CHAPTER 2 Review of Literature The Western region of Nfaharashtra is known for the extreme diverse ecological habitats and geographical features (Bawa et ai, 2007). The region has distinct climatic zones separated from each other by mountain barriers and thus has different vegetation patterns. The Western Maharashtra is divided in to 3 major regions, namely, Konkan, Sahyadri (Western Ghats of Maharashtra) and Deccan Plateau. Each region has its own biodiversity with a dominance of a species particularly suited to the habitat it occupies (Mahabale, 1987). Two distinct features of Western Maharashtra are ‘Ghats’ and ‘Hill forts’ all along the ranges of Sahyadri (Singh and Karthikeyan, 2000). The forts are historically important and play a paramount role; one in the foundation, expansion and preservation of ‘Maratha’ power and the second in sustaining unique type of vegetation and ecosystems on and around them (Santapau 1951, 1958, 1967, Billore andHemadri, 1972; Naik, 1998). The study of vegetation on forts is important as these places are unique from geographical point of view and are reservoirs of vegetation and lithophytes. Various ecosystem services rendered by the forts remain pretermitted over the period of time. Each fort has significant contributions in the form of different vegetation patterns, species diversity and variations in the ecosystems. Very few notable attempts were made to carry out the vegetation patterns on forts and the ecosystems around them (Birdwood, 1899; Santapau, 1951, 1958, 1967; Vartak, 1953, 1957, 1983; Cherian and Pataskar, 1971, 1972; Billore and Hemadri, 1972; Naik, 1998; Bhat, 2004, Mathad and Shrishail, 2008; Shrishail and Mathad, 2009). Exploratory work in India and Maharashtra Various workers significantly contributed for exploration of the floristic wealth of India and Maharashtra (Birdwood, 1886, 1887; Cook, 1901; Blatter, 1909, Santapau, 1958, 1960, 1967; Kulkami and Wadhawa, 1973; Kulkami and Thite, 1979; Karthikeyan and Sharma, 1983; Sane, 1983; Bole and Almeida, 1984; Kulkami, 1984, 1988; Almaida, 1987, 1998, 2001, 2003; Pascal, 1988, 2004; Deshpande, 1993, 1995; Kothari and Moorthy, 1993; Sharma et al, 1996; Singh and Karthikeyan, 2000a, 2000b; Patil, 2003; Pradhan, 2005;). The exploratory work of vegetation on hills and forts in Sahyadri Mountains, on scree, species mapping and ecological Page I 11 studies of vegetation patches, evaluation of ecosystem services (Groot 1992, 1994; Bingham et al, 1995; Bawa and Gadgil, 1997; Bhat et al, 2001; Groot et al. 2002; Muthramkumar, 2006) were critically reviewed to elucidate the theoretical background of the present research work. Vegetation studies in Maharashtra have been started by modem scientific ways in 18'*’ century (Singh and Karthikeyan, 2000). Gammie (1903); Bharucha and Ferreirav (1941); Joshi and Kumbhojkar (1997); Watve (2001) and Waghchaure (2006) commented on the regional ecology and ecosystem of Pune and nearby areas of Pune. Many floras, checklists, monographs and revisions of floras from India have been published. The preliminary exploratory work done by Hooker (1872-1897) and his colleagues ultimately resulted in the preparation of major plant lists for different areas of India. The Western Ghats of India (WG) is a biologically rich area and one of the mega biodiversity hotspots of the world (Mittemeier, 1998, 2004). It was regionally studied by many authors. Major plant inventories for Southern Western Ghats (SWG) of India are published in the form of various regional floras, such as. Flora of Tamilnadu (Nayar and Henry, 1983-89; Gamble and Fisher, 1916-1936;); Kerala (Sreekumar and Nair, 1991; Sivarajan and Mathew, 1997; Matthew, 1999; Anil Kumar et al, 2005; Daniel and Umamheshawari, 2001; Mohanan and Sivdasan, 2002; Manickam and Irudayaraj, 2003; Daniel, 2005; Nayar, 2006; Nayar and et ai, 2008; Fyson, 2008; Remadevi and Binoj Kumar, 2009; Shanavas and Sivadasan, 2009) and Karnataka (Arora et al, 1981; Sharma et al,. 1984; Ganeshaish et ai, 2002, 2003; Manjunatha et ai, 2004). The plant exploratory work for Northern Western Ghats (NWG) of India and adjoining area has been enumerated in various regional floras as well as in district floras of Maharashtra and Goa (Graham, 1837; Dalzell and Gibson, 1861; Birdwood, 1887, 1896; Naime, 1894; Woodrow, 1897-1901; Lisboa, 1890- 1898; Cooke, 1901; Talbot, 1911; Blatter and McCann, 1926-1935; Santapau, 1953, 1967; Vartak, 1966; Almaida, 1983-1986, 1987, 1990, 1998, 2001, 2003; Rao, 1985, 1986; Kulkami, 1988; Laxminarsimhan, 1991; Kothari and Moorthy, 1993; Deshpande er a/., 1993, 1995; Sharma ef a/., 1996; Naithani ef a/., 1997;Jagtap, 1997; Singh and Karthikeyan, 2000; Mishra and Singh, 2001; Yadav and Sardesai, 2002; Patil, 2(X)3; Pradhan and et ai, 2005; Chaudhary