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ANTHROPOGENIC PRESSURE ON THE WESTERN HIMALAYAN MOIST TEMPERATE FORESTS OF BAGH, AZAD JAMMU & KASHMIR

HAMAYUN SHAHEEN^*, RIZWANA ALEEM QURESHI, ZAHID ULLAH AND TAHIRA AHMAD

Abstract: The rural population of Himalayas is strongly dependent on the forest wood and pastures to fulfill their fuel, shelter and livestock fodder demands. Due to absence of any effective conservation management policy for forests, the over exploitation of forest ecosystem is threatening its existence. Upper and lower elevation villages of District Bagh were surveyed to investigate the average wood consumption, preferred fuelwood trees and average land holding per family. Wood consumption in the higher and lower altitude villages was found to be 3.76 and 2.19 kg/capita/day respectively with an average of 2.97kg/capita/day.  The present consumption level of the resources far exceeds the carrying capacity and natural regeneration rates of the local forest resources. Comprehensive conservation policy with practical implementations is utmost essential in order to conserve the rapidly depleting forest resources of the area.

Department of Plant Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan