A report on the conservation status of south Indian plants

Abstract

Data on the conservation status of 167 species of flowering plants presented here are from two representative sectors in south India: (a) the lowlands, characterized by dry deciduous vegetation representative of the Deccan plateau, as also a cluster of eight low altitude hill ranges [to 1200 (1500) m] of the southernmost reaches of the Eastern Ghats of India, and coastlands including mangroves; and (b) the hills, the high altitude hill ranges (to 2475 m) of the Palni hills, an eastward spur of the Western Ghats of India, characterized by evergreen vegetation but largely decimated around the hill station of Kodaikanal with the invasion of alien species since the l840s with the arrival of overseas colonial personnel and the raising of commercial monoculture plantations. Data for the 167 species are entered in 7 + 1 columns for the two regions separately. However, the IUCN red list categories are not used in their entirety for two reasons: (i) the areas are relatively small; (ii) the stress comes more from extrinsic causes like habitat destruction and over-exploitation rather than intrinsic (genetic) causes. However, it is stressed that what is happening over restricted areas over short time intervals is a miniature of what is happening over larger areas over longer periods, and hence these data are vitally important in planning for conservation and eco-restoration. The quality and quantity of new information are decisive; the findings are discussed under nine heads, as the first synthesis of results obtained from over two decades of field work.