Ganderbal, June 15: Department of Botany, Central University of Kashmir (CUK) organized an online lecture on “Role of ethnobotany in sustainable uses of plant resources” by Prof. A K Jain, School of Studies in Botany, Jiwaji University.
Speaking on the occasion, Vice Chancellor Prof. Prof Mehraj ud Din Mir said that Jammu and Kashmir is famous for its plant diversity and there is a lot of scope for research in various fields of plant sciences. He hoped that the lecture would act as an inspiration for the students and faculty members.
Guest speaker, Prof. A K Jain gave a detailed overview of ethnobotany and stressed on its role in sustainable uses of plant resources. He highlighted the relation of humans with plants and importance of biological and cultural diversity for world sustainability. Prof. Jain stated that this is the old branch of science and has lot of historical importance, adding that plants were used by humans since times immemorial. He said that “all plants on earth have medicinal value and tribal people have a lot of knowledge about ethnobotany.” “The indiscriminate collection of plant material lead to their extinction and we have to adopt different strategies used by the tribals for conservation of our plant resources like sacred grooves, conservation through faith, sacred plants in religion etc.” He highlighted the role of ethnobotany in germplasm collection and other related aspects.
Dean School of Life sciences, Prof. Muhammad Yousuf, thanked the speaker for elaborative and thoughtful lecture and underscored the need of organizing more such lectures for the students and scholars. He highlighted the need of this branch of Science and how it can be useful during the ongoing pandemic.
Prof. Azra N Kamili thanked Prof. Jain for the informative lecture and said that it must have left a deep impression on the minds of students and other participants. She said that more than 200 participants attended the lecture including those from states of Kerala, West Bengal, Sikkim, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh etc.
In his address, Head Department of Botany, Dr. Abid Hamid Dar emphasized the need to conserve the plant resources by using techniques for the sustainable use of the plants and for utilizing them in the best possible way. He said this geographical region has a lot of potential in exploring the plant sciences and emphasised that over exploitation of plants like Podophyllum hexandrum has led to the situation that its presence has dramatically gone down in this region of the country.