National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) is India's single largest iron ore producer and exporter, presently producing about 30 million tons of iron ore from 3 fully mechanized mines viz., Bailadila Deposit-14/11C, Bailadila Deposit-5, 10/11A both within the state of Chhattisgarh and Kumaraswamy and Donimalai Iron Ore Mines (Karnataka State) which are awarded ISO 9001:2008, ISO 14001:2004and OHSAS 18001:2007 certification.The iron Ores of Bailadila ranges being the purest in the world is valued highly in the international market.Bailadila range of hills has iron ore reserve of above 1500 million tons of high grade iron ore in 14 deposits.
Dantewada district has rich forest reserves with 64% of its land under forest cover and almost 79% tribal population.Although rich in natural wealth, the district has not seen much development, only 30% of the populations are literate and the district ranks seventh among the 150 backward districts of the country.Therefore the study area is selected to explore further for knowing the impacts of mining on forests.The main objective of the study is understanding various components of the ecosystems in the core as well as buffer zone and to study floral and faunal diversity in the proposed area of mines that aims to achieve the structural as well as functional aspects of it through proper management policies, and adopting scientific approach towards preparing biodiversity conservation and management plan to provide alternate habitat for existing flora and fauna in the ML as well as buffer zone.
Figure 1.Location map of the iron ore deposits (Mining lease area) and buffer zone of 10km radius of study area

Drainage of Bailadila Range
There are number of perennial streams flowing from the hills and the entire region is a part of Godavari basin.The eastern slopes drain through streams which flow towards northeast to Sankhini river.Drainage in between the eastern and western ridges is through two streams flowing in opposite direction, Galli nala towards south and Sankhini nala cuts across the eastern ridge near Jhirka village flows down east and north east and becomes the Sankini river.This joins with Dankini river near Dantewada and becomes Dantewada river, which ultimately flows through west and joins Indravati river.The western slopes drain through Mari nadi, Berudi nadi and other streams to river Indravti, which joins Godavari river near Bhopalpatnam in the downstream.Southern part of the complex drain through Malinger nadi joining Sabari rivedr and Galli nala joining Talperu river, all again flows to Godavari River.

Geology
The iron ores of Bailadila range belong to the Bailadila series which are associated with slightly metamorphosed iron-ore bearing sedimentary rocks of Pre-Cambrian age.Iron ore occurs as separate ore bodies on the crest of the two sub-parallel hills running north-south.These hill ranges comprises shales, banded hematite, quartzite and conglomerates containing pebbles of quartzite and shale.

Sampling Technique
Random samples were taken to assess the ecological structure of the study area and get some simple idea of the ecological functions.The study area is basically a hill running in East-West direction.The whole core area where mining activity is in progress is almost completely denuded and rarely has any species.In some places where species available was recorded as per the findings of transact walk.Random sampling was done with the help of Satellite Imagery and toposheet of the area.Samples were studied both within mining sites (ML area) and in the buffer area i.e., 10 km radius of the ML area of the three mines namely 14ML, 14NMZ and a part of 11ML i.e., 11B.Each site studied is marked with geographical coordinates recorded in GPS handset (GARMIN-12).Studies were done for understanding the phytosociology, inventorisation of faunal species as well as their habitat.

Floral Study
Quadrat sampling was done in the buffer zone only where there are both forest areas and non-forest areas.At the outset a species area curve was prepared in eastern side of the hill to find out the minimum size of the quadrat required for the study of three layers (considered as separate communities) such as tree, shrub and herb (Cain, 1938).It was inferred that for tree layer the minimum size of the quadrat required for study was 500m 2 (50m X 10m) for trees, (5m X 5m) 25m 2 for shrubs and (1m X 1m) 1m 2 for herbs.In each of the sample sites a quadrat of 500m 2 was laid to study the tree community (Philip, 1959), Diversity Index, and Canopy Cover.In each of the tree quadrat four shrub quadrats were laid on alternate sides and similarly five herb quadrats were for study of herb layer.Each quadrat was given a code and marked by GPS reading.The sampling sites are as follows (Table 1).

Canopy Statistics
A geometric measurement was adopted to estimate Canopy Cover, by directly measuring the crown diameters at right angles, in a specified quadrat.The total canopy cover area (C) in a sample quadrat equals the sum total of the canopy areas of all trees within the quadrat, r i 2 .Thus, the Canopy Cover Index (CC) is the ratio of C to A, where A = XY (X and Y denoting axes of the quadrat being measured).Open canopy is inferred when CC < 0.4.

