Chapter 2: Past and Present Work

CHAPTER 2: PAST AND PRESENT WORK

2.1 Past Work

2.1.1 Satara District

Pioneering works on flora of the then Bombay Presidency that also included Satara district have been contributed by Graham (1839), Dalzell and Gibson (1861), Birdwood (1896-1897), Nairne (1897), Woodrow (1897-1901) and Talbot (1894, 1901-1911) and T. Cooke (1901-1908). Cooke has reported a total of 2,337 species, of which, 401 species belonging to 273 genera and 88 families have been reported from the Satara district.

Since the publication of Cooke’s work, a number of taxonomic literatures have been generated in form of monographs and revisions of various plant groups. Blatter and McCann (1926-1935) have revised the Flora of Bombay Presidency in a series of articles that included c. 90 species from Satara district.

After organization of the Botanical Survey of India, Western Regional Centre, Pune in the year 1955, a number of publications on ecology and vegetation of zones of Maharashtra such as Kokan, Desh, Khandesh Marathwada and Vidharbha have been published. Further, many publications giving floristic account of districts of Maharashtra and a comprehensive work on flora of Maharashtra State comprising almost all district of the state including Satara was published in two volumes of dicotyledons and one of monocotyledon by Botanical Survey of India (Sharma, 1996; Singh & Karthikeyan, 2000 and Singh et al., 2001). Contemporary to this work, Almeida (1996- 2014) has published Flora of Maharashtra in six volumes.

Under the district flora series published by Botanical Survey of India, Deshapnde et al. (1993, 1995) have given an account of flora of Satara district in Flora of Mahabaleshwar and Adjoinings enumerating 1,398 species belonging to 697 genera and 141 families. Floristic diversity of Kolhapur, a district adjoining the Satara towards south has been enumerated by Yadav & Sardesai (2002) in Flora of Kolhapur District. 2.1.2 Koyna Valley and Adjoining Areas

Panchgani, Mahabaleshwar and Koynanagar have been identified as important places for the flora (Mahabale, 1987). Flora of Panchgani and Mahabaleshwar is fairly well-studied and has appeared in many publications. Birdwood (1896) firstly have contributed an account of Flora of Matheran and Mahabaleshwar and has been further revised by Razi (1908) and Bole (1981-1983). Critical notes on the flora of Mahabaleshwar and Matheran have been published by Cooke (1896). Puri & Mahajan (1960) published 347 species of Angiosperms and 34 species of Cryptogams from Mahabaleshwar.

Although identified as an important floristic area, Koyna valley still has not been thoroughly studies from botanical point of view. The first record of floristic diversity of Koynanagar area is contributed by Patil (1987) in form of a checklist of 186 species of flowering plant presented in Maharashtra State Gazetteer, Part IV. Patil has also recorded at least 86 species from Koynanagar that are most remarkable elements of the flora and are common to Koynanagar and southern parts of India including North Kanara and Goa.

Kochhar has explored some parts of the Koyna valley during the year 1978- 1979 and collected c. 253 species of flowering plants from the area. Herbarium specimens by Kochhar have been deposited in the herbarium of Botanical Survey of India, Western Regional Centre (BSI). However, no published record of this work is available. Besides this, a few collections from Koyna valley were made by Vartak during the year 1955 and 1956. Herbarium specimens collected by him are deposited in Agharkar Research Institude, Pune (AHMA). Few collections from greater Koyna valley area are available at Blatter herbarium (BLAT).

Bachulkar (1996) has contributed the most comprehensive work on the floristic diversity of this region covering three tehsils viz. Wai, Javali and Patan that also includes some areas of Koyna WLS. This work is presented in his Ph.D. thesis submitted to the Shivaji University, Kolhapur. This work deals with 1452 species of flowering plants (140 cultivated) belonging to 680 genera and 156 families.

The most recent work on floristic diversity of the region is Flora of Chandoli National Park, a protected area adjoining Koyna WLS and forming a part of Sahyadri

Tiger Reserve is contributed by Kavade & Deokule (2015). This work comprises of taxonomic studies of 957 species of flowering plants.

In addition to the floristics, a few studies on the Ecology of Koyna forests were conducted by Ghate (1994, 1997). Jogelkar et al. (2008) have studied Woody species diversity, composition and structure from Koyna WLS. This work was done as part of research project titled, ‘Mapping and quantitative assessment of geographic distribution and population status of plant resources of Western Ghats’ undertaken by Research and Action in Natural Wealth Administration (RANWA) Pune.

2.2 Present Work

The present account of floristic diversity of Koyna WLS is an outcome of intensive and extensive studies on the flora and qualitative ecology of the area for last six years (2011-2016).

2.2.1 Materials and methods

2.2.1.1 Literature Review

During preliminary phase of the study, a checklist of species was recorded from the study area from all types of available published sources such as floras, research journals, project reports, forest working plans, booklets and gazetteers and unpublished sources such as Ph.D. thesis and personal discussions with forest officers and subject experts. An exhaustive literature review was carried out at Botanical Survey of India-WRC; Agharkar Research Institute, Pune; Department of Botany, Shivaji University, Kolhapur; Jaykar Library and Department of Botany, University of Pune.

