Bioscience Discovery, 8(3): 588-591, July - 2017

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Research Article

Status of some plants in Sacred Groves of taluka, and their comparative account with surrounding areas

Thete A M and P P Sharma

Research Center in Botany Shri Muktanand College, Gangapur, Aurangabad ()

Article Info Abstract Received: 10-04-2017, Sacred groves are forest areas of natural vegetation devoted to deities on the Revised: 22-06-2017, basis of religious faith has assumed enormous importance from the point of view Accepted: 28-06-2017 of anthropological and ecological considerations. Studies were conducted in sacred groves from in . For the quatitative Keywords: analysis of selected medicinal plants quadrate method is used. A total of 65 Sacred groves, medicinal species recorded during the study. Present paper deals with evaluation of these plants, status, Ahmednagar, two sacred groves for status of plant species inside and in adjacent areas of the . grove and quantitative assessment of medicinal plants diversity and comparative floristic account.

INTRODUCTION objective of the present work is to assess status of Adoration of nature has been a prehistoric selected medicinal plants in and around sacred Indian custom and all forms of existence have been groves. believed as sacred. Further there was a general Sacred groves can be considered as the outset among the early people that religious element living museums of plant life, might have occurred was actively at work in places of natural beauty. several decades back or centuries back in the Hence forest patches have been sacred and they region. Hence, sacred groves have a great considered that these forests are the house of spirits consequence from the point of view of plant and gods. The ancient people believed that the conservation because they contain some important sacredness emotionally involved with the living and plant species that have been lost in the surrounding nonliving entities ensured their protection and areas. perseverance. Now a day, when forests are being Unfortunately, most sacred groves in region depleted at alarming rate due to several reasons, the are fast vanishing due to the pressures of traditional belief system of conservation of forests development and the changing attitudes and values through sacred groves can be considered as last of the communities that safeguarded them. Taking parts of the forests of particular region. However, into consideration several workers have done customary values seems to be slowly eroding with remarkable work throughout India. However, there the dawn of modernity, urbanization, increasing are few works from Ahmednagar district sacred ambition of the individuals for a better way of life groves by Deshmukh, (1998 &1999); Gaykar and this change resulting in the damaging sacred (2010); Thete & Sharma, (2015, 2016 & 2017). groves. Nizarneshwar Sacred grove is located in The sacred groves protect numerous taluka of Ahmednagar district.It includes total area medicinal plants of great value not only for the of about 7.4 acres and lies between 180 57’north primary health care of the village people, but latitude and 730 43’ east longitudes. important in modern pharmacopoeia as well. The http://jbsd.in 588 ISSN: 2229-3469 (Print)

Thete and Sharma Selected species which have medicinal value and It is one of the holy places. This place is famous for are of commercial importance based on published Lord temple. Local people believed that the literature and observations in the field. stream have transported the holy stone (Linga of Conducted studies after choosing the spots with Lord Shiva) and later the people built a temple on desirable plants found, and assessment done the site of holy stone, thus the place of pilgrimage employing quadrate method. of Nizarneshwar created. The temple is constructed Quadrate Size - 100 x 100 meters – for woody near the original spring where water float naturally species (Trees and Shrubs), and therefore it is called spring of god of 1 x 1 meter – for herbaceous species, Nizarneshwar. Studied at least 5 quadrates per site and 5 sites per During the present work 56 medicinal sacred groves. plants are short listed, whole plants or parts of them The plant specimens were identified using regional are being used commercially, individually, etc. for floras like Flora of Bombay Presidency (Cook, preparation of medicine. Nizarneshwar Sacred 1958). Flora of Ahmednagar district (Pradhan and grove considered for studying status of these plants Singh, 1999), Flora of Maharashtra state by assessing frequency of occurrence of these plants Dicotyledons vol -.I (Singh and Karthikeyan, 2000) in and around sacred grove. and vol. -II (Singh et al., 2000) and MATERIALS AND METHODS Monocotyledons (Sharma et al., 2000), were used.

