Recovery and restoration of critically endangered plant species entails understanding its autecology, population genetic structure and creation of new self-sustaining populations in the type habitats. Although a large number of plant species of the Western Ghats are critically endangered, little is known about their autecological details, which severely handicap the conservation efforts. In this paper we report on an effort to initiate recovery of a recently described, critically endangered tree species of the fresh-water swamps viz ., Semecarpus kathalekanensis . Several distinct biological features, viz ., high habitat specificity, consistently small population sizes, dioecious breeding system, skewed sex-ratio and recalcitrant nature of the seeds complicate the recovery of S. kathalekanensis . Further, because of restricted gene exchange among the breeding individuals, the populations are suffering from huge heterozygote deficiency. The human induced habitat destruction has further pushed this species into a stratum below the level of criticality. In order to restore the populations, laboratory-grown seedlings were reintroduced into two type localities, as a pilot study, and monitored for two years. S. kathalekanensis responds favourably to artificial transplanting in its typical habitat. Species was successfully established in new localities. We discuss the structure of recovery plans for such critically endangered plant species of the Western Ghats in the light of the present study.

1 Department of Forest Biology, College of Forestry, Sirsi, 581 401, INDIA.

2 Department of Crop Physiology, 3 Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, University of Agricultural Sciences, GKVK, , Bangalore 560 065, INDIA.

4 Ashoka Trust for Research on Ecology and Environment, # 659, 5 th A Main Hebbal, Bangalore 560 065, INDIA

5 Jawaharalal Nehru Center for Advanced Scientific Research, Jakkur, Bangalore 560 065, INDIA.

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