2.2.1.2 Field Work

The field surveys have been undertaken periodically covering different seasons and different parts of the study area. Field tours were planned to encrust maximum area and in all the seasons. Besides the 2-long tours (5-15 days duration) per year, a few short tours (1-3 days duration) were conducted especially during the monsoon season to study the ephemeral plant species. A total of 24 field tours were conducted during the study period covering most of the area of the sanctuary (Table 2-1; Figure-2-1).

Field work in the Koyna WLS was quite testing by virtue of certain constrains such as no or very restricted access to interior parts of the sanctuary, limited water transport facilities, mountainous terrain, high density of wild animals, extreme climatic conditions and lack of trail, routes and halting stations. Trekking was the indispensable part of the field surveys as no trail routes are present in core areas of the sanctuary. During each of the tours, on an average area of 15-20 km was surveyed per day. As most of the parts of the sanctuary were botanically underexplored, the present study was focused on such forest pockets. During field surveys observations pertaining to forest type, canopy cover, dominant species in the area, forest beat name and number, geographical features if any were recorded. For each of the plant species attributes like habit, habitat, life-form as per the System of Life-form Classification (Raunkiaer, 1934, Cain, 1950), phenological observations, details of floral whorls and members, species-associations, plant-pollinator interactions and other morpho- physical characters which could not be retained in herbarium specimens were recorded in the field data sheet as given in Table 2-2.

For most of the species recorded in field, three healthy twigs in reproductive stages were collected and processed for herbarium preparations. Repeated collections of the same species were avoided but each location of occurrence was noted. Similarly collection of very rare and threatened species was done with extra precaution without disturbing the particular plant or sometimes recorded through photographs and GPS-coordinates. If some plant species is found in vegetative condition the exact locality of that plant was marked and in subsequent tours that particular species was then collected during its flowering period. Photographs depicting habit, flower and other features were clicked for most of the species. Geological point locations and altitudes were recorded using Garmin e-Trex GPS.

Table 2-1: Details of the Field Tours

S. No. Tour period Areas surveyed 1 27-08-2011 to 28-08-2011 Koynanagar, Maldev

2 18-04-2012 to 21-04-2012 Bamnoli, Chalkewadi, Van Kusavade, Patan

3 05-09-2012 to 07-09-2012 Ramban, Ozarde, Koynanagar, Humbarali, Kaeil Plateau

4 10-12.2012 to 17-12-2012 Waghawale, Arav, Akalpe, Pimpri, Bamnoli, Adoshi, Kusapur, Metindavali, Vasota foothills

5 20-02-2013 to 28-02-2013 Kamargaon, Navja, Ramban, Koynanagar, Ghatmatha, Torne, Panchadhara, Ozarde

6 09-03-2013 to 11-03-2013 Vasota foothills, Nageshwar

7 22-04-2013 to 04-05-2013 Karanjwade, Avasari, Koynanagar, Ozarde waterfall, Navja, Ramban, Ghatmatha

8 16-05-2013 to 23-05-2013 Pali, Deur, East Maldev, Uchat, Arav, Shindi, Valvan, Raghuveer ghat, Avasari Dicholi

9 10-08-2013 to 11-08-2013 Ramban peak, Navja Tunnel

10 25-08-2013 to 28-08-2013 Koynanagar, Ghatmatha, Navja, Humbarali, Chital Plateau

11 16-10-2013 to 27-10-2013 Koynanagar ghat, Humbarali, Navja, Manainagar, Ghatmatha, Ozarde, Helvak, Avasari, Pali

12 14-11-2013 to 18-11-2013 Metindavali, Vasota fort foothills, Kusumalata plateau, Rede ghat Khind, Kusapur, Takwali

13 17-01-2014 to 28-01-2014 Pali, Maldev, Kaaranjwade, Jungati, Ozarde, Navja, Vasota fort, Ramban, Helvak

14 18-03-2014 to 24-03-2014 Pali forest beat

15 27-04-2014 to 28-04-2014 Ramban, Ozarde

16 31-05-2014 to 07-06-2014 Ozarde, Shirshinge, Karanjwade, Navja tower, Magzine, Torne, Chital sada, Ghatmatha, Vankusavade, Rambaan

17 21-06-2014 to 22-06-2014 Ozarde, Dicholi

05-07-2014 to 06-07-2014 Navaja tower, Magazine, Chital plateau

18 15-08-2014 to 17-08-2014 Navja tower, Panchadhara tunnel,

Kaeil plateau

19 23-08-2014 to 24-08-2014 Panchadhara, Ghatmatha

20 13-09-2014 to 22-09-2014 Ozarde, Kamargaon-Manainagar, Gokul- Humbarali, Deshmukhwadi, Ainachi wadi, Kaeil plateau, Torne-ghatmatha

21 27-09-2014 to 28-09-2014 Kusumalata plateau, Maldev, Takvali

22 30-11-2014 to 06-12-2014 Metindavali, Vasota fort, Ketakicha odha, Satwali maal, Nageshwar, Khirkhindi, Tambi