Species Diversity (Alpha Diversity)
Since Shannon and Wiener's H' is an index of information, it was employed to measure diversity of any assemblage (Shannon & Wiener, 1963).The Simpson's Dominance Index (D) was also calculated (Simpson, 1949).

Life Form Study
The life form composition of the community is the manifestation of the adaptations of its component species to the climatic condition, and contributes to community architecture (Jamir et al., 2006).Life form spectrum is the sum of adaptations of plants to the climate.Following the system of Braun-Blanquet's (1951) system the area possesses five major classes like Phanerophytes, Therophytes, Hydrophytes, Hemicryptophytes and Geophytes.

Taxonomic Identification of Plant Species
Plant species were identified following standard flora by Hooker (1872Hooker ( -1897)), Verma et al. (1985) and Kumar et al., (2005).Names of the plant species were verified using Bennet (1987).The help of scientists of Botanical survey of India (BSI), Kolkata was taken.

Faunal Study
An ecological survey of the study area for understanding the fauna of the study area was conducted, particularly with reference to listing of species and assessment of the existing baseline ecological conditions in the study area through Direct Count Method; Transect Method; Photographic-survey Based; Dropping/scat; Collection of dissociable body parts and Interviewing Local Villagers.
The study was conducted during post monsoon season in the year 2015-16.The study for fauna was conducted before sunrise to late night (5:30AM to 11:30PM).The adults of Odonata, Lepidoptera and Hymenoptera were collected in the field with aspirator, manually and aerial sweeping nets.The collected insects were preserved by using benzene and kept in insect collection boxes for further examination in the laboratory.Mollusca, Amphibians and Reptiles were collected with the help of forceps manually and Fishes with the help of Aquatic net and all the materials preserved in 70% Alcohol.The random collection and field observation were also made on different groups of the fauna of the study area.The Reptiles, Aves and Mammals were identified by using Binocular (10mm X 25mm) and their presence was recorded by taking photographs.The presence of some Mammals species is also ascertained on the basis of pugmarks, interview with wildlife and forest officials, NMDC staff and villagers residing in study area (Sunquist, 1981;Tamang, 1982;McDougal, 1997;Srestha & Basnet, 2005).

