THREATS AND CONSERVATION

The pteridophytes in general are moisture and shade loving plants. Where humid and damp conditions prevail on the land we find greater congregations of them. As humid places and water bodies are prioritized by humans for settlements, farming, power generation, setting up of industries etc. most sensitive pteridophytes tend to vanish from such regions. The conversion of humid forests in large scale into monoculture plantations of teak, acacia, eucalypts, rubber etc. has caused massive eliminations of hygrophilous pteridophytes. Factors like climate change, increasing urbanization, encroachment of forest lands, unplanned developmental activities etc. pose major threats to especially humidity and shade loving ferns. Due to felling of trees in the forests the members of epiphytic pteridophytes belonging to the families Polypodiaceae, Davalliaceae, Aspleniaceae, Vittariaceae etc. were reported to be reduced substantially by Dixit, (2000). Large scale collection of ferns from the forests by the visitors and local people for ornamental purpose, medicinal purpose and during excursions also increases the pressure on these plants. For saving hygrophilous ferns from en-mass destruction, their habitat conservation is of paramount importance. By declaring primary forest relics of Western Ghats, the Myristica swamps and dipterocarp forests, for instance, as ‘Heritage Sites’ or Conservation Reserves, bulk of the germplasm of most humid tropical ferns of Western Ghats can be preserved. The conservation of the humid and shaded habitats along with their gamut of flowering plants is an outstanding necessity for conservation of non-hydrophytic, perennial pteridophytes, more so with increasing northern latitudes in Western Ghats with progressive decline in rainy months. As knowledge on pteridophytes as such is sorely lacking among the public in general, their conservation is difficult, necessitating need for awareness programmes for holistic habitat conservation, which is a more sensible exercise to do in this regard.