Kerala State Biodiversity Board 1 Floral diversity of Armed Police Camps A rapid in Kerala - assessment Kerala State Biodiversity Board E-mail: [email protected] web: www.keralabiodiversity.org Chairman Dr. S.C. Joshi IFS(Retd) Project Investigators Dr. B. Sandhya IPS Investigators Dr. Venugopalakrishna Kurup Dr. N.P Sureshbabu Dr. T.A Suresh Field work Sujith V. Gopalan Design & Data Compilation Praveen.KP Plant Taxonomy expert Prof.T.K Dineshkumar @Kerala State Biodiversity Board 2017 ISBN: Published by: Dr. S.C. Joshi IFS(Retd) Chairman Kerala State Biodiversity Board E-mail: [email protected] web: www.keralabiodiversity.org Floral diversity of Armed Police Camps A rapid in Kerala - assessment Foreword i Preface ii Acknowledgement iii Introduction vi Habit, Status & Distribution for Plants 3 Index to Scientific names 123 Index to Malayalam names 127 Index to Common names 136 Index to Campwise distribution 139 References 147 PREfacE Dr.V. BALAKRISHNAN Member Secretary Kerala State Biodiversity Board ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The moral support and interest shown by Dr. Suresh.C. Joshi IFS (Retd.) Chairman, Kerala State Biodiversity Board (KSBB), Dr. Oommen V. Oommen, Former Chairman, KSBB, Dr. Dinesan Cheruvat, Former Member Secretary, KSBB, Mr. Lokanath Behera IPS, Director General of Police, Kerala and Dr. B. Sandhya IPS, Addl. Director General of Police, South Zone, Kerala Police, are acknowledged with due respect. The financial support of the study by the Kerala State Biodiversity Board is gratefully acknowledged. We also thank the police officers of various police camps in Kerala for their immense help and support. We also place on record the services of Dr. Venugopalakrishna Kurup, Principal, NSS College, Anakkara P.O, Palakkad District Dr. A.K Pradeep, Department of Botany Calicut University and Prof. T.K. Dinesh Kumar, taxonomic expert and Mr.Sujith V. Gopalan, Project Associate, KSBB for their immense help for the completion of the book and the India Biodiversity Portal and efloraindia for sharing high resolution images. Also, extending our thanks to Shri. Praveen.KP, Graphic designer, Dr.C.G. Pradeep Post Doctoral Fellow in the Kerala State Biodiversity Board. iii FOREWORD Member Secretary Kerala State Biodiversity Board iv INTRODUCTION Biodiversity is a most precious gift that nature has provided to human beings to meet his basic requirements. Extensive plant and animal diversity have a crucial role in the sustainable existence of the biosphere. Human and other animals depends on plants for food, protection, medium timber, fibre, water etc. directly and life supporting ecosystem services indirectly. In fact, plants are in a way the most important component of the various ecosystems and are responsible for sustainable existence of other micro flora and fauna. Study of plant diversity in a region is an indicator of ecological health of that particular region. In this context, floristic studies are an inevitable process not only to understand the health and status of biodiversity but also to safeguard the ecological assets of an area by implementing conservation actions. The first step in ascertaining plant diversity of a particular area is to catalogue them in to systematic taxonomic methods. Once the details of existing plant biodiversity is analyzed in terms of their ecological and economical importance, they can be further categorized into Rare, Endangered and Threatened (RET) species, key stone species or medicinal, commercial and highly valuable species. India, a large mass of land about 329 m ha in area, is the seventh largest and the one among the 12 mega biodiversity countries of the world, and supporting two of the 35 global biodiversity hot spots (the North- eastern Himalayas and the Western Ghats). India, having 2.4% of global area with 12.5 % of floral diversity, and has about 18,664 taxa of vascular plants with 5725 endemics. Since the publication of the “Flora of British India” between 1872 to 1897, over 3,400 species have been added to the flora of the Indian Territory. Despite being mega biodiversity centre management of biodiversity has not received adequate attention from the Governments and society in India. However, this richness of biodiversity is not uniformly distributed in the country. Assessment above most of the biodiversity is concentrated in the two biodiversity hot spot regions. Besides, with in these regions, anthropogenic factors have further lead to lost and degradation of biodiversity in various places. Consequently, into the present times though broad biodiversity rich regions are identified the extent and the nature of biodiversity these regions to other regions largely dependent on management, of various ecosystems. Accordingly, these ecosystems