Understory vegetation controls, in a significant way, the regeneration of overstory trees, carbon sequestration and nutrient retention in tropical forests. Development and organization of understory vegetation depend on climate, edaphic and biotic factors which are not well correlated with plant community structures. This study aimed to explore the relationships between understory vegetation and abiotic factors in natural and planted forest ecosystems. A non-metric multidimensional scaling(NMS) ordination technique was applied to represent forest understory vegetation among five forest communities, i.e., a dry miscellaneous forest(DMF), a sal mixed forest(SMF), a teak plantation(TP), a low-land miscellaneous forest(LMF) and a savanna area(SAV) of the Katerniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary, located in northern India. Microclimatic variables, such as photosynthetically active radiation(PAR), air temperature(AT), soil temperature(ST), ambient atmospheric CO 2 concentration, absolute air humidity(AH), physical and chemical soil properties as well as biological properties were measured. Understory species were assessed via 100 random quadrats(5 m × 5 m) in each of the five forests in which a total of 75 species were recorded encompassing 67 genera from 37 families, consisting of 32 shrubs and 43 plant saplings. DMF was the most dense forest with 34,068 understory individuals per ha of different species, whereas the lowest understory population(13,900 per ha) was observed in the savanna. Ordination and correlation revealed that microclimate factors are most important in their effect compared to edaphic factors, on the development of understory vegetation in the various forest communities in the north of India. Understory vegetation controls, in a significant way, the regeneration of overstory trees, carbon sequestration and nutrient retention in climate, edaphic and biotic factors which are not well correlated with plant community structures. This study aimed at exploring the relationships between understory vegetation and abiotic factors in natural and planted forest ecosystems. A non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMS) ordination technique was applied to represent forest understory vegetation among five forest communities, ie, a dry miscellaneous forest (DMF) , a sal mixed forest (SMF), a teak plantation (TP), a low-land miscellaneous forest (LMF) and a savanna area (SAV) of the Katerniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary, located in northern India. Microclimatic variables, such as photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), air temperature (AT), soil temperature (ST), ambient atmospheric CO 2 concentration, absolute air humidity (AH), physical and chemical soil properties as well as biological properties were measured. Understory species were assessed via 100 random quadrats (5 m × 5 m) in each of the five forests in which a total of 75 species were recorded encompassing 67 genera from 37 families, consisting of 32 shrubs and 43 plant saplings. DMF was the most dense forest with 34,068 understory individuals per ha of different species, but the lowest understory population (13,900 per ha) was observed in the savanna. Ordination and correlation revealed that microclimate factors are most important in their effect compared to edaphic factors, on the development of understory vegetation in the various forest communities in the north of India.