Unique herbarium at Kashmir University preserves natural heritage

Srinagar: What if Chinars cease to exist and you have no seed to grow?

Be at ease, there is a place from where you can revive every kind of tree that grows in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.

On the western end of the Kashmir University encompassing enchanting gardens, hot houses, different plants, and colourful flowers is varsity’s Botany department.

In the department’s adjunct ‘Centre for Biodiversity and Plant Taxonomy’, is a herbarium that houses specimens of trees and plants from across the Himalayan region.

There are 2000 herbariums-infrastructure to store plant specimens- across the world, out of which three are in J&K.

While University of Jammu and the University of Kashmir both accommodate each, the third is at the Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine (IIIM, Jammu).

But what makes the one in Kashmir stand out is its collection of specimens, established in 1972, the collection dates back to 1891, the earliest of which were collected by the British.

However, Kashmir had no such facility to house these specimens in that period, so the discovered and assembled parts were kept in Dehradun Herbarium in Uttarakhand.

The British collectors had then made a promise to relocate these specimens back to the Valley after a Herbarium in the region was established, says Akhtar.H.Malik, Junior Scientist and Curator of Kashmir Herbarium at the department of Taxonomy, University of Kashmir.

In 1981, the Herbarium received global recognition and was abbreviated as KASH, says Malik even as he screens a plant on his computer behind his desk on which files are stacked on the one side and a Jasmine flower vase stands alone on the other.

Dr. A.R.Naqshi was the first curator of Kashmir Herbarium.

Two wooden doors open to a large hall on the first floor opposite Malik’s office, the scent of benzene and naphthalene balls fills the air inside.

On the far left corner are traditional steel-lockers while the centre is accommodated with modern ‘movable compactors’ both housing precious and unique specimens.

These compactors were installed last year under the Fund For Improvement S&T Infrastructure (FIST) grant, says Malik.

Specimens are segregated on the basis of their botanical relations inside these compartments, says Malik as delicately as he handles these indispensable samples.

While there were only 500 specimens when KASH was established, it has since increased 12,000 fold, accommodating a total of 60,000 today, making it the third largest herbarium in the Western Himalayas, Malik says.

There are 36 biodiversity hotspots across the world and Himalaya is one of them. “Be it a decade or a century-old tree, we can restore it using these specimens,” explains Akhtar.

But if the trees are still around then why are specimens in KASH indispensable, you would ask?

A comprehensive research by Malik and his other scientist comrades has established a significant change in trees and overall vegetation due to changing climate patterns, especially those found along the alpines of Himalayas.

The research suggests the change in the richness of plant species even as their quality is found differing with respect to the slopes they are present.

While the study is making scientists and experts worry, availability of original and rich specimens give them some comfort.

However, these specimens, if grown, wouldn’t serve the purpose significantly due to the current environment and climatic situation, they say.

Till date, 78 new species of plants have been discovered by KASH, the specimens of these species have a privilege of being stored in a different chamber consisting of wooden drawers, each containing one specimen.

“I am receiving emails from across the globe asking about the endemic plant species because Kashmir Himalayas has rich repository of these ,” says Malik, who himself has collected 9000 specimens of different vegetation from J&K and Ladakh.

Based on the amount of requests globally to study the region’s plantation, an official web portal to access these specimens is in the offing and would probably be live from the next year, Malik said.

In Addition to region-based specimens, the herbarium also has collections from foreign countries, which Malik says were received in a ‘specimen exchange program’.

Herbariums across the globe have specimens in surplus and this exchange is done of these collections present in adequate quantities, explained Malik.