The natural vegetation of the district Palamau is now facing a severe threat due to increasing urbanization. The ‘Flora’ may help in listing of several endangered, threatened and rare species. Moreover, it will create an awareness amongst the people as a whole to protect such species from extinction and to take necessary steps for conservation of our ecosystem and environment. Thus ‘Flora’ is an essential inventory in this respect and hence a necessity to wide range of users. The district is floristically rich and was formerly a district of Chotanagpur division. The flora of the district is essentially tropophilous though in some parts there is a tendency to xerophily. One of the conspicuous topographical features of the district is the presence of Natarhat Hill (1126 m) which is situated on the border of Gumla and Palamau district and this hilly terrain subtends both temperate and tropical vegetation. From the botanical point of view this region is of high interest due to its affinity with the rich flora of Madhya Pradesh which lies in the border of Palamau. It usually gives rise to reddish stiff loamy soil, excellently suited for forest growth while kept covered, but bakes to brick like hardness in hot season when denuded.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR N P Singh
DR. N P SINGH, Ex-Director, Botanical Survey of India was born on 15th August, 1941 in Mathura district of Uttar Pradesh, got his basic education at Lakhaoti in Buland Shahr district and his graduation and post-graduation (with merit) from Agra College of Agra University, Agra while his Doctorate degree was obtained from Pune University, Pune in Plant Taxonomy and Floristics. His field of specialization has been Plant Taxonomy, Floristics, Phyto-Geography, Conservation, Economic Botany and Ethnobotany. After a very brief stay at a Degree College as a Lecturer at Shamli in Muzaffarnagar District, he joined Botanical Survey of India in 1961 at Dehradun and stayed put for nearly 40 years until his retirement in 2001 from Kolkata. During this period he was mostly at Pune but for short durations at Jodhpur, Royal Botanic Gardens, KEW (U. K.) and for last few years at Kolkata, heading as its Director. He has so far published or edited 27 books and nearly 160 papers, which includes:2 volumes on Flora of India besides revising the families Clusiaceae, Asclepiadaceae and Periplocaceae (a few more smaller families are to be published); 10 volumes on the State Floras of Maharashtra (3 vols.), Karnataka, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh (2 vols.), Mizoram, Manipur and of Jammu and Kashmir besides 2 volumes on the Flora of Eastern Karnataka, Grasses of Maharashtra and Sedges of Karnataka plus Mangroves of Goa and Plant wealth of Andaman & Nicobar Islands in Hindi; 2 volumes on District Floras; 2 volumes on Floristic Diversity and Conservation Strategies in India, one on the Ethnobotany of Dadra, Daman and Nagar Haveli, one on Endemic and Threatened Plants of Maharastra and another on the Biodiversity of Western Ghats. His papers are published in various National and International journals- many dealing with grasses describing those of Karnataka and Maharashtra, besides about a dozen new taxa and new distributional records covering Biodiversity in all his specialized fields. A few more books are under publication. During his long innings in B.S.I. he as Principal Investigator has handled and completed many projects of Govt. of India on subjects like Ethnobotany, Bio-prospecting of biological wealth, Validation of threatened plants of India, Inventorization of medicinal plants of India, Flora of Protected Areas of India (Phase I)-Biosphere Reserves and National Parks and Database of the Herbarium Specimens and Live Collections of B.S.I. Dr. Singh has guided 9 post-graduate students for Ph.D. degree, 1 has just submitted his thesis while 1 more is about to submit, besides 1 student for M. Sc. Degree. He was awarded a merit increment in 1977 by the Department, "Vishist Vaigyanik Puraskar" in 1993-94 by Govt. of India and Prof. B. A. Razi Medal for 2000 by the Association for Plant Taxonomy (APT). He has served as President of Indian Association for Angiosperm Taxonomy (IAAT) for 2001 and for Association for Plant Taxonomy (APT) for the years 2001-05. He was also elected as an Asian Member, Plants Committee of CITES (UNEP) from 2001-04. Dr. Singh has traveled widely to various countries of the world. He is a Life Fellow of the Indian Botanical Society for nearly 4 decades since 1966. He is a Life Founder Member, Vraksh Samwardhini (Tree Conservation),Maharashtra. He is a Life Member of the Association for Plant Taxonomy (APT) and Indian Association for Angiosperm Taxonomy (IAAT). He is now enjoying his retired life at Ghaziabad (U.P.), though very much concerned with the subject.
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