23 20-04-2015 to 01-05-2015 Navja, Nechemali maal, Shirshinge, Jungati, Dicholi

24 04-07-2015 to 05-07-2015 Humbarali plateau

Table 2-2: Field Data Sheet

PROJECT TITLE: FLORISTIC ASSESSMENT OF KOYNA WLS

Date: locality: GPS reading: forest type: canopy cover (%):

S. Name of Local Habit Life Bark Bark Sap/ Flower Fragrance K C A G Associations Twig Remarks No. species name form color texture latex color collected Y/N

Figure 2-1: Map showing Plant Collection Localities

2.2.1.3 Herbarium Work

Plant specimens collected on field were tagged and pressed in blotters on the day of collection for partial removal of moisture and next day, the specimens were then transferred to newspapers and bundled tightly for further preservation process. Each bundle is then kept in large polythene bag and saturated solution of FAA [Formalyne (2 parts): Acetic Acid (1 part): Alcohol (Ethanol, 7 parts)] was poured into it and the bag was sealed. Precaution was taken to make the bundles leak proof. These bundles were opened up after one month of the collection and then the

7 specimens were again transferred to blotters and changing was done at regular intervals till the specimen gets completely dry.

The herbarium specimens were identified with the help of regional floras such as T. Cooke, 1967; S. D. Deshpande et al., 1993; Pascal & Ramesh, 1997; N. P. Singh & Karthikeyan, 2000; N. P. Singh et al., 2001; S. R. Yadav & Sardesai, 2002 and other publications like monographs, revisions or research articles. The identified species are further confirmed by matching the specimens with herbarium deposited Botanical Survey of India, WRC (BSI). In addition to referring the in-house herbarium at BSI, a total seven herbarium consultation tours were undertaken to study the herbarium specimens at Blatter Herbarium, Mumbai (BLAT), Herbarium of Shivaji University, Kolhapur (SUK), Central National Herbarium, Kolkata (CNH) and Agharkar Research Institute, Pune (AHMA).

Herbarium specimens available in BSI, which are collected from the Koyna WLS by the previous workers, mainly, R. K. Kochhar (1978-79) were digitized for future studies and ready reference. At least 508 herbarium sheets of 223 species collected from Koyna WLS were scanned during this study.

All the herbarium specimens prepared during the course of study have been deposited in the BSI.

2.2.2 Plan of the Thesis

The orders and families have been arranged as per the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classiﬁcation of ﬂowering plants: APG IV (2016). For large and complex families including Poaceae, Fabaceae and Apocynaceae, the families have been further classified into subfamilies and tribes as per the recent concepts. In the family Poaceae, a few taxa that are still unranked as per the APG IV system have been arranged at the end of family. The genera under each family and species under each genus are arranged alphabetically in account of ease. Bracketed keys have been furnished for families, subfamilies, genera, species and infraspecific taxa, which are artificial and largely based on exomorphic characters. The key to the families has largely been adopted from S. R. Yadav & Sardesai (2002) with slight modifications as per current concepts. Cultivated species have not been included in the keys to genera and species and are arranged at the end of respective families.

The nomenclature of plants has been updated applying ICN (McNeil et al., 2012) and largely checked from The Plant List website (www.theplantlist.org). For each species, currently accepted botanical name and basionym if any, have been given with complete citation. Synonyms whenever found necessary to connect the name with Flora of British India, Flora of Presidency of Bombay, Flora India, Flora of Mahabaleshwar and Adjoinings, Flora of Maharashtra (M. R. Almeida), Flora of Maharashtra State (BSI), Flora of Kolhapur District, Flora of Chandoli National Park and revisions or monographs have been given. The names of authors and titles of publication have been standardized as per the IPNI website (www.ipni.org/index). Local names in Marathi are given in italics and in inverted commas after the citation.

The species are described primarily based on morphological characters, followed by flowering and fruiting period, habitat and frequency, references to illustrations and information on distribution, exact locations within the sanctuary, the remark on endemism, if any, has been given. The specimens collected from Koyna WLS and those deposited in various herbaria which were studied, have been cited in ‘Exsiccatae’. Under ‘exsiccata’, exact locality, date of collection, name of the collector and field numbers are given. If there are more than one specimen cited in the ‘exsiccata’, then they are arranged in chronological order. All the specimens cited without herbarium acronym indicate that they are deposited in BSI. Any special observations and nomenclatural information if any are given under notes.

Throughout the present work, decimal and metric systems have been used while dealing with measurements. Maps, figures and tables presenting various data in connection with the work are given at the pertaining places. Maps depicting plant collection localities, overall and family wise distribution of endemic species are prepared using open source QGIS software (version 14.1). For maps and data procured from secondary sources, the information source is mentioned as footnote to the respective data. Color photographs of selected species depicting habitat, reproductive stage, ecology and vegetation have been provided. For many of the photographs, the reproductive stage is presented as an inset of the photograph depicting habitat of the species. Bibliography of selected references comprising those which have been cited in the text and consulted during the course of study is given.