Time to conserve the genepool of endemic forest trees of Manipur

Thounaojam Monica Devi, Neekee Thangjam
Biodiversity hotspots are the regions considered to exhibit a high level of endemism of the native species. Since Manipur maintains a large number of endemic species, it is one of few states in North East India where the boundaries of two biodiversity hotspots (i.e., Himalaya (Eastern-Himalaya) and Indo-Burma) overlap. Manipur, with a total geographical area of 22327 km square, maintains 77% of the area under forest cover (SFR (State of Forest Report) 2021), including Tree Outside Forest (TOF), with 74.34% recorded forests. Manipur has a total recorded forest area (RFA) of 17,418 sq. km, out of which 984 sq. km comes under Reserve Forest (RF), 3,254 sq. km under Protected Forest (PF), and 13,180 sq. km under unclassed forest. In terms of forest canopy density classes, the state has 905 sq. km under very dense forest (VDF), 6,228 sq. km under moderately dense forest (MDF), and 9,465 sq. km under open forest (OF). The database on tree diversity, Global Tree Search (GTS), reported 3708 tree species in India, of which 877 tree species (23.65%) are found in Manipur. Among these tree species of Manipur, 609 (69.44%) are endemic, and 347 (39.56%) are in the threatened category of IUCN’s Red Data List.
Data shows that roughly 40% of the state's endemic trees have already been vulnerable to different selection pressures. In recent years, the forests of the state, harbouring unique genetic diversity of forest resources, have been facing critical threats due to anthropological pressures, for example, expansion of the population, (To be contd)