Ginkgo biloba a living fossil: Need conservation initiatives

摘要

Himalaya, is known for its rich biodiversity. Due to unique geographical setup, topography and undulant landscape the climatic conditions varied along an altitudinal gradients which attributes diversified ecological habitat ranging from tropical forest, grassland to alpine meadows with vast and diverse natural resources. Unfortunately, due to legal and illegal exploitation from wild, anthropogenic pressure and lack of knowledge about sustainable harvesting of useful bioresources particularly medicinal plants, many of them has listed under the categories of rare, threatened, endangered or at the verge of extinction. A central problem is a continuing loss of biodiversity in the Himalaya, but our knowledge about human dimension of biodiversity is stillrelatively limited. However, there are several medicinal plant species found growing in the region but has not still given priority for conservation due to lack of awareness about their usefulness and potentiahand the Ginkgo biloba Linn, is one of them.