Erstwhile Bihar, lying close to the foot hills of Nepal and covering an area of 1,73,877 sq km, harbours a very rich and diverse flora. Its unique phytogeographical position, topography and good precipitation are some of the important factors which are mainly responsible for high degree of plant diversity. The occurrence of different types of forests, ranging from subtropical to tropical and consequently the establishment of three National Parks and twenty Wildlife sanctuaries in the state, which constitute an important source of germplasm, are of considerable interest. Although the state has been botanically surveyed since 1848 and the Flora was published during 1921-1925 which included Bihar, Orissa and parts of West Bengal, but the complete Flora of Bihar itself is not in hand. Simultaneously, the natural vegetation since Haines’ publication has been continuously and increasingly under pressure owing to developmental projects including mining activities and non-judicious exploitation of plant resources. These reasons coupled with the publication of a number of new plant records for the state warrant the need of fresh estimation of current status of floristic account n the state. The present work is an attempt in this direction to provide the status of the Flora of the state. It is hoped that this publication will be highly helpful to the botanists, especially taxonomists, environmentalists, foresters, agriculturists, horticulturists, pharmacologists and planners in their research and management programmes. Further, this will also fulfill our commitment to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
ABOUT THE AUTHOR K.K. Khanna
K.K. Khanna, Ph.D., is a Scientist in the Botanical Survey of India, Central Circle, Allahabad. He joined B.S.I. in 1979 and since then he is actively working on Taxonomy, Floristic Diversity, Plant Conservation and Ethnobotany. He has widely surveyed various areas of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh. Dr. Khanna is associated with a number of Scientific Societies and has been honoured with Fellowships of Indian Phytopathological Society and Society of Ethnobotanists in 1982 and 1995 respectively. He has published more than 135 research papers and review articles in National and International Journals and contributed a numbr of families in the Flora of Madhya Pradesh. He has authored four books and edited same number of books including the Flora of Madhya Pradesh.
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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