2021, Vol. 9, Issue 4, Part A

Kargil lies in the Trans-Himalayan region between 32°15`- 34°56`N latitude and 75°35`- 76°57` E longitude covering a geographical area of 14,086 Km2 has a vast diversity of aromatic and medicinal plants. The traditional uses of medicinal plants to cure various ailments in the Kargil district have been practiced from ancient times. The present study was conducted to validate the information on ethnobotanical studies of some threatened medicinal plants in the region and local people’s perception of its population decline. Therefore extensive field survey was conducted in a different region of district Kargil of Ladakh UT from May 2015- September 2020 to observe the habitat, altitudinal ranges, flowering, traditional uses of threatened medicinal plants, and the factors which are operating for the depletion of these important taxa from their natural habitat. Interviews were conducted in Local languages from more than 1000 informants as the corresponding author is a native of the study area. A total of 22 threatened plant species (21Angiosperms, 1 gymnosperm) belongings to 17 genera, 14 families were traditionally used tribal peoples of the valley to cure various ailments. Most of the threatened taxa belong to the family Ranunculaceae followed by Asteraceae. From local people’s perception, land-use change, illegal exploitation, and the selling of plant parts in the black market are the worst threat to the depletion of these species.

Significance Statement: The flora of Ladakh is crying for Conservation due to factors such as climate change, bio-piracy, smuggling, pre maturation harvesting pressure, poverty, unemployment, human interference which leads to their extinction in the near future. Therefore it’s very pertinent to develop conservation strategies and adopt Sustainable utilization practices. For this mass awareness programs on sustainable utilization and conservation of these threatened medicinal plants need to be conducted by involving various stakes-holders, universities, colleges, schools, and other various government and non-governmental organizations.