SHOURAV DUTTA
University of Chittagong
M. KAMAL HOSSAIN
University of Chittagong
M. AKHTER HOSSAIN
University of Chittagong
PINAKI CHOWDHURY
University of Chittagong
Floral diversity; Sitakunda; Botanical Garden; Eco-park; Bangladesh; Conservation
Sitakunda Botanical Garden and Eco-park is situated at the north-western part of Chittagong district, Bangladesh
Conservation and Biodiversity
Study area: Sitakunda Botanical Garden and Eco-park is situated at the north-western part of Chittagong district, Bangladesh that comprises of the Chandranath Reserve Forest. It lies between 22°36´ - 22°39´N latitude and 91°40´ - 91°42´E longitudes. It is about 35 km north from Chittagong city, 3 km far away from Sitakunda Upazilla head quarter and about one kilometer at the east of Dhaka – Chittagong highway (Alam, 2001). This Ecopark was established under Bangladesh Wildlife Preservation (Amendment) Act 1974 and the park area is under the jurisdiction of Southern Sitakunda Reserved Forest of Chittagong North Forest Division, Bangladesh. This Botanical Garden and Eco-park comprises an area of about 808.38 ha, where the Botanical Garden covers an area of 405 ha and rest of the403.38 ha area is under the eco-park (Alam, 2001). The whole area is divided into two ranges – Porjoton and Punorbashon. The park area is composed of a number of low, medium and high hills, numerous gullies, a few waterfalls and many streams originated from the hills and these hills are mainly the part of Garo Hill Range (Alam, 2001; Misbahuzzaman and Alam, 2006).Though the southwest monsoon provides the majority of mean annual rainfall of about 2890 mm, these denuded hill slopes suffer from the moisture stress over a period of about 100 days. The eco-park area enjoys moist tropical climate with 29.6 °C mean annual temperature and 66.5% - 88.6% mean monthly humidity (Alam, 2001; Uddin et al., 2005; Misbahuzzaman and Alam, 2006). Data collection and compilation Field visits as well as formal discussion with the Director and Range Officer of Sitakunda Botanical Garden and Eco-park, Chittagong was done to have an idea of the topography, vegetation composition, accessibility of the whole study area. Six field trips were conducted in various seasons of the study period to cover the whole study area during July 2013 to May 2014. Six transect walks across the whole study area were made to assess plant diversity of Sitakunda Eco-park. The field work was scheduled in such a way that will enable field observations and plant sample collections during the flowering and fruiting time of maximum number of species. All types of the observed plant species (herbs, shrubs, timber, non-timber, angiosperms, gymnosperms, exotics, indigenous, orchids, ferns, epiphytes, cactus etc.) were recorded and tagged in the field. Some plant species were identified in the field with the help of specialists from the Sitakunda Botanical Garden and Eco-park, Chittagong. Herbarium were prepared with the fertile materials of unknown plant species and mounted on a sheet of paper of standard size 29.21 cm × 41.91 cm (11.5 × 16.5). The specimens were identified consulting different flora, viz., Prain, 1903; Das and Alam, 2001 and Ahmed et al., 2008. Herbarium collections of Dry Wood Preservation Laboratory of Bangladesh Forest Research Institute were also consulted in identifying the collected plant specimens. Threatened plants were categorized with the help of Khan et al., 2001; Ara et al., 2013 and exotic plants were determined with the help of Hossain and Pasha, 2004. Medicinal plant species were determined and use values of recorded medicinal plants were categorized with the help of Rashid et al., 1988; Uddin et al., 2005; Merry, 2011.
Indian Journal of Tropical Biodiversity, 22(2) 2014
Journal