Chapter 2: REVIEW OF LITERATURE. Botanical explorations in India started in the British rule in different parts of India in

Transcription

1 Chapter 2: REVIEW OF LITERATURE 2.1 Botanical explorations in India: Botanical explorations in India started in the British rule in different parts of India in preparation of numerous floristic accounts. Roxburgh ( ) collected plants from Coromandel Coast; Graham (1836) from Bombay; Masters (1840) from Bengal; Elliot (1859) at Andhra Pradesh; Anderson (1859) from Lucknow; Beddome (1863) from Madras; Stewart (1869) in Punjab; Beddome ( ) in South India; Duthie (1883) in North-West India; Cameron (1894) at Mysore etc. The nineteenth century was marked by the completion of Flora of British India in seven volumes by Hooker ( ). This flora served as basis for several regional floras appeared after its publication. Botanical exploration in India in 19 th century can also be divided into 2 periods: prior to the reorganization of BSI in 1956 and after There has been intensive floristic study in the country in the current century. It is not possible to mention all those work in a brief note, hence some of the eminent ones are mentioned here. Fyson (1932), Mayuranathan (1929), Gamble (1928), Cooke ( ), Santapau (1953), Puri (1960), Prain (1903), Kanjilal et al. ( ), Parkinson (1923), Witt (1911) etc. Uncovered by this, there are some workers whose intensive collections and descriptions are of immense importance in the history of Indian taxonomic studies. Duthie (1888), Fischer (1938), Ramdeo (1969), Santapau (1988), Rao (1994), Talbot ( ), Gammie (1903), Bhide (1911), Bhandari (1978), Prain (1903), Maheswari (1963), Gupta (1967), Biswas (1943), Duthie (1883), Bor (1940), Mukherjee (1940), Kachroo (1953), Majumder (1956), Raizada (1958), Collet (1902) etc. were among them. Hajra and Jain (1978), Jain (1982), Nair (1978), Rao ( ), Maheshwari (1963), 7

2 Kapoor (1962), Kataki (1986), Balakrishnan ( ), Deb ( ), Bennet (1978), Mathew ( ), Srivastava (1976), Jamir and Rao (1988), Mishra (2007), etc. are some of the prominent investigators who published numerous valuable work in the post 1956 period. Many universities, colleges and some autonomous institutions have also been doing exploration and publishing their findings in books, periodicals etc. from time to time. 2.2 Botanical explorations in North-East India: Floristic studies in N. E. India has earlier been mainly carried out by Hooker ( ), Griffith (1848), Kanjilal ( ), Bor (1940), Deb ( ) Fischer (1921), etc. Eastern circle of BSI at Shillong and BSI station at Itanagar have been publishing some valuable data in this regard. Apart from BSI and Government departments, the universities of this region have also been doing some taxonomic work as research programme, Ph.D programme etc. at their level. As a result numerous research papers, Ph.D thesis, books, floras, manuals etc. have come out from this region. Kanjilal and his co-workers ( ) explored the then Assam (present N. E. Assam) and published Flora of Assam in four volumes (Vol. I-IV). These volumes mainly dealt with trees and shrubs with few herbs and occassionally mentioned some of the established cultivar species. It was Bor (1940) who published the fifth volume of Flora of Assam to deal with Poaceae. Islam (1989) worked on Aquatic Weeds of N. E. India. Haridasaan and Rao (1985, 1987) published Forest Flora of Meghalaya in 2 volumes. Flora of Tripura in 2 volumes by Deb ( ). Joseph (1982) explored Nongpoh, one of the most important regions of Meghalaya. Balakrishnan ( ) worked out Flora of Jowai and vicinity and United Khasi and Jaintia Hills Dist. in 2 volumes. Hedge (1984) intensively 8

