Exploration of Orchid Species : First Annual Biodiversity Camp of Neora

Crossref, Index Copernicus International (ICI), Directory of Research Journal Indexing (DRJI), Scientific Indexing Services (SIS), CiteFactor, Present paper deals with available Orchid species resources with field availability status and habitat including phenology during field survey and medicinally important species during First Annual Biodiversity Camp of Neora Valley National Park, under Gorumara Wildlife Division, West Bengal, India. Total 53 Orchid species were available during 10 days field survey. Out of these, 45 were epiphytic and the rest 8 species were terrestrial species. Detail status of the species discussed in the paper.


INTRODUCTION
The study area selected is Neora Valley National Park exists within Darjeeling Himalayan region of Kalimpong district of West Bengal, India (Plate 1) covers a total area of 88km 2 and the most undisturbed area of the state.It is rich in biodiversity located in the Eastern Himalaya and notified as a National Park in the year 1992.Sikkim and Bhutan are the boundaries of this national park and entire forest is virgin in nature and natural habitat is still conserved.The altitude varies as low as 170m from Samsing foothills to as high as 3200m Rachela hill.Neora valley national park is situated between the 26 0 52'3" and 27 0 7'35" north latitude and 80 0 45'to 80 0 55'east longitudes (Plate 2).Orchids comprise 25000 to 30000 species distributed throughout the world and are used as ornamentals, food, aphrodisiac, religious beliefs and as medicine.Orchids are interesting group of flowering plants belong to the family Orchidaceae which is highly evolved among the monocotyledons (Yonzone, 2015).They exhibit incredible diversity in colour, shape, size, structure and fragrance of flowers and four different life forms viz., subterranean, saprophytic, terrestrial and epiphytic and are pretty admired among the professional and amateur Orchid lovers of the world and are important both botanically and commercially.In India, the Eastern Himalaya is the centre of Orchids, followed by Western Himalaya and the South Indian hills.The Khasia hills in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and the Sikkim and Darjeeling Himalayas are richest in Orchid flora in India (Yonzone & Rai, 2016).North East India constitutes an Orchid hotspot and show maximum diversity in the Eastern Himalaya.Of the total Orchid species found in India nearly 70% found in North East India.

OBSERVATIONS & RESULTS
Extensive field survey has been conducted by a team and recorded all the necessary observations.Plant photographs, geographical position, specimen collection and herbarium specimen preparation done at laboratory.List of species confirmed are noted below with their availability status.Field availability status of these epiphytic species was observed during the field survey and noted as eighteen (18) were rare, two (02) were common, fifteen (15) were sparse, four (04) were frequent in distribution and six (06) species were threatened epiphytic species.
Whereas, in terrestrial orchid species only one was sparse in, four (04) were rare and three (03) were considered as threatened category.
Some microclimatic condition of the region favour the survive of some terrestrial orchid species like Zeuxine spp., Calanthe spp., Cremastra spp., Goodyera etc. and availability of suitable host tree favour the luxurious growth of many epiphytic orchid species like Agrostophyllum spp., Bulbophyllum spp., Dendrobium spp., Eria spp., Gastrochilus spp., Vanda etc. species mainly in subtropical, temperate and subtemperate zones of the region.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Author is thankful to Sri Ujjal Ghosh, IFS, Chief Conservator of Forests, Wildlife North, West Bengal, India for his guidance and support during the First Annual Biodiversity Camp at Neora Valley National Camp, Gorumara Wildlife Division, West Bengal, India.Author also wish to acknowledge all the resource persons and wildlife officers present at the camp and helped directly or indirectly.

Plate 2 .
Map of Neora Valley National Park with three camps viz., Asholay Camp, Mochuki Camp and Doley Camp were used to authenticate the species during the camp as well as the Laboratory of the Orchid Society of Eastern Himalaya, Orchid Propagation and Conservation Centre, Kalimpong Circle, Kalimpong.The present paper revealed the availability status and habitat of Orchid species within surrounding areas of 3 different Camps of Neora Valley Plantae Scientia (ISSN 2581-589X) https://plantaescientia.website/ojs National Park, Kalimpong, Wildlife Wing, West Bengal, India in details.

Table 2 :
List of Terrestrial Orchid Species