Status of Phytodiversity
Bailadila Reserve Forest can prove to be a paradise for both plant and wildlife diversity.The Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh lies on the Gondwana Biodiversity Zone, which mostly comprises of the Tropical Forests.As this area is full of terrains, much of the forest remains unexplored and it is highly probable that this area contains some of the undocumented species.The forest area in the buffer zone comes under Reserve Forest and has following classes as per classification of Forest Survey of India.
(i) Closed Forest/Very Dense Forest-Where canopy cover is above 70% (ii) Dense Forest-Where canopy cover is between 40%-70% (iii) Open Forest-Where canopy cover is between 10%-40% (iv) Degraded Forest-Where canopy cover is below 10% The vegetation occurring in the area belongs to Southern tropical dry deciduous forests (Class-5A) which intermingles with Class-5B (Northern tropical dry deciduous type) according to Champion and Seth Classification of forest types of India 1968.According to the classification of Legris and Pascal (1982) the area falls under Deciduous climax forests and this type of forests does not have the potentiality of secondary moist deciduous forests.The most characteristic tree of this type is Anogeissus latifolia while Terminalia tomentosa is a very typical associate.Diospyros melanoxylon is also common.Boswellia serrata and Lagersatroemia parviflora are very wide spread and conspicuous in this category of forests.Bamboo is generally of poor quality.Grass is conspicuous till it is grazed or burnt in forest fire.Woody climbers are few like Bauhinia vahlii.This type of forest, being especially prevalent in the drier localities occurs throughout the study area.But the rain fall being around 3000mm annually it can hardly be classified under dry forest type.Therefore some patches can be classified under Tropical Moist Deciduous Forest with types as 3B/C 1 and 3B/C 2 .In this type of forests, trees are comparatively tall.It has a leafless period during dry season which may or may not begin with the cold weather.
The boundaries of biogeographic provinces i.e., Eastern Plateau (6B2) and Eastern Highlands (6C2) are not very sharp and they inter-grade into each other.Interestingly the recent physiographic map adopted by the Forest Survey of India also classifies this region into three zones viz., North Deccan, East Deccan and South Deccan by apparently giving more weightage to the political boundary between Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh.The entire area forms the South-Western and Westernmost part of historical Dandakaranya region.This region extends up to North-Eastern Ghats.
The top canopy remains leafless between February-May.The under storey is well defined and the forest floor is full of vegetal growth.Portions of moist deciduous forests were clear felled and converted into plantations of different species such as Teak (Tectona grandis), Eucalyptus sps, etc.But none of these species being indigenous to this region and planted without any ecological impact study could not successfully establish themselves.In some of the plantation area invasive species like Lanatana camara and/or Eupatorium odoratum has invaded.The adjacent areas to drainage nallas show rich vegetation whereas the hill top shows barren condition with clear signs of laterization.In the hill top soil formation process is poor and simultaneously there is rapid washing out of top soil.
In the hilly areas of Bailadila, availability of iron ore and vegetation change with altitude.According to Mooney (1942a), vegetation at the study area is divided into three zones and has been sub-divided to different associations depending upon various sites in the hill range as, i.
The outer slope of the Hill Range up to an altitude above 914m above sea level-Northern portion of the hill "vegetation is of Hill type with dense bamboo" with evergreen species like Sataparni (Alstonia scholaris), Garari (Cleistanthus collinus), and Bauhinia vahlli.In the southern half of the hill species like Haldu (Adina cordifolia), and Mahua (Madhuca indica) are available in low quantity.Bijasal (Pterocarpus marsupium) with good girth size is found in this side.
ii.The crest of the Hill Range and the adjoining slope-this comes within 914m to 1224m above MSL.This region has high rock content and laterite with low soil content.Trees are stunted, sparse and dense grass (Physalanona sp) noticed.Tree species are Saja (Terminalia alata), Tendu (Diospyros melanoxylon), Awnla (Emblica officinalis), Achar (Buchanania latifolia), Harra (Terminalia chebula), and Sal (Shorea robusta), etc. Mooney (1942b) has described this grass dominated region as sub-climax or pro-climax type as a result of shifting cultivation that was in practice even few years back.
The major floral associations of the forest area of Bailadila are grouped under the following six categories basing on the description of earlier authors and present study of IVI (Table 2).

Anogeissus latifolia (Dhaora)
The most common constituent of the mixed deciduous forests, often growing more or less gregariously.Avoids swampy and badly drained grounds and requires good drainage.It produces abundant natural regeneration but most of it gets severely damaged and killed in areas with low density due to severe annual forest fires.

Chloroxylon swietenia (Bhirra)
Commonly found in areas where the soil is shallow, arid and sandy.

Cleistanthus collinus (Garai)
Patches of practically pure Garai forest are sometimes seen in the mixed forests in which there are very few associates in the overwood.The reasons for its occurrence in a gregarious form are not quite understood.This sub-type forms an important future reserve for poles and fuel.Density is generally full.

Syzygium cumini (Jumun)
Commonly found in the open forests of Gollapalli, Nilamadugu and Kollaiguda reserves and some of the reserves of Sukma range.It exhibits xerophytic characters and is narrow leaved.Its seedlings die back annually for some years in their early stages.

Terminalia alata (Saja)
It alone thrives in such places where the soil is moist but somewhat heavy owing to the presence of fine clay, where the drainage is hampered and the species are that are susceptible to bad soil aeration disappear.

Hardwickia binata (Anjan)
It is scattered in the southern portion of Gollapalli reserve.This has probably spread from the adjoining area of Andhra Pradesh where it is commonly seen.The areas under this sub-type are not much of any economic importance.

Life Form Status
Life-form refers rather to the vegetative form of the plant body which is assumed by many ecologists to be a result of morphological adjustments to the environment.Those organisms which show the same general morphological features (woody lianas, stem succulents, annuals, tap-rooted perennials with a basal rosette of leaves and the renewal bud at the soil surface, tall broad-leaf deciduous trees, etc.) belong to the same life-form whatever their systematic position in the plant families.It is inherent in the so-called ''biological" concept of life-form that there is a fundamental harmony or analogy between the members of such structural groups and the environment in which they prevail.Presence of large percentage of phanerophytes (trees and shrubs) and therophytes (annuals and herbaceous vegetation) indicates semiarid to tropical vegetation structure.The life form status of the study area is given in Figure 2.