et ai, 2(X)8). Karthikeyan (1996) and Hajra et al. (1997) have published a detailed account of the Northern Western Ghats and Northern West coast with reference to species diversity. Page I 12 The exploratory work added many new records for Western Ghats of India since 2000, of which, most of the species are recorded from Southern Western Ghats (Ravi and Mohanan, 1997, 2002; Ravi, 1998; Kumar et al, 1999; Kumar and Sequiera, 1999; Murthy et al, 1999; Ravikumar, 1999; Sasidharan and Augustine, 1999; Suresh and Sukumar, 1999; Gopalan et al., 2000; Janarthanam et al., 2000; Murthy, 2000; Ravi et al., 2000a, 2000b, 2001; Santosh Kumar et al., 2000, 2001a, 2001b, 2002a, 2002b, 2008; Sunil and Sivadasan, 2000; Veldkamp and Salunkhe, 2000; Anto et al., 2001; Chaudhary and Pandey, 2001; Satish Kumar and et al., 2001; Vishwanathan and Manikandan et al., 2001; Vishwanathan et al, 2002; Bhat, 2002; Biju, 2002; Jothi, et a l 2002; Prasanthkumar et al, 2002; Santosh Kumar et al, 2002; Sunojkumar and Matthew, 2002, 2008; Fonseca and Janarthanam, 2003; Matthew and Mathew, 2003; Murugan et al, 2003; Salunkhe et al, 2003; Sivadasan and Jaleel, 2003; Pusalkar and Singh, 2004; Shaju and Mohanan, 2004; Anupama and Sivadasan, 2005; Vijaya Sankar et al, 2006; Kumar Ambrish, 2007; Murugan et al, 2007; Muruganesan and Balasubramanium, 2007; Sasidharan and Sujanpal, 2007; Udayan et al, 2001\ Choudhary et al, 2008; Nayar and et al, 2008; Santosh Kumar, 2008; Sunoj Kumar and Matthew, 2008; Veldkamp, 2008). Very few records from NWG as compared to the SWG were added since 2000 (Yadav et al, 2005, 2006, 2010; Tetali et al, 1998, 2000; Gaikwad et al, 2002, 2004; Punekar et al, 2003; Gaikwad et al, 2004; Datar et al, 2005; Sardesai et al, 2006; Shimpale et al, 2007; Potdar and Yadav, 2008; Yadav et al, 2009). Some of these records were from the Protected Areas, Sacred Groves and from hilly regions of the Western Ghats. Although the forts are the parts of Sahyadri Mountain, few attempts were made to determine the floristic wealth sustained by them. Previous Research on Vegetation of Forts Forts distributed in Western Maharashtra are the unique features of the Western Ghats. Most of them are at hilltop location in Sahyadri Mountains or at peculiar locations on ground or in sea. The initial exploratory work on forts was done by Ansari (1960). He visited forts like Sinhagad, Purandhar and other adjoining areas and described many new species especially of the genus Ceropegia. Santapau (1951) made some additions to the species on Sinhagad fort. Later, Santapau (1958) enumerated all phanerogamic plants in ‘Flora of Purandar’. Vartak (1953, 1957, 1983) explored vegetation on forts like Toma, Sinhagad and Raigad forts. Billore et al Page I 13 (1972) studied on plant diversity from Harischandragad fort and surrounding areas in Junnar. Janardhanan (1966) recorded 838 species from Bhimashankar and surroundings which include the data of Bhorgiri fort. Sinhagad, Purandar, Toma, Bhorgiri and Harischandragad forts are present in Pune District whereas Raigad fort is in Raigad District of Maharashtra {http.raigad.gov.in/DG/1964/aboutkulaba.html). The forts and surrounding area from Junnar were studied by Billore and Hemadri (1972). Santapau (1953); Kulkami (1976); A lr^ d a and Mistry (1987); Alm^da (1990); Deshpande (1993, 1995); Billore (1972); Santapau (1951) partially assessed forts like Koraigad, Rajmachi, Raireshwar in Pune district; Makarandgad, Pratapgad, Vasota in Satara district; Manohargad, Mansantoshgad, Narayangad and Mahadeogad in Sindhudurg district with reference to vegetation. The forts like Saptashringi, Markandya, Ravlya-Javlya and Dhodap are present in Surgana-Harsul ranges in Nashik district were also evaluated for their floristic diversity (Cherian and Pataskar 1969a, b, 1972, 1982). Yadav et al. (2009) reported Elaeocharis from Panhala fort, Kolhapur on Western Ghat. In some cases, hills were studied as an ecosystem (Birdwood, 1899; Blatter, 1909; Venkatareddi, 1969, 1970; Joshi and Kumbhojkar, 1997, 1998; Sane, 1983; Gadgil, 1979; Prabhakar and Gadgil, 1994; Bhat et al., 2001). Although exploratory work has been done, very few workers rarely commented on the ecological aspect of vegetation, ecosystem and ecosystem services rendered by the forts. Few workers published ecology and vegetation of Pune district (Puri and Jain, 1959-1960; Puri and Patil, 1960), Konkan (Jain, 1959), Mahabaleshwar (Puri and Mahajan, 1960), Mangrove vegetation of Western India (Patil, 1957; Puri and Jain, 1957). Most of these observations were based on preliminary survey and taxonomical exploratory work. Endemic and Threatened Species To understand patterns of distribution and conservation requirements, shrub and herb diversity, rarity and endemism of trees