Uttarakhand Releases Report On Conservation Of Endemic, Threatened Floras

Uttarakhand has become the first state to release a unique report highlighting its conservation efforts to save over 1,100 rare plants from extinction.
Conservation of endemic species is considered to be particularly important as they exist in one geographical region only.
As per the report, the main aim of this project is also to promote conservation of plant species among the general public so as to end ‘plant blindness’, a term coined by US botanist Elisabeth Schussler and James Wandersee in 1998 – meaning inability to see or notice plants in one’s own environment.
It is because of ‘plant blindness’ that most of the conservation efforts, public attention and funds are diverted into conservation of glamorous mega fauna species like tiger and elephants, there by completely neglecting plant conservation despite the fact that they play much more important ecological role.