A Study on Soil Characteristics in the JFM Practiced Degraded Forests of North Coastal Districts of Andhra Pradesh

JFM works were taken up in the North Coastal Reserve forest (RF) of Andhra Pradesh for the regeneration of degraded forests. Soil samples were collected and analyzed from ten treatment practices number one and three treatment practices number seven areas. Pothavaram RF, Burna RF areas having fertile soils with high IVI value. Darakonda RF, Mallavaram RF areas having low micro and high macro elements concentration and having good number of diversity in one area and dominance in other area. Murari RF, Korra RF areas having slightly acidic soil nature and macro elements are in medium concentration and micro elements are in high concentration showing very poor growth of species. Baliagam RF, Maribanda RF areas having medium fertile soil conditions, but with less diversity. Shikargangii RF is having low microelements concentration and medium macro elements concentration with poor growth of species. The bamboo forest areas Tarlakota, Lammasanghi and Divanchervu RF areas having good fertile soils having good number of grown clumps. The study helps to improve the degraded forest areas by selecting the species suitable to the soil conditions and also helps to improve the soil characteristics by planting different species to improve the particular macro or micro element. The study also helped to identify the impact of the JFM works and also to identify the endemic and endangered species.