Informatics Publishing Limited

G. R. Rao , M. D. Subhashchandran , T. V. Ramachandra

Abstract

Sharavathi river basin (upper catchment) falls in one of the megacentres of endemism (Shimoga-Kanara) harbouring diverse kinds of flora and fauna, which are adapted to various kinds of habitats. Study was carried out to know the habitat preferences of the endemic species particularly of herhs, shrubs, orchids, and climbers excluding the trees. Field survey covered 21 micro- and macro-habitats and the results show that the macrohabitats (such as grasslands, evergreen-semi evergreen forests and marshy areas) have higher species richness and endemism. To prioritise habitats for conservation, micro and macro habitats were ranked according to their richness in species and endemism. The result reveals that grasslands, evergreen-semi evergreen forests and marshy areas deserve higher conservation priorities. Micro-habitats such as wet tree trunks, wet-rocks etc., have distinctive species very much different from other habitats. All these habitats also harboured economically useful species including medicinal plants vital for human survival.

Full Text

     

K. Kareemulla , P. Rai , G. R. Rao , K. R. Solanki

Abstract

Degraded lands can be effectively nsed for producing forage, nutritious leaf fodder, fuel wood and timber with the introduction of silvopastoral system based on species like Albizia amara, Leucaena leucocephala, Dichrostachys cinerea (tree component); Chrysopogan fulvus, Stylosanthes hamata and S. scabra (pasture component). The biomass productivity of 7.13 t ha^-1 year^-1 was recorded. The discounted B:C ratio of this system worked out to 1:1.52.

Full Text

     

D. Mahesh Babu , G. R. Rao , Diwakar Mesta , M. D. Subashchandran , T. V. Ramachandra

Abstract

The INFORMATION SYSTEM with user friendly GUI's (Graphical User Interface) is developed to maintain the flora data and generate reports for Sharavathi River Basin. The database consists of the information related to trees, herbs, shrubs and climbers. The data is based on the primary field survey and the information available in flora of Shimoga, Karnataka and Hassan flora. User friendly query options based on dichotomous keys are provided to help user to retrieve the data while data entry options aid in updating and editing the database at family genus and species levels.

Keywords

Information system, Graphical User Interface (GUI), Flora data, Sharavathi River Basin, Karnataka

Full Text

     

G. R. Rao , M. D. Subash Chandran , T. V. Ramachandra

Abstract

Changes in vegetation are taking place due to anthropogenic activities since the colonization of the evergreen forest zone of Western Ghats. The forests of the Western Ghats were contiguous and uniformly rich in endemism within each climatic and physiographic regime. The region continues to be one of the biodiversity hot spots of the world. However, unplanned developmental activities are altering the balance of the ecosystem. This study focuses on the floristic structure, composition and diversity of forests with varying degree of human disturbances. Based on the investigations, various strategies for conservation and sustainable utilization of forest resources were proposed.

Keywords

Plant Diversity. Sharavathi River Basin, Sustainable Utilization of Forest Resources, Western Ghats, Karnataka

Full Text

     

T. V. Ramachandra ¹, N. V. Joshi ¹, G. R. Rao ¹, G. Dhanpal ¹, K. V. Gururaja ¹, Amit S. Yadav ¹

Affiliations
1 Energy and Wetlands Research Group, Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore – 560 012

Abstract

Ecological status of a particular region is determined by assessing its biodiversity, prevailing conditions of the environment and their interactions. Biodiversity assessments in micro watershed across altitudinal gradients of Western Himalaya reveal that phytodiversity includes a total of 2276 individuals from 75 woody species belonging to 38 families. Among the three micro watersheds, Mandhala was species rich with 43 species followed by Moolbari (39) and MeGad (9). In Mandhala most of the species are thorny shrubs and rarely attain tree forms due to severe anthropogenic disturbances, which also yielded very low basal area. Moolbari had the highest basal area, which had dominant species Quercus leucotricophora and Q. glauca. MeGad, a high altitude area was mostly dominated by Abies pindrow, Picea smithiana and Pinus wallichiana. Faunal investigations enumerated 115 butterfly species, 14 amphibian and 136 bird species. Butterflies in the region were oriental and palaearctic in origin representing nine families. Similarly, 14 species amphibians belonging to 5 families were sighted during the field investigations. Paa minica is vulnerable and Amolops chakrataensis is data deficient according to IUCN status and these two are endemics of Himalayan foot hills. Among the three watersheds, Mandhala, lying in Shivaliks has higher faunal diversity followed by Moolbari. Amphibians were not encountered in MeGad microwatershed during Aug-Sept 07. In total 136 bird species were recorded from three watersheds, the maximum number of bird species occurred in Mandhala region (104) followed by Moolbari (57) and Me Gad (35).

