The Biobrio 13(1 & 2), 2026

Saprobic Fungi in Sal Forests of Santhal Pargana, Jharkhand: A Field Ecological Note

Kulesh Bhandari & Sandhya Nidhi

ABSTRACT:

Decomposer fungi are routinely cited as important for nutrient cycling in tropical forests, yet for many landscapes this importance rests on inference rather than direct, site-level documentation. The tribal upland forests of Santhal Pargana, Jharkhand, are one such gap. This note reports field observations of saprobic fungal activity recorded across the Sal-dominated (Shorea robusta) forests of the Poreyahat region of Godda district and the Thengimo Hills of Dumka district, gathered between December 2025 and January 2026. At Pindra Van, three decaying Sal logs at varying stages of decay supported a combined total of approximately twelve fan-shaped sporocarps arranged in three discrete clusters; their laterally attached, sessile, fan-like fruiting bodies and tomentose upper surface were consistent in the field with the splitgill fungus Schizophyllum commune Fr., a cosmopolitan white-rot basidiomycete known for unusual desiccation tolerance among wood-decay fungi. A separate, unidentified macrofungal sporocarp was tracked across repeat visits over eight days in a leaf-litter microhabitat at Thengimo Hills, persisting through a short dry spell that would ordinarily be expected to limit fruiting-body survival. Ant traffic was repeatedly observed moving across and around the decaying substrate at Pindra Van, consistent with the kind of fungus-invertebrate association reported from other wood-decay systems. Taken together, these observations are presented not as a definitive species inventory but as a baseline record establishing that active lignicolous and litter-associated fungal decomposition is occurring in a landscape where it has previously gone undocumented.

Keywords:    

Saprobic fungi, Sal Forest, Schizophyllum commune, wood decay, decomposition ecology, Jharkhand, dry deciduous forest

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