Track 4-1-1: Plant Genetic Resources, Collection, Conversation, Evaluation and IPR Issues
Description
Rann of Kachchh in North West India is a unique saline marshy desert. It is described as "a desolate area of unrelieved, sun-baked saline clay desert, shimmering with the images of a perpetual mirage"(Mountfort et al., 1991) and is regarded as the largest salt desert in the world. In the Indian part it stretches in 7505.22 sq. km known as Great Rann and 4,953 sq. km known as Little Rann. The Ranns turns into marshy land by inundated water from runoff during monsoonal rainfall and water driven by forces of winds and tides from Arabian Sea making the area unapproachable especially during June to September and in reminder of months the area remain as a hyper saline desert. Even at these extreme saline conditions certain halophytic plants come up from the native seed bank/ roots once the water gets evaporated as these plants possess some mechanisms to survive salinity even higher than that of sea water (Goswami et al., 2014). Some of these plants are grazed by livestock of the area. Due to uncontrolled grazing by ever increasing livestock population and increasing demand for fuel wood, in these deserts the natural diversity of these halophytes are at stake (Arndt et al., 2004). Information on the diversity of halophytes in the hyper saline desert in relation to varying degree of salinization is not available. Therefore the present study was undertaken to study the distribution of halophyte grasses and non-grasses in Great Rann of Kachchh and their usefulness as fodder resource.
Included in
Wild Halophyte Plants as Potential Fodder Resource under Extreme Saline Environment of Kachchh, Gujarat, India
Rann of Kachchh in North West India is a unique saline marshy desert. It is described as "a desolate area of unrelieved, sun-baked saline clay desert, shimmering with the images of a perpetual mirage"(Mountfort et al., 1991) and is regarded as the largest salt desert in the world. In the Indian part it stretches in 7505.22 sq. km known as Great Rann and 4,953 sq. km known as Little Rann. The Ranns turns into marshy land by inundated water from runoff during monsoonal rainfall and water driven by forces of winds and tides from Arabian Sea making the area unapproachable especially during June to September and in reminder of months the area remain as a hyper saline desert. Even at these extreme saline conditions certain halophytic plants come up from the native seed bank/ roots once the water gets evaporated as these plants possess some mechanisms to survive salinity even higher than that of sea water (Goswami et al., 2014). Some of these plants are grazed by livestock of the area. Due to uncontrolled grazing by ever increasing livestock population and increasing demand for fuel wood, in these deserts the natural diversity of these halophytes are at stake (Arndt et al., 2004). Information on the diversity of halophytes in the hyper saline desert in relation to varying degree of salinization is not available. Therefore the present study was undertaken to study the distribution of halophyte grasses and non-grasses in Great Rann of Kachchh and their usefulness as fodder resource.