Vegetation within ML Area
The three mines within Kirandul Complex namely Deposit-14, 14 NMZ and a part of 11 (11B) have a very large area given to NMDC for mining as mined lease area and is almost broken.In spite of all out mining activities in all the mining leases as stated above Deposit-14 has 101 floral species within it.This includes 18 tree species, 26 species of shrubs and 57 species of herbs.Mining lease 14 NMZ has 80 floral species within it.This includes 17 tree species, 18 species of shrubs and 44 species of herbs.A part of mining lease 11 (11B) has 93 floral species within it.This includes 21 tree species, 24 species of shrubs and 48 species of herbs.Trees from Fabaceae family include species like Butea monosperma and Cassia fistula.Within the members of Poaceae Thysanolaena maxima is seen very frequently around comparatively stable broken area.There are species like Parthenium hysterophorus which are alien and also invasive in nature.
The three core zones in total have 110 species and maximum number of species is observed in ML-14 (Table 3).This is due to the fact that there is a good patch of vegetation within the ML area of Deposit-14 on both sides of Dhobinala.This is a perennial stream and it originates just below the waste dump of the deposit.The other two deposits have less number of species due to lack of any forest patch.The species that are available are mostly in the road sides and slopes where anthropogenic interventions are least.

Vegetation in the Buffer Zone
Buffer zone comes within 10km radius of the mine-lease area and it is within Bailadila Reserve Forest and within Dantewada Taluk, Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh.Buffer zone is mostly covered with undulated hilly terrain within 180m-1200m altitude.More than one third of the Buffer zone is within Bailadila RF, Bijapur RF and Palnar PF.But within 10km radius there is no notified Wildlife Sanctuary and National Park.Talperu and Malenger Nadi are passing through the Buffer Zone.There are few nallahs and stream within the buffer area.
The buffer zone has 253 species in total within which 77 are tree species, 72 are shrubs and 81 are herbs.There are also 2 bamboo species, 3 epiphytes, 1 species of insectivorous plant in this ecosystem (Table 4).Number of herb and shrub species is comparatively much less in the buffer zone than the core zone taking the area in to account.The season of study being winter number herbaceous species in general and grasses in particular are ephemerals in these habitat conditions and therefore not possible to identify.

Drocera burmanii Droceraceae
The diversity index (Table 5) in the tree level (2.10) is much more in the buffer zone in comparison to core zone (1.44).However, in our study, the species diversity index is lower than compared to other studies done at Eastern Ghats (Sahu et al., 2007;Reddy et al., 2008;Ganguli et al., 2016).Anthropogenic activity within forest area seems to be low in the tree layer as observed from the count of cut off stumps.Canopy cover in most places of the forest area in this zone is within 40-70% which is known to be dense forest as per the FSI classification.Dominance index in the tree level of the buffer zone is only 0.27 which is much lower to 0.36 in comparison to core zone.This signifies that the tree layer in the buffer zone is shared by many species rather than a few ones which is a tendency towards mixed forest type rather than dominance of few tree species.Dominancy of single species is often attributed to niche diversification, disease, species competition and grazing (Whittaker & Levin, 1977;Harper, 1977).It is also observed that within the buffer zone there are few important species like Bauhinia malabarica, Cedrela toona Dalbergia paniculata, Croton oblongifolia, Shorea robusta, and Annona squoamosa which are considered to be prominent forest species of central India.The availability of some of these species is not very frequent in the core zone.Species like Borassus flabellifer, Azadirachta indica, Terminalia tomentosa, Eugenia jambolana, Ficus glomerata, Terminalia arjuna, Diospyros montana, and Mangifera indica share the tree canopy layer in the non-forest area of the buffer zone.Diversity in the tree level in the non-forest areas is further enhanced by the availability of non-forest species like Mangifera indica, and Acacia auriculiformis, etc. Shrub species like Lantana camara and Eupatorium odoratum, Parthenium sp are also available in this region which is considered to be the invasive species in Indian forests as well as non-forest areas.These invasive species are also very frequently available in the core area.Availability of these species in the buffer zone signifies that there is considerable anthropogenic intervention in the ecosystem which has resulted in alteration of species composition of the core as well as buffer zone which is similar to the studies on impact of invasive species on forests (Gordon, 1998;Sanders et al., 2003;Charles & Dukes, 2007;Capers et al., 2009;Devine & Fei, 2011;Priyanka & Joshi, 2013).
There may be less extraction of forest resources form the buffer zone due to its remoteness but long term impact of human habitation and planting of domesticated species and exotic species like teak and Eucalyptus sp certainly have a negative impact on the ecosystem.This is why initiative on the part of NMDC in developing positive attitude towards conserving the forest resources in the buffer zone is suggested.Habitat development, therefore, cannot confine within the efforts of plantation, water body creation or soil conservation only.It also will include developing participatory conservation approach taking the villagers of the buffer as well as fringe area in to confidence.There is a clear negative relationship between the diversity and dominance indices in both core and buffer zone.In the buffer zone this relationship is more evident because of its pristine nature.

