Diversity and Ethnobotany of tree species in subtropical region of Jammu Shivalik’s range of NorthWestern India: A depository of knowledge for People’s Biodiversity Register

Abstract

National Biodiversity Authority formed under Biological Diversity Act, 2002 has asked the states to prepare the People’s Biodiversity Register (PBR) through State Biodiversity Board where Biodiversity Management Committee (BMC) like village panchayats were involved to document information on locally available bioresources (plants, animals and microorganisms) their medicinal or any other traditional knowledge including landscape and demography of a particular area. In view of this the present study was conducted through systematic quadrat method where 209 plots of 20 m×20 m was laid at sites (100m transect) near to villages and a total of 99 tree species (having  5 cm diameter at breast height (dbh) belonging to 49 families and 80 genera were recorded where Fabaceae is dominant family with the highest number of species (10) followed by Moraceae (09 species). The ethnobotany of these species was also documented by interviewing 78 individuals using questionnaire survey by semi structured, structured interview from the villagers and importance of People’s Biodiversity Register (PBR) was also communicated to the respondents in the presence of sarpanches of panchayat. This study created a baseline of information on the tree species diversity of the Jammu district which is expected to be helpful to the future researchers as well as for the native people of the area to document their native flora.