Floristic Diversity and Ethnobotanical Studies of Nandha Gopalasamy Hill Temple Sacred Grove of Western Ghats, Pollachi Taluk, Coimbatore

The present study was carried out in the sacred grove Nandhagopalasamy temple (Fig 5) of Pollachitaluk, Coimbatore district. The grove is considered to be rich in diversity various plant species. A total of 53 species belongs to 28 families have been recorded and tabulated. Out of which 7 species belongs tofamily Fabaceae followed by 6 families belongs to Malvaceae were with most number of species (Table 3). The sacred grove Nandhagopalsamy hills was recorded 53 species along with 17 trees,12 Shrubs, 20 herbs and 2 climbers (Table 2). As per distribution 31.37 percentage trees and 41.17 per cent of herbs has been recorded (Table 1, Fig 4). Some of the important medicinal plants like Ficus retusa, Erythroxylon monogynum, Acalypha fruticosa were also seen.







Based on the medicinal properties and information collected from the indigenous tribal people out of 53 speceis 18 were administered externally and 35 herbs were administered internally. The study included survey on medicinal plants in all the sacred groves (Fig 6). The medicinal property is also categorized into two major parts. Some of the plants are given internally and some are given externally to treatment diseases. The similar study was conducted previously on sacred groves to assess the medicinal plant resources and centers of key stone species like Ficus for conservation of plant species through various methods (Whittaker, 1965; Jeeva et al., 2005; Jeeva et al., 2007).



The works of Hemrom and Yadav, 2015 it is agreed withthe present study that the preliminary survey on sacred groves insists importance on cultural and social criteria of a community. It is also found that unique vegetation and found components dedicated to local deities. The study on sacred grove vegetation indicates the pre-existence of climax vegetation in the area (Gadgil and Vartak 1974). The present survey also showed that herbs are more dominant followed trees and shrubs respectively. The floristic distribution of sacred grove was not similar throughout the study area. There are manyvariability in the formswere also noted due to diverse climatic and light intensity received by the vegetation. The view very much accepted by previous workers Sukumaran et al., (2018) and Drude, (1980). They emphasized the dependency of life forms due to climate, adaptation of plant to the environment and even the primary and micro climate. The works of Meher Homji 1974 justified that present study as plant life forms are related to the environment conditions the biological spectrum denotes the existing environment in a ecosystem. It is also found that the most dominated family is Malvaceae followed by other families are also reported. The present survey clearly depicts that grove is most important due to its floristic diversity andalso plants with rich medicinal properties. It is also necessary to reduce the anthropological pressures to conserve the flora of the sacred grove. The conservation measures may be implemented in the form of in situ and ex situ conservation. The present documentation work will be very useful to conserve traditional knowledge Patwardhan, 2021. Carefully designed ecotourism initiatives (centered on sacred groves), where culturally appropriate and traditional health care systems integrated along with careful commercialization of traditional food systems can form a viable example of incentive based conservation approach.

The study clearly showed that Nandhagopalasamy hill  temple of Pollachi Taluk located in Southern Western Ghats rich in floristic diversity including many herbs, shrubs and tree components. The present survey showed that 53 plant species with medicinally important and few key stone species. The study also reveals the medicinal plants used by the indigenous and local people and also anthropological pressures on wild plants. Floristic inventory and diversity status help us understand the species composition and diversity status of forests. The area should be taken care as much as possible to conserve the plant diversity and ultimately the forest. The present documentation work will be very useful to conserve traditional knowledge. The present work will be a good resource to those who pursue the research on biological science and the study gains its importance towards declaring such areas as Community conserved areas under Biodiversity act.