Threat Assessment Of Medicinal Plants Of Koria District In Chhattisgarh (India)

Abstract

Koria district of Chhattisgarh state has a very rich plant diversity specially of medicinal plants and there is no comprehensive description of the flora as well as vascular cryptogames of the district is available some plant species are on the verge of extinction..The objective of the study was threat assessment of medicinal plants of Koria district based on the criteria developed by the IUCN. Keeping these point in view the present investigation was planned to assess the biobiversity of the vegetation of the district.Extensive field surveys were undertaken during 2004-08 Sampling sites were selected randomly covering all the blocks. Quantitative phytosociological characters were studied as per methods described by Misra (1968). The threat categories in the present study have been prepared viewing to the medicinal plants found in the wild only. Assessment of threat was done following the guidelines of IUCN (2000) Study reveals that 3 medicinal plant taxa were found to be regionally extinct in wild(Ex.) ,14 were critically endangered(CR), 27 were endangered (EN),62 were vulnerable (VU) and 37 were near threatened (NT) and 57 were least concerned(LC).