Assessment of Ecological health of Chambal River using plant species diversity

In the context of chambal river,the water quality has generally been categorized as pristine water but due to certain unchecked anthropogenic activities,water quality is gradually on a declining trend. the riparian zones represent areas of robust physico-chemical interaction between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. the present paper focuses on the plant diversity indices which will assess the pollution status of chambal river,madhya pradesh (m.p),by way of analyzing the riparian vegetation in winter and summer season,2014. the average simpson's diversity index (sdi) and shannon-weiner diversity index (swdi) was found as 0.23-0.28 and 2.22- 2.30 respectively indicating moderate health of the stretch of chambal river. similarly,the average richness indices i.e. margalef's richness index (mari) and menhinik richness index (meri) were found to be 0.49-0.52 and 0.085-0.11 respectively which also gives an indication of the moderate health of the river. the result also shows that diversity and richness indices increases from winter to summer thereby indicating that there is a decrease in pollution in summer than winter. the increase in pollution in winter needs to be taken care by way of appropriate corrective measures to keep the water quality of the stretch in good condition. the study indicates that the stretch is having moderate ecological health which means that water is not advisable for drinking but can be used for irrigation,bathing,aquaculture and life supporting activities.