Valley of Flowers: Need for Conservation or Preservation

The vegetation of the Bhyunder Valley in the Nanda Devi National Park, situated in the Garhwal Himalaya, is unique and abounding in biological diversity. Proper cataloguing of species diversity is important from the point of view of evolving strategies for the conservation of rare and endangered species. Earlier attempts at listing of species suffer from some glaring omissions which have been highlighted in this paper. A wide variety of herbs which presented a marvel of nature's landscaping when in flowering during the period of summer rains and which attracted trackers from all over the world have dwindled considerably in racent years. The authors trace this to the banning of grazing in the valley which has led to overdominance of some faster growing, and taller species resulting in the suppression of a number of less aggressive species. An attempt has been made to underline some factors which might have been responsible for decline in floral diversity.