STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: The Department of Botany, University of Jammu organised a lecture on ‘Habitat Specificity and Conservation of threatened plant species in India” by Amber Srivastava, a senior research fellow from Botanical Survey of India, Dehradun.
Initiating his talk, Srivastava informed that India is one of the 19 mega-bio-diverse countries of the world and ranked fifth in Asia harbouring 11.4 percent of the world’s floral diversity. Presently, India represents 47,791 species of plants distributed in its various geographical regions.
In recent years, habitat loss and degradation due to anthropogenic activities and other natural causes has resulted in the immense loss of biodiversity. Many species have become threatened and several are on the verge of extinction. Some of the species are overexploited to meet the commercial demand resulting in rapid decrease of their population in wild. Besides, forest fire, over exploitation, low regeneration potential climate change competition with non-native species, he elaborated.
”It, therefore, becomes necessary to protect such species under direct vigilance to ensure their survival and conservation in near future both in-situ and ex-situ.
Conservation of threatened species in botanic gardens through ex-situ method is the most promising way of conservation”, said Srivastava.
Earlier, Prof. Yash Pal Sharma, Head, Department of Botany, University of Jammu highlighted that in view of the disturbing trends of decline in the number of important plant species, efforts to conserve and manage plants are critically needed around the world.
Srivastava also gifted several rare plants including Catamixis Baccharoides, Incarvillea Emodi , Selaginella Adunca, Pittosporum Eriocarpum, and Pancmukhi Rudraksh for plantation in JU’s Botanical Garden.
