With nearly one lakh sample images, the portal recorded two lakh hits from 55 countries since its launch on July 1; Site to host all herbaria in India by 2024
With nearly one lakh sample images, the portal recorded two lakh hits from 55 countries since its launch on July 1; Site to host all herbaria in India by 2024
With details of nearly one lakh plant specimens, the Indian Virtual Herbarium, the largest virtual database of flora in the country, is generating a lot of interest and is turning out to be a lucrative endeavor. While herbarium specimens are considered important tools for plant taxonomy, conservation, habitat loss and even climate change, Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently described the Indian virtual herbarium as an example of how Digital tools can help us connect with our roots.
In ‘mind matter ’ In the July 31, 2022 episode, the Prime Minister talked about the novel initiative and said that the Indian Virtual Herbarium is an interesting collection of plants and preserved parts of plants. “The Virtual Herbarium also presents the rich botanical diversity of the country. I am confident that the Indian Virtual Herbarium will prove to be an important resource for research on plants in the country,” Mr Modi said.
Developed by the scientists of the Botanical Survey of India (BSI), the Virtual Herbarium of India was inaugurated by the Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupendra Yadav in Kolkata on July 1. Only five weeks after the portal was launched https://ivh.bsi.gov.in There are about 2 lakh hits from 55 countries.
Each record in the digital herbarium includes an image of the preserved plant specimen, scientific name, collection location, and collection date, collector’s name and barcode number. The digital herbarium also includes state-wise data extraction features and users can search for plants from their own states which will help them identify regional plants and create regional checklists.
The portal contains about a million images of herbarium specimens; Director of Botanical Survey of India (BSI), Dr. A.A. Mao said that by the end of this year, the number of digital species would increase to two million. “By 2024, we plan to provide a platform to all the herbalists in the country to showcase their collection of herbs on the platform,” Dr. Mao said.
Scientists say that there are about three million plant specimens in the country along with various herbs that are housed at the regional centers of BSI and the Central National Herbarium located at the Acharya Jagdish Chandra Bose Indian Botanic Garden in Howrah, West Bengal.
“Work on digitization of samples started in 2019, and most of the digitization has been done by BSI. About 52% samples of our type are foreign and were collected from 82 countries of the world during the British period,” said Kumar Avinash Bharti, Scientist, BSI.
The Indian Virtual Herbarium is also deeply associated with the botanical history of the country. The portal provides the most valuable historical collections of botanists like William Roxburgh, Nathaniel Wallich, Joseph Dalton Hooker, who are considered to be the founding fathers of botany in India.
The Digital Herbarium houses some of the oldest botanical specimens that date back to 1696. cyperus processus Was collected near Chennai between 15 and 20 June 1696. the oldest specimen lepidagathis scariosa was collected by Robert Waite in 1817. Type specimens are collections that help in new discoveries and are considered to be of great importance by botanists and taxonomists. Researchers need to examine the types of names to confirm their identity.
As a priority, the Virtual Herbarium of India has digitized the information on its platform with images of 29,615 types of specimens. Herbarium provides information about plants in different categories such as cryptogams (spore plants). Phanerogams (seed bearing plants). Both the groups are again divided into two categories which include genera; Samples and types of samples.
“Virtual Herbarium makes unique images available for free. To access the digital herbarium, it is enough to enter the scientific name of a plant or use one of the advanced search functions. It can be used not only by taxonomists, but also by naturalists, ecologists, molecular biologists, amateur botanists,” said Mr. Bharti. The scientist said that the virtual database is mobile-friendly and users can easily access the details.