A study of Bangalore urban forest

The study is aimed to investigate the species assemblage in different land-use categories and the changes in vegetation over the recent yeats in Bangalore City, India. Forty-six sites of nine different land-use categories were sampled to study species composition, DBH distribution and end-uses of trees. Though species richness is high in all the various land-uses, a few species are dominant accounting for >70% of the tree density. Species richness is high in parks and residential areas. Tree density is high in parks, temples and around lakes, where the land-use is recreational and low in commercial and residential areas, which have high built-up area, Bangalore urban forest is still young with most of the trees (70%), having <15 cm in DBH. The larger trees are in older establishments of institutions, offices, commercial areas and parks. The Kolmogonov-Smirnov test shows that there is a variation in DBH distribution in old and new land-uses of institutions and temples. Among the tree owning households (50%) in residential areas, 40% of the houses have >5 trees and 22% of houses have >5 tree species in their compound. Trees in residential areas were sampled and studied according to the economic strata of residents and the age of the area. One hundred and sixty-four species were identified in different residential areas, of which 149 species were recorded within compounds and 87 species were avenue trees. The species composition and cluster analysis showed that species choice varied in terns of the economic status of the communities rather than that with time. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.