Botanical conservatories and ex situ conservation of some rare and endemic medicinal and aromatic plants: a case study from Western Ghats

Although the rich floral and faunal diversity of India has been established beyond doubt, much remains to be done in the area of conservation of biodiversity and eco-restoration of degraded habitats. The present paper highlights some efforts of the CIMAP, Resource Centre, Bangalore for conserving the rare, endemic and other economically important species of Western Ghats through establishment of an ex situ conservatory. "Shrishti", a section of the conservatory for holding the endemic arborescent taxa and "Sugandha" the other section, for holding the aromatic taxa of Western Ghats are discussed. Two hundred and seventy nine rare, medicinal and aromatic species of Western Ghats so far raised in the conservatory are enumerated alphabetically. Among these 114 are endemic including I I critically endangered, 22 endangered, 27 vulnerable and 20 rare species. In addition 112 species are wild aromatics and 53 medicinal plants are also established. There is a need for establishing many such ex situ conservatories in different agro climatic zones of south India so as to be able to conserve the wide spectra of endemic and endangered species that occur in varying altitudes of Western Ghats