Abstract

Due to increasing pressures and in areas with a preponderance of over mature trees, a shorter felling cycle is adopted and sometimes the number of extracted species are also violated beyond the prescriptions of working plans, thus endangering the continuity of operation. While successive working plans repeatedly adhere to this type of felling, on the assumption that it causes less damage an indepth study has not been so far undertaken to analyse the possible environmental impacts. This study is an attempt to fill in this lacuna with the following objectives. 1) To investigate the changes in situ that are likely to be brought upon in microclimatology particularly ambient temperature, relative humidity, soil temperature, and incidence of light available to various strata. 2) As this system is meant to facilitate natural regeneration, the regeneration status of the extracted species have been worked out. 3) To investigate the phenological pattern of the understorey. 4) To evaluate the structure of plant communities and their successional patterns. 5) To assess the damage to the residuals due to logging operations. To facilitate a scientifically based forestry operation clearcut guidelines have been provided for marking and felling the trees