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FrontMatter BiodiversityOfTheHimalayaJammuKashmir
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Volume 18
Series Editor
Prof. David L. Hawksworth, Ashtead, Surrey, UK
Springer’s book series, Topics in Biodiversity and Conservation, brings together
some of the most exciting and topical papers in biodiversity and conservation
research. The result is a series of useful themed collections covering issues such as
the diversity and conservation of specific habitats or groups of organisms, and the
key dilemma of resource use versus conservation.
Based on Springer’s popular journal, Biodiversity and Conservation, the series
provides access to selected peer-reviewed papers which represent the cutting edge
of current research to provide a valuable overview of progress in each topic
addressed. With their diversity of case studies and depth of investigation, these
collections will be of particular interest for courses including biodiversity and/or
conservation issues, and to advanced students and researchers working in related
fields.
This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721,
Singapore
Foreword
v
vi Foreword
Perhaps, the book can garner support to conserve the incredible biodiversity and
beauty of the State. A desire to combat environmental challenges that pose a greater
threat to human security than political ones can usher a new era of peace for the
people and the biodiversity around them, regaining a paradise lost a generation or
two ago.
Since the earliest humans settled there, it has been obvious that the State of Jammu
and Kashmir (J&K) is incredibly rich in different kinds of plants and animals, an
endowment that has come to be known as biodiversity. This richness was surely one
reason for the Mughal emperor Jahangir’s calling Kashmir a “paradise on Earth,” a
factual depiction of its biological wonders among other very special features of
structure and environment. In modern times, we have come to ask about quantitative
assessment of this biological richness of the State as a whole. A good deal of scien-
tific work on biodiversity has been conducted in J&K State over the years, but no
adequate summary of rich information contained in the hundreds of papers and
books dealing with the subject has yet been offered. To do just that is what this book
is for.
Collectively, biodiversity has become a widespread and fundamentally important
human concern. Just after the concept was developed, some 50 years ago, it became
generally known that the humans are wholly dependent on the living world and that
the elements that make it up, species, are disappearing at a speed unprecedented for
tens of millions of years. It has come to be known that the more comprehensive the
knowledge of local biodiversity, the better strategies a country or region can develop
for its socioeconomic development.
The flora and fauna of J&K State have been studied by many workers for over
two centuries, with the numerous results scattered widely in such publications as
journals, books, checklists, newsletters, conference and workshop proceedings, and
miscellaneous reports. Many of these are out of print or rare and difficult to obtain,
making the task of summarizing the information they contain all the more difficult.
Difficulties of this sort encountered in the course of our taxonomic studies provided
the impetus for our attempt to bring it together in a single, convenient, and authentic
source of information on what is known about the J&K State’s biota. This turned out
to be a much larger job than we had first envisioned and has taken some years to
bring to completion.
The opportunity to attempt this major task presented itself when Prof. G. H. Dar
(senior editor) was selected for the Mahatma Gandhi Chair on Ecology and
Environment at Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University, Rajouri (J&K), in 2012. It
vii
viii Preface
was here that he undertook the preparation of this book on the biodiversity of J&K
State as one of the Chair’s intents. To provide an accurate impression of the biodi-
versity of the whole (pre-partition/pre-1947) J&K State, it was decided early on to
include areas of the State beyond its current political borders. Also, to provide per-
spective in which to view our local biodiversity, the book was decided to begin with
general chapters dealing with the world, national, and Himalayan biodiversity. In
the context of these broad chapters, it was framed to have chapters dealing with
details of floristic and faunal diversity of the State. Accordingly, relevant chapters
dealing with various aspects of biodiversity and treatments of individual taxonomic
groups were identified to be contributed by selected experts in those areas from our
region and abroad. We provided a format to these experts and requested that they
complete their chapters within a specific time frame. Since experts residing in
Pakistan-administered parts of the State either could not be contacted or did not
respond, their potential contributions could not be included. Almost all of the other
experts whom we did contact agreed to contribute chapters to this work, but unfor-
tunately it did not prove possible for some of them to do so timely.
During the course of this prolonged process, Prof. Dar’s tenure as holder of the
Mahatma Gandhi Chair came to an end, and for a time the work on this volume was
suspended. Ultimately, it became possible to resume the effort at the University of
Kashmir, with Dr Anzar A. Khuroo as the co-editor. Once this had been accom-
plished, pending chapters were reassigned and those received screened for appropri-
ateness to be included in this volume. The selected chapters were edited, revised one
or more times, appraised further in 2017–2018, and then prepared for publication.