Faunal Study
The State of Chhattisgarh falls under the Deccan Bio-geographical Zone (Rodgers et al., 2000).Of its forests, 11%  6).The locatrion map of different species spotted in the study area is shown in Figure 3.

Major Threats to Biodiversity
Large scale loss of biodiversity has been mainly caused by anthropogenic activities like habitat loss, degradation, fragmentation, biotic interference, grazing, demand for timber, fuel wood, pollution and introduction of exotic species, etc. Due to large scale mining during last few decades in Bailadila forest area the above mentioned causes has aggravated by few folds.Some of these factors are discussed below in brief.

Habitat Loss, Degradation and Fragmentation
Habitat loss, degradation, and fragmentation are important causes of known species population extinctions.The main cause of degradation and depletion of forests and wildlife are the human activity (anthropogenic pressure).Deforestation has led to reduction of rainfall, silting of rivers and dams, increase soil erosion, dryness in the air and increase in temperature, adversely affecting not only forestry but also agriculture and associated activities.

Biotic Interference
The collection of Non-timber Forest Produce (NTFP) in the form of small timber, fuel wood, and fodder by the people living in the surrounding villages in the project area and areas between the village and Reserved Forests are thereby exerting intensive biotic pressures on these resources.There is likelihood of increase in biotic interference with the influx of labour population during the construction of the project.This floating human population will exert serious pressure on the semi-natural ecosystems around the activity sites.Plantation of exotic species and invasion of non-native species like Lantana camara, Parthenium sp and Eupatorium odoratum are also forms of biotic interference in this region.

Timber Requirement
The demand for timber and other wood produce is very high in the state for various activities like the construction of houses, business centers and other development activities owing to rapid population growth.

Grazing Pressure
Various livestock species reared in the study area include cattle, buffaloes and goats.The grazing pressure leads to interference of livestock in the wilderness areas, direct competition for forage availability and degraded quality and reduction in the food availability for herbivores, transmission of communicable diseases and reduction in area of wilderness needed for the wildlife to sustain.

Poaching
It is one of the major causes for destruction of wildlife which is still in a practice by local dwellers in the study area.During the survey, list of Rare Endangered Extinct and Threatened (REET) species were recorded (Table 7).

Conclusion
This case study demonstrates the major impact of mining on flora and fauna of Kirandul Iron Ore Mine.The study entails the total destruction of forest areas within the core zone.A detailed floral account only provides supportive evidence to ensure the survival of the herbivores and the carnivores, once the adjacent habitat can offer ecological niche for maintaining a prey predator base.The undulating mountain forest is expected to have the distribution of the recorded species over a wider area.
It is evident from the study that there are few plant species of rare occurrence in the buffer zone of Kirandul complex and few animal species within Schedule-I of Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.These species are likely to be affected by mining project and related construction and other related activities like road construction, blasting, excavation for mining, and dumping of excavated material.However, human population pressure on land and biological resources are likely to exert pressure on the biological resources of the region.The existing natural ecosystems in areas constituting a rich bio-diverse region that need protection and further strengthening of conservation efforts.
Implementing scientific forest management may be helpful in some participatory forest management contexts, but it requires users to participate in an unfamiliar knowledge culture and appropriate support mechanisms need to be in place, particularly if scaling up its use across a country.

Figure 2 .
Figure 2. Life form in core and buffer zone

Figure 3 .
Figure 3. Map showing different faunal species found at different locations of the study area

Table 2 .
Floral association of the study area The coarse gravelly soil supports the xerophytic growth of Khair.The forests are generally open.Quality of the crop and natural reproduction is generally poor.

Table 3 .
List of plant species at core area of Kirandul Iron Ore Mine

Table 4 .
List of plant species at buffer area of Kirandul Iron Ore Mine

Table 5 .
Phytosociological parameters of core and buffer zones of Kirandul complex

Table 6 .
Details of Fauna recorded at Kirandul Iron Ore Mine (Core and Buffer Area)