DIVERSITY AND ETHNOBOTANY OF TREE SPECIES IN SUBTROPICALREGION OF JAMMU SHIVALIK’S RANGE OF NORTH-WESTERN INDIA: A DEPOSITORY OF KNOWLEDGE FOR PEOPLE’SBIODIVERSITY REGISTERShashi Devi, Sheetal and Anil ThakarAbstract National Biodiversity Authority formed under Biological Diversity Act, 2002 has asked thestates to preparethe Peopleâs Biodiversity Register (PBR) through State Biodiversity Board where BiodiversityManagementCommittee (BMC) like village panchayats were involved to document information on locally available bioresources(plants, animals and microorganisms) their medicinal or any other traditional knowledge includinglandscape and demography of a particular area. In view of this the present study was conducted throughsystematic quadrat method where 209 plots of 20 mÃ20 m was laid at sites (100m transect) near to villagesand a total of 99 tree species (having ï³ 5 cm diameter at breast height (dbh) belonging to 49 families and 80genera were recorded where Fabaceae is dominant family with the highest number of species (10) followedby Moraceae (09 species). The ethnobotany of these species was also documented by interviewing 78individuals using questionnaire survey by semi structured, structured interview from the villagers andimportance of Peopleâs Biodiversity Register (PBR) was also communicated to the respondents in the presenceof sarpanches of panchayat. This study created a baseline of information on the tree species diversity of theJammu district which is expected to be helpful to the future researchers as well as for the nativepeople ofthe area to document their native flora. |