Comparative growth behaviour and biomass production of exotic and native
woody plantations on coal mine spoil in a dry tropical environment of
India: A case study
Abstract
The restoration of lands damaged by opencast coal mining is an
increasingly important problem in a dry tropical region of India.
Plantations are often employed as a measure of revegetation and
management of mine spoil; thus, mitigating the mining effects on the
environment. However, the choice of species for plantations has emerged
as a challenge for the restoration ecologists due to insufficient data.
Therefore, the primary objective of the present paper is to compare the
efficiency of exotic and native species on the coal mine spoils.
Previous studies on the Singrauli coalfields allowed us to compare the
growth performance, standing biomass, net primary production (NPP),
litterfall and decomposition rates of exotic and native species
plantations. Our results showed that native species have significantly
higher survival, stem-diameter, biomass and NPP as compared to exotic
species plantations. However, leguminous nature of species did not
affect these parameters significantly. Further, litterfall and
decomposition rates were also not differed either between exotic vs
native or leguminous vs non-leguminous species. Thus, exotic species
either legume or non-leguminous is not very much useful in mine spoil
rehabilitation as that of native species.