Table No. 1: Quantitative assessment medicinal plants

Sr. No Botanical Name Individual in a quadrates Total no of Occurrenc quadrats in e which (Frequenc species y) 1 2 3 4 5 occurred % 1. Abitulon indicum (L.) Sweet - - - 04 07 2 40 2. Abrus precatorius L. 05 12 09 02 05 5 100 3. Acacia nilotica (L.) Del. 01 02 - - 01 3 60 4. Achyranthes aspera L. 01 - 03 - - 2 40 . 5. Aegle marmelos (L.) Co - 02 05 - 03 3 60 6. Aloe vera L. - - - 02 03 2 40 7. Alstonia scholaris R.Br. - - - 01 03 2 40 8. Amarantus spinosus L. 04 10 02 - - 3 60

9. Asparagus racemosus Willd. var. javanica 02 01 02 - 03 4 60 Baker. 10. Azadirachta indica A. Juss. - - - 06 04 2 40 11. Bacopa monnieri Penn. - - 10 - - 1 20 12. Barleria prionitis L. 02 13 23 07 02 5 100 13. Bauhinia variegata L. 02 - - - 04 2 40 14. Boerhavia repens L. var diffusa 04 05 04 - - 3 60 15. Boswellia serrata Roxb. 02 06 01 - 03 4 80 16. Bridelia retusa (L.) Spreng. - 05 - 03 - 2 40 17. Butea monosperma (Lam.) Taub. - 01 02 - - 2 40 18. Cassia auriculata L. 02 02 05 - 03 4 80

19. Caesalpinia bonduc (L.) Roxb. - - - - 03 1 20 20. Cassia fistula L. 02 05 02 - 02 4 80 21. Celosia argentea L. 05 07 02 03 09 5 100 22. Citrus limon (L.) Burm. - - - 2 - 1 20 23. Clitoria ternatea L. - 09 02 07 - 3 60 24. Curculigo orchioides Gaertn. 01 - 03 01 - 3 60 25. Datura metel L. - 01 - 04 - 2 40 26. Desmodium gangeticum (L.) DC. - - 25 15 - 2 40 http://biosciencediscovery.com 589 ISSN: 2231-024X (Online)

27. Eclipta prostrata (L.) L. - - 15 10 - 2 40 28. Emblica officinalis Gaertn. 02 - 03 - - 2 40 29. Euphorbia tirucalli L - 01 - - 02 2 40 30. Gmelina arborea Roxb. - - - 01 04 2 40 31. Gymnema sylvestre (Retz.) R. Br. - 04 05 02 02 4 80 32. Helicteres isora L. - - - - 03 1 20 33. Hemidesmus indicus (L.) Schult. 02 05 07 02 - 4 80 34. Holarrhena pubescens (Buch-Ham.) Wall. ex - 03 04 - 02 3 60 G. Don Gen. 35. Jatropha curcas L - - 09 - 09 2 40 36. Lawsonia inermis L. - 09 - - 03 40 37. Madhuca longifolia (Koen.) Mac Bride. var - - 04 02 01 3 60 latifolia (Roxb.) Chev. 38. Mangifera indica L. - - - 02 03 2 40 39. Ocimum basilicum L. 04 - 08 02 - 3 60 40. Plumbago zeylanica L. - 02 10 - 03 3 60 41. Ricinus communis L. - - 04 05 07 3 60 42. Rubia cordifolia L. - - 04 - 01 2 40 43. Semecarpus anacardium L. f. - 02 - 03 - 2 40 44. Sida cordifolia L. 02 09 - 05 07 4 80 45. Syzygium cumini (L.) Skeels 01 01 01 02 02 5 100 46. Tamarindus indica L. - - 01 05 - 2 40 47. Tephrosia purpurea Pers. 01 02 - 10 09 4 80 48. Terminalia belerica (Gaertn.) Roxb. 02 04 - - - 2 40 49. Terminalia chebula Retz. - 01 - 01 - 2 40 50. Terminalia cuneata Roth 03 - 02 07 04 4 80 51. Thespesia populnea (L.) Soland. ex Corr. 03 - 02 07 04 4 80 52. Tinospora cordifolia (Willd.) Miers ex Hook. 02 12 14 09 14 5 100 f. & Thoms. 53. Tribulus lanuginosus L. - 03 - 04 03 3 60 54. Tridax procumbens L. 03 04 - 01 - 3 60 55. . Withania somnifera (L.) Dunal. - 02 25 12 - 3 60 56. Xanthium indicum Koen. 10 - - - - 1 20

