Flora of Kolhapur District

Rio Earth Summit held in 1992 emphasized the need to conserve the biodiversity of globe, especially the tropics. The meaningful conservation of biodiversity involves a thorough understanding of the flora and fauna of the region. Thus, taxonomy is the fundamental reality of biodiversity, which creates the need for recognizing, comparing, classifying and naming millions of organisms that exists in the world. It is realized that there is an urgent need to document the biological diversity for sustainable development. Kolhapur, the south-most district of Maharashtra state is an irregular belt of deccan plateau lying along eastern side of westernmost main crest of Sahyadris. The main ranges of Sahyadris, their spurs and valleys, plateaus and plains form important botanical pockets of high biodiversity. In Maharashtra, it is probably the richest district in its biodiversity. Moreover, Kolhapur attained the status of an important center of learning that caters to the needs of all the classes and communities of the region. Shivaji University was established in1962 at Kolhapur to cater to the educational needs of essentially the rural districts of South Western Maharashtra. Inspite of luxuriant vegetation, rich biodiversity and center for learning, the district remained botanically little known. Therefore, floristic work on the district was initiated in year 1985. The present flora is an outcome of continuous fieldwork and studies for the last 15 years on flowering plants of the district. The flora presents an up-to-date floristic account of flowering plants of Kolhapur district. A total of 2227 species, 5 subspecies and 30 varieties belonging to 1023 genera and 182 families of flowering plants have been recorded and described in the flora. Three maps, 100 text figures, 194 colour photographs in 50 plates are included in the book. It is a comprehensive and dependable source of information on flowering plant species of the region Nomenclatural changes have been updated in the book. It is hoped that the book will be of use to students and teachers of biology, agriculturists, ecologists, environmentalists, foresters, medical practitioners economists, sociologists, industrialists and persons interested in flowering plants of the region.