Research Article Open Access

Invasion of Exotic Plant Species in Rural-Urban Gradient in Jharkhand, India: Their Harmful Effects and Beneficial Uses

Abstract

Invasive Plant Species (IPS) is considered one of the major drivers of biodiversity loss, altering ecosystem services and socio-economic conditions through different mechanisms. However, the ecological impacts of IPS are well documented, while a few benefits of alien species were also observed. Decisions need to be made on whether benefits derived from the invasive spread of an alien species outweigh the reduced value of ecosystem services, e.g., the loss of grazing land. The present study was carried out in Gutwa village near the Ranchi smart cities, where the encroachment of invasive plants was in accelerated due to infrastructure and other anthropogenic activity. For the enumeration of Invasive Plant Species (IPS) research site has been classified into three groups

• G1 (infrastructure developed area);
• G2 (developing; infrastructure is going on) and
• G3 (undeveloped or natural vegetation dominant area).

Field data has been collected from fifteen quadrats, each of 3 m x 3 m. Quantitative analysis has been done with standard methods. Statistically, the variance of all quadrats emphasizes the dispersions nature of alien species within the group of all quadrats. The opportunity for the accidental invasion of alien species may increase with rapid urbanization and globalization. Because of this, the present study attempted to the documentation of harmful and beneficial uses of the invasive alien plant species in the rural-urban gradient in Gutwa village. So, it is necessary to consider actions to deal with the current problems in Gutwa village in Ranchi caused by invasive species and to reduce the magnitude of the problem in the future. Management prospects can be further strengthened through their linkage with geospatial technologies (remote sensing and GIS) by mapping and monitoring the IPS spread.

Shambhu Nath Mishra, Prasanjit Mukherjee, Rahul Kumar*

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