The assessment of some selected medicinal since long as sacred groves. Following are the plants from Nazaraneshwar sacred grove resulted in plants found in all quadrates studies i.e. occurrence unique information about status of plants in the of which is common. The plants Ab, Abrus region. Some of these plant species are over precatorius L. Barleria prionitis L. , Celosia exploited for commercial purposed and may face argentea L., Syzygium cumini (L.) Skeels, threat of extinction if care is not taken. Total 56 Tinospora cordifolia (Willd.) Miers ex Hook. f. & plants have been considered for study which are Thoms. While plants like Bacopa monnieri Penn., having commercial value and being used as Caesalpinia bonduc (L.) Roxb., Citrus limon (L.) medicine at local level or being utilized for Burm., Helicteres isora L.are found in few preparation of medicines by local traditional quadrates studied. healers and industries. The plant diversity in sacred groves is good The investigations and analysis of data as compared to the neighboring areas and quite revealed that the plant diversity in sacred grove is obvious that these are protected patches. But this rich than its adjacent regions. Sacred groves seems plant wealth should be retained and the same plants to be the isolated forest pockets; while the needs to be reintroduced in the other parts of neighboring area hold up very scanty and disturbed district. vegetation cover. Most of these plants occur in considerable Acknowledgements: large numbers in side sacred groves than that of the Authors are thankful to the Principal of the college outside regions may be due to the area protected for constant support and encouragements.

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Bioscience Discovery, 8(3): 588-591, July - 2017 REFERENCES Singh NP and Karthikeyan S, 2000. Flora of Cooke T, 1901-1908. The flora of the Presidency of Maharashtra State: Dicotyledones, Vol. I Bombay, London 2 Vol. (Repr. ed. 1958. Vols 3, (Ranunculaceae to Rhizophoraceae). B.S.I., Govt of India. Howrah. Deshmukh S, Gogate MG and Gupta AK, 1998. Singh NP, Lakshminarasinhan P, Kartikeyan S Sacred groves and biological diversity: providing and Prasanna PV, 2004. Flora of new dimensions to conservation issue. Pp. 397-414, Maharashtra State; Dicotyledones Vol. II, in: Ramakrishnan, PS, Saxena, KG and B.S.I., Howrah. Chandrashekara, UM (eds.) Conserving the Sacred Thete AM & Sharma PP, 2015. Ethno Medicinal for Biodiversity Management. UNESCO and Survey of Vrudheshwar (Ghatshirus) Sacred Grove Oxford-IBH Publishing, New Delhi. from Pathardi Tahsil in Ahmednagar District. The Deshmukh SV, 1999. Conservation and South Asian Academic Research Chronicle. Vol II development of sacred groves in Maharashtra. Issue 12: 1-14 . Final report of the World Bank aided Project Thete AM & Sharma PP, 2016. Studies on Some submitted to the Department of Forests, Medicinal Plants Occurring In Sacred Groves of Government of Maharashtra; Bombay Natural Ahmednagar District, Maharashtra, Scholars World History Society (BNHS), Mumbai. , Special Issue VI, 29( 2). Pp. 29-32. Gaykar BM, 2010. Biodiversity Conservation in Thete AM & Sharma P P, 2017. Status of Some Forest Pockets of Ahmednagar district, Flora and Medicinal Plants and their Comparative Account Fauna: Vol. 20: Pp. 7-34. with Surrounding Areas from Sacred Groves of Malhotra KC, Gokhale Y, Chaterjee S and Ahmednagar District, Maharashtra. Indo-Asian Srivastava S, 2001. Cultural and Ecological Research Reporter (IARR), Issue III; Vol. V: Pp. Dimensions of sacred groves in India. INSA, New 75-82. Delhi. Waghchaure CK, Tetali P, Gunale VR, Antia Pradhan, SG, Singh, NP, 1999. Flora of NH and Birdi TJ, 2006. Sacred Groves of Ahmednagar District (M.S), Bishen Singh Parinche Valley of Pune District of Maharashtra, Mahendra Pal Singh, Dehradun. India. India and their Importance, Anthropology & Sharma BD, Karthikeyan S and Singh NP, 1996. Medicine: 13 (1): 55-76. Flora of Maharashtra. Monocotyledons. B.S.I. Publication, Calcutta.

How to Cite this Article: Thete A M and P P Sharma, 2017. Status of some plants in Sacred Groves of Akole taluka, Ahmednagar and their comparative account with surrounding areas. Bioscience Discovery, 8(3):588-591.

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