Inventorying bamboo biodiversity of North Bengal: A Case Study

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Year 2012 Vol 1 Issue 1
Document Type : short communication
¹Arvind Kumar Goyal, Prasanta Kumar Ghosh1 , Ajay Kumar Dubey1 ,Arnab Sen*
¹Molecular Genetics Laboratory, Department of Botany, University of North Bengal, Siliguri-734013, West Bengal, India, 1Directorate of Forests, Government of West Bengal, Silviculture (Hills) Division, Kurseong Research Range, Darjeeling, West Bengal, India.
Abstract
Bamboo harboring both herbaceous and woody members has both ecological and economic importance and is included in the Non-timber forest product, but regional assessment is still lacking. North Bengal covers six districts including both hills and plains are rich in biological diversity. It houses different genera having several species of bamboo. Inventory resulted in recording of 34 species of bamboos under the tribe Bambuseae from North Bengal belonging to 13 genera of which 26 species (76.47%) under 8 genera are sympodial type while rest 8 species (23.53%) under 5 genera belongs to monopodial type. In spite of having extensive insufficiency and discrepancies of bamboo taxonomy and distribution, this approach may help in the conservation of this natural resource. Enumeration of different species with botanical name, common name, vernacular name(s), the sub tribe they belong to and the type of rhizome is provided. However extensive study is required to know emphatically about the bamboo diversity of this region.



Keywords
Bamboo, Bambuseae, Diversity, Conservation, North Bengal
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