Forest Survey of India (FSI), founded in June 1981 and headquartered at Dehradun in Uttarakhand, is the Government of India Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change organization which conducts forest surveys, studies and researches to periodically monitor the changing situations of land and forest resources and present the data for national planning, conservation and sustainable management of environmental protection as well for the implementation of social forestry projects.
Azadirachta indica (Neem) is miracle tree cultivated in Indian subcontinent for around 4500 years ago owing to its medicinal and pesticidal significance due to its potential life saver phytochemical ingredients and have traditionally been used as folk medicine to treat ailments and as an agrochemicals. Despite several research confirmed that Neem includes a range of active components, a thorough compilation of references and in-depth analysis of the phytochemical profiling, pharmacological potential, traditional applications, agrochemical agents, and industrial uses of this amazing tree is lacking till date. This review attempted to compile an exhaustive review pretaining to systematic research on phytochemistry, biological properties, phytotoxic qualities, and industrial uses that have been compiled from an exhaustive literature search (1921-2025). Evidences from literature suggested that neem tree has similar to 186 biologically active ingredients especially 'Azadirachtin' isolated from neem plant parts. According to reports, the other bioactive substances with potential biological and medicinal properties are nimbinin and nimbidin. Many Asian and African nations have made commercial utilization of neem for the production of neem-based agrochemicals, pesticides for agriculture and extraction of beneficial compounds for the cosmetics industry. These compounds had an immense potential to treat a number of chronic diseases in plants and animals. The future research is being directed towards utilization of neem for biosynthesis of large-scale production of nanoparticles for theraptutic activities and environmental amelioration.
Forest fire is one of the greatest calamities that arise throughout the summer in Uttarakhand. Studying the key elements of a forest fire prevention strategy can assist to prevent long-term, severe environmental fire damage. In addition, forest fire management can be done by understanding the correlation of several relevant criteria responsible directly and indirectly for the occurrence of forest fires. The current study incorporates multi-criteria decision-making method (MCDM) techniques such as TOPSIS, EWM, and CRITIC to examine the most effective criteria responsible for the forest fire of Uttarakhand province, India. As per results obtained from TOPSIS + EWM and TOPSIS + CRITIC methods are the same. Criteria C3, C16, and C2 were found to be more effective while the criteria C11, C10, and C8 were depicted as less effective criteria for forest fire management.
Tree distribution has been considered crucial to assess the relationships between species occurrence and changing climate across the globe, and accordingly in designing the conservation action plans. Therefore, it becomes imperative to understand the most influential parameters for tree species distribution and its regeneration pattern. We used National Forest Inventory data collected in Western Himalaya (WH) and environmental parameters to reveal the aforesaid relationship and pattern. Three topographical factors (altitude, aspect, and slope), four major climatic variables (temperature, temperature seasonality, precipitation and its seasonality) and four edaphic factors (soil depth, soil humus, soil consistency and soil coarse fragments) were considered. The results indicated that the altitude and temperature were the major determining factors followed by temperature seasonality in shaping the distribution of major tree species in WH. The study also indicated an upward shift of regenerating individuals of these tree species toward higher altitude. These information about the extent of current tree distribution and their regeneration over the last one and half decade might help in systematic conservation planning and monitoring tree range dynamics under climate change scenario.
Erythrina anoopsinghii K.C. Mohan (Fabaceae), a new species from the Deccan Plateau (India) is described and illustrated. Morphologically, it resembles E. suberosa and E. carcicola but differs from them in having a greyish brown, corky bark, longer stipules (10–15 mm), simple inflorescence with 20–30 flowers, shorter pedicel (2–2.5 mm), and small curved pod, turgid in the middle, 5–5.8 cm long. A key to the Indian species of Erythrina is provided.