3 studied the Orchid flora of Arunachal Pradesh while in Meghalaya the orchids were studied in detail by Kataki (1986). Kataki along with Hynniewta published Orchids of Nagaland (2000). A few works on Cryptogrammic flora has also been done. The Ferns of Nagaland were published by Jamir and Rao (1988). Bir et al. (1989) worked on Pteridophytic flora of North-East India. Buchanan Hamilton (1820), Robinson (1841), Gammie (1895), Carter et al. (1921) were the pioneer in the field of botanical explorations in Assam. A. Das became the silviculturist and Botanical Forest Officer in 1931 and took charge of publishing the Flora of Assam. During his tenure Vol. I-IV were all published ( ). On the other hand except the compilation of grasses by Bor (1940) we are yet to get the complete monocot flora of Assam and much of the flora of this country still remain incomplete although it is one of the 34 hotspots of the country. Rao and Verma (1982) published Cyperaceae of North-East India and Shukla (1996) has recently published The Grasses of North Eastern India. Banik (2004) worked on Bamboos of Tripura. Bor (1942) published The Relic Vegetation of Shillong Plateau, Assam, Naga Hills and Khasi Hills. Fischer (1938) published a paper on Flora of Lusai Hills. Sahni (1969) has done the work on Flora of Kameng and Subansiri District. Mao et al. (2009) worked out the plant wealth of N. E. India with reference to ethnobotany. B. Baruah (1978), a research scholar of BSI, had done his Ph. D in Studies on Systematics of Orchids in the Brahmaputra valley. Jain and Hajra (1996) studied the two main National Parks of Assam i.e., Kaziranga and Manas. Contribution of Borthakur (1981) on Ethnobotanical Studies of Karbi-Anglong 9

4 (Mikir Hill District) had enlightened about the information of indigenous way of utilization of plants by those of Karbi people. Barua et al. (1988) surveyed the primitive angiosperms of North-East India and enlisted as many as 133 different primitive angiosperms. Barua et al. (1989) contributed to the Pteridophytic flora of Kamrup District of Assam. 2.3 Botanical explorations in Assam: Gustav Mann, the first Conservator of Forests of Assam during made splendid collections from different parts for a detailed knowledge on the Flora of Assam. Based on his collections and explorations, different workers have published their floristic accounts on the plants of Assam. Apart from him, other eminent workers were Buchanan Hamilton (1820), Roxburgh (1832), Robinson (1841), Griffith (1848) and Hooker and Thomson (1855). Ultimately, Hooker ( ) has mentioned all of these including the area of collection, in his monumental publication in 7 vols. of the Flora of British India. At the initiative of Sir Archdale Earle, the then Chief Commissioner of Assam, U. N. Kanjilal joined the Forest Service of Assam. During his tenure ( ), he made extensive and intensive collections from most parts of erstwhile Assam. Apart from him, there are some collectors whose names are worth mentioning like Hajra and Jain (1978), Borthakur and Hajra (1976), Kar and Panigrahi (1963) and Kachroo (1953). Rao and Verma ( ) had taken the initiative of publishing Materials towards the Monocot Flora of Assam and brought out a publication in the Bulletin of BSI. But a number of families of Monocotyledones are still left out. 10

5 The work on taxonomic and floristic research of present Assam has been initiated and activated by Chowdhury. He discovered several species of plants new to science and recorded a number of plants previously unknown from areas within Assam. Novelties include 3 new species of orchids discovered in the mainland of Assam, namely, Dendrobium assamicum Chowdhury (1988), Eulophia kamarupa Chowdhury (1993) and Zeuxine debrajiana Chowdhury (1996). In addition to literature cited above, a good number of research papers on floristic study in different parts of Assam have been published in journals and periodicals from time to time. Some of them were consulted by Nath and Choudhury (1994), Pathak (1990), Islam (1990), Chowdhury and Singh (1992), Biswas et al. (1991), Shukla (1996), Hajra and Jain (1978), Baruah et al. (1996), Baishya (1999), Baruah and Baruah (2000), Bora and Kumar (2001), Agarwala and Borah (2001), etc. Borthakur (1976) being the pioneer in the field of ethnobotanical studies in Assam has studied the medicinal uses of plants among tribes of Mikir Hills (Karbi Anglong) while Baruah and Sarmah (1984) studied the medicinal uses of plants by Bodos. Jain and Borthakur (1980) published the ethnobotany of the Mikirs of India. Islam (1990) worked out the flora of Majuli. Patiri and Borah (2007) published a book on Wild Edible Plants of Assam. Some remarkable monographic work have also come out as Ph.D thesis from different universities. Some of the worth mentionable workers in this regard are Verma (1971), Hajra (1978), Sharma (1989), Baruah (1978), Pathak (1990), Baruah (1992), Brahma (1992), Singh (1992), Brahma (1992), Sarkar (1993), Malakar (1995), Devi, M. (1998), Borah (1998), Dutta Choudhury (1999), Sarmah (2006), Kalita (2007), Gogoi (2006), Bezbaruah (2007), Borah (2008), Daimary (2011), etc. 11

