Scenario of Plant Biodiversity Conservation in Kashmir: An Overview
Nazir Ahmad Najar
School of Environmental Biology, A.P.S. University Rewa-486003 (India) nazirnajar45@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
Biodiversity, or biological diversity, is variety of all species on earth. It is the different plants, animals and micro-organisms, their genes, and the terrestrial, marine and freshwater ecosystems of which they are a part. Biodiversity is both essential for our existence and intrinsically valuable in its own right because biodiversity provides the fundamental building blocks for the many goods and services a healthy environment provides. Looking after our biodiversity is therefore an important task for all people. The Kashmir Himalaya is rich in the cultural diversity of people, as well as diversity of flora and fauna in the forest areas and domesticated species outside forest. A number of valuable medicinal plants are present in Kashmir Himalaya but due to various anthropogenic activities they are becoming limited day by day. Despite efforts to manage threats and pressures to plant biodiversity in Kashmir Himalaya, it is still in decline. This is an attempt to document the status and major threats to the plant biodiversity in the Kashmir Himalaya, as well as deals with the various conservation strategies to manage and protect the plants of Kashmir.