Keywords

Biodiversity, Ecological Status, Floral And Faunal Diversity, Watershed, Altitudinal Gradients, Western Himalaya

Full Text

     

A. H. Khan ¹, G. R. Rao ¹, Reayat Khan ¹

Affiliations
1 Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, IN

Abstract

Cytomorphological characteristics of Indian hexaploid S. nigrum and S. nodiflorum and of their F₁hybrids were studied. The parents differed significantly in several morphological and cytological characters. The hybrids were highly sterile and did not set seed.

They showed a wide range of meiotic irregularities. In several pollen mother cells, trivalents and quadrivalents were recorded, although in a very low frequency, in addition to a large number of univalents and bivalents. Occasionally bridges with or without fragments, were recorded. The results of these investigations show that chromosomal differences as well as genic differences have played an important role in reproductive isolation and morphological differentiation of the two species.

Full Text

   

Reayat Khan ¹, G. R. Rao ¹, A. H. Khan ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Botany, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, IN

Abstract

Biosystematic studies have been carried out on some species of the Solanum nigrum complex, viz., diploid S. nigrum, S. nadiflorum, tetraploid S. nigrum, S. luteum and S. villosum. A comparison of fruit colour and chromosome number of the taxa divides them into two groups. Diploid S. nigrum and S. nodiflorum have shiny bluish black fruits and n = 12 chromosomes. In tetraploid S. nigrum the fruits are orange red while in S. luteum and S. villosum the fruits are yellow and the chromosome number in all the three taxa is n = 24. Meiosis was normal in all the species. The close relationship between diploid S. nigrum and S. nodiflorum, and among the species tetraploid S. nigrum, S. luteumand villosum has been confirmed by cytogenetical studies and statistical comparison of mean values of morphological characters.

In the light of the foregoing studies a taxonomic revision of the species studied is suggested.

Full Text

   

G. R. Rao ¹, N.N. Reddy ¹, I. Srinivas ¹, Sreenath Dixit ¹

Affiliations
1 Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture (CRIDA), Santoshnagar, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh - 500030, IN

Abstract

The Planning Commission, Government of India has set a target of 20 per cent blending of diesel with bio-diesel by the year 2012 to reduce the wide gap between demand and supply of petroleum products. This requires cultivating bio-diesel yielding crops on 11 M.ha to yield 13 M.t. of bio-diesel per year. In response to this, the Government of Andhra Pradesh (GoAP) launched a massive bio-fuel plantation programme in 2004-05. Since there was not enough research data to back a massive field plantation, GoAP sanctioned a R&D project on bio-fuels to CRIDA. The on-farm experiments were initiated in farmers' fields during kharif, 2005 in 69 acres in three districts of Andhra Pradesh with three levels each of irrigation, nutrition, pruning and four levels of spacings. The wider spacing (3x2m or 4x2m) enabled inter-cropping, partial mechanisation, response to irrigation in Jatropha. Irrigation at 30 per cent of evapo transpiration level in combination with N and P at 45g and 100g per plant gave better results. The capsule bearing bunches were more, when the plants were pruned at 45 cm or 60 cm height. In order to provide immediate income to the farmer besides improving soil fertility, legume inter-cropping with pigeonpea, blackgram and horsegram was successfully taken up. Farmers were disappointed with the low levels of yields (0.5 - 0.8 t/ha) even after five years because of non-availability of promising variety/selection and no immediate buyers for the harvested seed in the vicinity. There is a need for quality seed collection, value addition and increased wages. The scientific know-how will have to be disseminated through mass media, training of trainers and seed collectors; seminars, etc. on various aspects of production technology and processing.

Full Text