Ethnobotanical Leaflets 12: 103-107. 2008.
First
Red List of Medicinal Plants of Andhra Pradesh, India - Conservation
Assessment and Management Planning
K.N. Reddy1 and C. Sudhakar Reddy2 1Plant Taxonomy Division, Laila Impex
Research Centre, Jawahar Autonagar, Vijayawada - 520 007, 2Forestry
and Ecology Division, National Remote Sensing Agency, Balanagar, Hyderabad
-500 037, E-mail: drsudhakarreddy@gmail.com Issued 26 February 2008 ABSTRACT
The
present article is based on the First Conservation Assessment and Management
Planning ( INTRODUCTION
Conservation
Assessment and Management Planning ( ANDHRA PRADESH: STUDY The State of Andhra Pradesh
(The land of Telugu people) is
situated in the middle of eastern half of the Indian Peninsula lying between
12o 41' – 19o 54' N latitudes and 76o 46' –
84o 45' E longitudes. It is bounded by the Bay of Bengal in the
east, Tamil Nadu in the south, Karnataka in the west, and Maharashtra, Chattisgadh
and Orissa in the north. Administratively, Andhra
Pradesh has 23 districts which were grouped into three zones: (1) Circars or Coastal Andhra with nine distrcts, i.e. East Godavari, Guntur,
Krishna, Nellore, Prakasam, Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam and West
Godavari (2) Rayalaseema with four
Ceded districts, i.e. Anantapur, Chittoor, Cuddapah and Kurnool (3) Telangana
(Deccan or erstwhile Nizam's Dominions of Hyderabad State) with 10 districts,
i.e. Adilabad, Hyderabad, Karimnagar, Khammam, Mahabubnagar, Medak, Nalgonda,
Nizamabad, Rangareddy and Warangal. Geographically,
the State is categorized into three regions, namely: (1) the Coastal Plains (along the east coast,
a low-lying area from from Srikakulam to Nellore) mainly of agricultural
land, (2) the Eastern Ghats,
forming a chain of discontinuous range of hills along the coast with good
vegetation, and (3) the Deccan Plateau
consisting of agricultural lands, scrub and deciduous forests, which cover
part of Kurnool (excl. Nallamalais), Anantapur districts and the whole of
Telangana. The wide range of topography
and other physical features of the State, provided by the hills rising from
almost sea level to about 1500 m altitude, shaped the land to harbour rich
and varied flora. In Andhra Pradesh, vegetation cover occupies 23.03% of the
total geographical area of 275, 068 sq. km (Reddy et al. 2008). The
forests in the State are broadly classified into Dry deciduous, Moist
deciduous and Semi-evergreen types. Besides, there are mangroves, other
subsidiary and serial types spread over limited areas (Reddy, 2007). METHODOLOGY Initially,
101 medicinal plants of conservation concern were identified with the help of
eminent botanists and field researchers of Andhra Pradesh and FRLHT,
Bangalore. On the advice of these experts, the list was short listed to 50
taxa as candidates for the The
workshop deliberations involved preparation of data sheets for each selected
species. This was facilitated by the formation of 5 different working groups,
each consisting of eminent botanists from Andhra Pradesh as well as
representatives of RESULTS Out of
the 50 medicinal plants assessed during the workshop 12 are endemic to India
and the remaining 38 are non-endemic. These 12 species are Boswellia ovalifoliolata, Butea monosperma
var. lutea, Cycas beddomei,
Decalepis hamiltonii, Hildegardia populfolia, Phyllanthus indofischeri,
Pimpinella tirupatiensis, Pterocarpus santalinus, Shorea tumbuggaia, Syzygium
alternifolium, Terminalia pallida and Urginea
nagarjunae. Out of these Endemic species, three species namely, Boswellia ovalifoliolata, Cycas beddomei and
Pimpinella tirupatiensis are
entirely confined to Andhra Pradesh. Pterocarpus
santalinus, Shorea tumbuggaia, Syzygium alternifolium, Terminalia pallida and
Urginea nagarjunae are endemic to
Eastern Ghats.The list of assessed medicinal plants incorporating their Red
List status and estimated proportion (in Andhra Pradesh) of global presence
are being appended. The table also incorporates information criteria, as per
IUCN – 2000 (version 3.1), for assignment of Red List status to each taxon. More
than 40 participants form 10 different Research Institutions like Botanical
Survey of India, Universities, Colleges and Forest Department participated in
this three day It can
be concluded that out of the 50 taxa, which were assessed during the
workshop, 39 fall into threatened group (Table 1). These have been further
assigned Red List status of Critically Endangered (4), Endangered (24) and
Vulnerable (11); highlighting the pressing need for urgent conservation
action. Such Table 1. Threat Status of Assessed (Red listed) Medicinal
Plant Species.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Authors
are thankful to Dr. S.N. Jadhav, Conservator of Forests, AP Forest Department
for suggestions and encouragement. Authors are also
grateful to Mr. G. Ganga Raju, Chairman and Mr. G. Rama Raju, Director, Laila
Impex, Vijayawada and Prof. Vatsavaya
S. Raju, Kakatiya University, Warangal for their keen interest towards
conservation of biodiversity and continual support. REFERENCES Reddy, C.S., Reddy, K.N. & Jadhav, S.N.
(2001). Threatened Medicinal Plants of Andhra Pradesh. EPTRI. Hyderabad. Jadhav, S.N., Ved,
D.K., Ghate, U., Reddy, K.N. & Reddy, C.S. (2001). Proceedings of the
workshop on Conservation Assessment and Management Planning for Medicinal
Plants of Andhra Pradesh. FRLHT, Bangalore. Reddy, C.S. (2007).
Forest Types of Andhra Pradesh. Paryavaranam.
EPTRI-ENVIS (SoE-AP) News letter: 1(1&2): 1-8. Reddy, C.S., Pujar,
G.S., Sudhakar, S., Shilpa, B.,
Sudha, K., Trivedi, S., Gharai, B. & Murthy, M.S.R. (2008). Mapping the
Vegetation Types of Andhra Pradesh, India using Remote Sensing. Proc. A.P. Akademi of Sciences 12(1&2):
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