The main aims of this book are to acquire, collate, and document all the available
taxonomic information about the rich biota of the J&K State and to assess its rich-
ness and the degree to which it is unique to our area. Starting with a general over-
view of biodiversity at the global and national levels, we have dealt in detail with the
ecosystems of the region, the genetic diversity of some select taxa, and the species
diversity in algae, fungi, lichens, plants, and animals, as well as in some individual
taxa, known there. Then the overall threats to biodiversity of the State are consid-
ered, followed by presentation of the effectiveness of conservation efforts made
here. To cover all these aspects, we have organized the book into 42 chapters
arranged in seven parts.
Part I comprises a general introduction to biodiversity and its usefulness, our
aims in this treatment, and a summary of all the chapters that follow. Part II reviews
the biodiversity of the world, of India, and of the Himalaya regionally. The four
chapters of Part III sequentially present a vivid overview of J&K State, a general
account on its vegetation, and descriptions of its forest and aquatic ecosystems. Part
IV includes three chapters devoted to the genetic diversity of a few select groups of
plants and animals. Part V, the largest part, deals in 14 chapters with the diversity of
plants, algae, and fungi. The first seven of these (Chaps. 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, and
19) review what is known of local diversity in algae, fungi, lichens, bryophytes,
pteridophytes, gymnosperms, and angiosperms. Some important features of the
angiosperms of the State are emphasized and presented in the following seven
(Chaps. 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, and 26) chapters; these deal, respectively, with
Preface ix
The editors are thankful to all the contributing authors (totaling 87), for their valued
contributions to this book. Special thanks are due to the book series editor of Topics
in Biodiversity and Conservation (Springer Nature) Prof. David L. Hawksworth for
his useful comments and kind suggestions about the book. We applaud Dr. Kamaljit
Singh Bawa, Distinguished Professor, Department of Biology, University of
Massachusetts, Boston, USA, for writing a heartening foreword to the book and
Prof. Peter H. Raven, President Emeritus, Missouri Botanical Garden, USA, for his
encouragement all along this work. Prof. S.I. Ali, University of Karachi, Pakistan,
is greatly thanked for his help with some literature. Thankfulness is due to Prof.
Talat Ahmad, Vice Chancellor, University of Kashmir, for providing working
facilities to the editors during the final phase of this work. We are grateful to Prof.
Irshad Ahmad Hamal and Prof. Javeid Musarrat, ex- and present Vice Chancellors
of BGSB University, Rajouri (J&K), for their encouragement. Prof. Zafar Ahmad
Reshi, Dean Research, University of Kashmir, and Prof. B.A. Wafai, former Director
of the Centre for Biodiversity Studies (CBS), BGSB University, provided some
fruitful suggestions and help, for which we cheer them. Prof. Dar is thankful to the
Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC), Government of
India, New Delhi, for sponsoring the Mahatma Gandhi Chair on Ecology and
Environment which he held at BGSB University, Rajouri, from 2012 to 2015, during
which period work on this book was initiated, and to the staff associated with CBS
for their help during the initial phase of this project. Dr. Anzar acknowledges the
support from various sponsoring agencies, SAC-ISRO, Ahmedabad, and MoEF&CC
and SERB-DST, New Delhi, which has helped in undertaking biodiversity surveys
across the state over the last decade. The help received in one way or the other from
Mr. Akhter Husain Malik, other staff members, and research scholars at the Centre
for Biodiversity and Taxonomy, University of Kashmir, is fittingly acknowledged.
Prof. Dar also thanks his sons (Dr Tanvir-Ul-Hassan and Sameer-Ul-Hassan),
daughter (Dr Rubiya) for their help in computerization and designing of illustrations,
and his wife (Zareena) for her forbearance during the long course of this work. Dr.
Anzar thanks his parents, wife (Mohsina), and kids (Adeena, Sufwan, and Mansha)
xi
xii Acknowledgments
for allowing him to use precious home and holiday time on this work, which was
otherwise their share. The editors thank M/S Springer Nature and their diligent
team, especially John Ram Kumar, Mamta Kapila, Raman Shukla, and last, but not
the least, Keerthiga Kaliaperumal for undertaking the arduous job of p rocessing,
proofing and printing this huge volume. Lastly, no work can ever claim to be
complete and error free, and same is true for this work too. Therefore we request
potential readers to share their precious inputs and valuable feedback with the
Editors.
Contents
xiii
xiv Contents
Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1097
Editors and Contributors
xvii
xviii Editors and Contributors
Contributors