6 The most mentionable monographic work (published literature) in Assam is The Rubiaceae of Assam and NEFA by Kar and Panigrahi (1963); The Compositae of Assam and NEFA by Panigrahi and Kar (1966); Ranunculaceae of Assam and NEFA by Kataki and Panigrahi (1964); Monocot Flora of Assam and NEFA by Panigrahi (1965). Joseph and Chowdhury (1966) described a new species Oberonia sulcata Joseph and Chowdhury. Joseph and Yoganarasimhan (1967) published 2 papers describing 2 new orchid species viz., Corybas purpureus and Taeniophyllum khasianum from United Khasi and Jaintia Hills. Chowdhury et al., first reported the occurrence of Zeuxine strateumatica (L.) Schldr. in Assam in 1967 and Oberonia anthropophora Lindl. (Orchidaceae) in India in They also described a new species Rhynchoglossum lazulinum (Gesneriaceae) in Shastry (1967) published a paper describing a new species viz., Legenandra undulata (Araceae). Barua and Neogi (1995) published a paper on some new report and rediscoveries of some rare and endangered plants of Assam. Again, Baruah (2001) published Orchid Flora of Kamrup District, Assam. Orchid Biodiversity of N. E. India published by Hedge (2000). Goswami et al. (2003) published a paper on Need of developing Canetum in protected areas of N. E. India for conservation of Cane resources. Diversity and Distribution of Bamboos of Assam has been published by Barooah and Borthakur (2003) where they described 3 new species of bamboos from Assam. Borthakur et al. (2001) also worked out and published The ferns of Assam. The latest publication on the floristic composition of Assam is Assam s Flora (Present Status of Vascular Plants), a book published by the Assam Science Technology and Environment Council, 2005 compiled and edited by S. Chowdhury. The book 12

7 enumerates 4273 species of vascular plants of Assam in its present circumscription. These include 40 sp. of fern allies, 315 sp. of ferns, 23 sp. of gymnosperms and among angiosperms 2823 sp. of dicotyledones and 1072 sp. of monocotyledons. 2.4 Botanical explorations in Kamrup District: Floristic study of Kamrup District was initially carried out by Rao and Rabha ( ). They worked on the vegetation of the Southern Part of Kamrup District, Assam. Thereafter a good number of research papers was published in different journals and periodicals. Some of them are Hydrophytic Vegetation of Jalukbari by Satyanarayan (1962), Some Ayurvedic important Plants from District Kamrup by Deka et al. (1983), Floristic analysis of Angiosperms of Kamrup District, Assam by Chowdhury et al. (1994), An Ethnobotanical Survey on Medicinal Plants used in Reproductive Health Related Disorders in Rangia Sub-Division, Kamrup, Assam by Kalita et al. (2011). Baruah (2001) published Orchid Flora of Kamrup District. Barua et al. (1989) contributed to the pteridophytic flora of Kamrup District of Assam. In addition to the literature cited above, a number Ph.D thesis came up from this part of Assam. Some of the workers in this regard are Bhattacharjee (1970) worked on the weed flora of Greater Guwahati, Baruah (1978) worked on Orchids of Brahmaputra Valley, Pathak (1990) on Hydrophytic Flora of Guwahati and its vicinity, Baruah (1992) on Angiosperms of Kamrup District, Gogoi (2006) worked on the Macrophytic diversity of Deepor Beel, Kalita (2006) studied the Floristic Diversity of North Guwahati Hill Range and its Adjoining Areas and Buragohain (2007) studied the Exotic flora of Greater Guwahati. 13