Detecting medicinal plants species using GPS positioning in Vidyasagar University Campus, Midnapore, West Bengal, India

Abstract

A portable global positioning system (GPS) unit was tested against conventional field techniques for our University Campus plot location the GPS accuracy tested against 3 benchmarks indicated that for the surrounding area the largest average displacement from true position was 48 m form the mean sea level. Five operators were instructed in the use of GPS for waypoint navigation ours University campus and seven plots were then located by each of the operators using either GPS or conventional field navigation. Results indicated that the operator with the least amount of plot-location experience was able to locate plots faster with GPS than by conventional techniques. System portability, satellite availability, canopy interference with signals, and operator biases are cited as moderate encumbrances. Our study documented the diversity of medicinal plants of Vidyasagar University campus and their adjoining area in the district of Paschim Medinipur, South West Bengal, India. This includes 117 species, 108 genera, distributed among 49 plant families under the division Marchantiophyta, Pteridophyta, Monocotyledones and Dicotyledones. Our field survey reportare represent 117 species among them some dominating family’s like- Poaceae (11), Fabaceae (10), Apocynaceae (7), Malvaceae (6), Asteraceae (5), Euphorbiaceae (5), Amarantheceae (4), Araceae (4), Acanthaceae (4). Among the 117 species, presented checklist includes herbs (62), shrubs (22), trees (22), climbers (10) and Branched thallus (1). We take step for conservation of all the plant species to protect from anthropogenic activities.