such as forests in general and national parks and sanctuaries in particular which are managed on the basis of time tested rules and plans, which are still having biodiversity rich areas andare less affected by anthropogenic factors. However, many ecosystems such as mangroves, sacted groves, river banks, coastal areas etc. Are under various degrees of degradation due to inadequate management systems. It is due to this reason, that biodiversity sometimes noticed in unexpected places. Few such places are well managed are army areas, other uniform services institutes like police, border security force, armed battalion etc. Kerala State Biodiversity Board v Background of the study In Kerala, due to special attention provided by successive heads of certain institutions of Police, Armed police, Special Police forces in their campuses rich biodiversity is noticed. For ensuring maintenance and creating awareness about the existing biodiversity in these institutions one of the IPS officers, Dr. B. Sandhya, Additional Director General of Polices had requested Kerala State Biodiversity Board to undertake study of mapping vegetation of various police camps and battalions. Accordingly, during this year from 2017 to 2018 Kerala State Biodiversity Board has undertaken vegetation mapping o the following camps and battalions; Kerala Police Academy (KEPA) Kerala Police Academy (KEPA) inaugurated established in 2004. KEPA is headed by Director in the rank of Inspector General of Police. The Academy runs full-term basic courses for sub-inspectors, constables, women constables, drivers and telecommunication wing constables. It also runs short-term courses and in-service courses for various ranks. Spread over an area of 348 acres (1.4 km²), the Academy is designed to have a capacity of training 1950 trainees of various ranks which is one of the highest in India. Built at a cost of Rs. 220 million, the Academy has indoor training facility to train 1200 people at a time, a main parade ground of 7.5 acres and a sports complex ground of 3.5 acres. The Academy has got a 300 yards firing range. The MT school of the Academy can train 300 drivers at a time. There is also a police dog training center and kennel which can train 18 dogs at a time. Kerala Police Academy is the main training centre of Kerala Police. The Academy will cater to the training needs of all officers of police department including IPS officers. Kerala Police Academy gives training in Management, Traffic, Communication, Computers, Swimming, driving, Transport and Forensics. Seminars and workshops on topics of current relevance are conducted. Kerala State Biodiversity Board vi Kerala Armed Police I (KAP I) KAP I battalion is situated at Ramavarmapuram in Thrissur district. This battalion lies in between Kerala Police Academy and Armed Reserve camp in Thrissur. Government sanctioned the formation of a battalion designated as Kerala Armed Police for the central range with Headquarters at Thrissur under the control of Deputy Inspector General. The battalion consists of one Headquarters company and six active companies. The existing land area is nearly 11 hectares with wide range of plants. Kerala Armed Police II (KAP II) Kerala Armed Police II (KAP II) battalion is situated at Muttikulangara, in Palakkad District which is 10 km. away from the Palakkad Town. This battalion is one among the outstanding battalions which was formed in 1974. This battalion is performing its duties in the areas of maintaining law and order, crowd control, general election inside and outside the State, duties at communally disturbed areas etc. The main objective of this battalion is to assist local police in maintaining law and order in the society. The feeder districts of this battalion are Thrissur and Palakkad. The Commandant is the Chief of a Battalion and who is assisted by the Deputy Commandant and Assistant Commandants in administrative matters. Kerala State Biodiversity Board vii Kerala Armed Police II (Detachment) Kerala Armed Police II battallion has a detachment camp at Nilambur (KAP II detachment) in Malappuram District. This is located in the area of Nilambur forest division, and on the banks of river Chaliyar. Earlier this camp was the sub camp of Malabar Special Police and the land for this camp was provided on lease by the Nilambur forest division in 1925. Later, during 1976 after the formation of KAPII battalion, MSP handed over this camp to KAP II battalion. Since then this camp was maintained and operated by the KAP II battalion as its detachment camp. The proposed land area of this camp is about 8.66 hectares (21.4) acres. Kerala Armed Police V (Detachement) The Kerala Armed Police thV battalions located in Maniyar, Pathanamthitta district, spread in an area of 9.40 hectares, which is