THREATS AND CONSERVATION SIGNIFICANCE OF CLIMBERS AT ARID LAND, KACHCHH, GUJARAT

Kachchh district falls under the Arid Bio-geographic Zone of the country having distinct oristic and faunal composition due to its distinct climatic condition. Now in recent decades, the changing climatic conditions and several anthropogenic activities have led to the unknowingly loss of several plant species. Climbers are one among the unique oristic compositions of the dryland habitat of Kachchh which are distributed in all types of habitats. With the loss of many of the host species in their natural habitat, climbers are facing threats to their survival at present. Therefore, the study has been carried out to assess various threats on climbers, to mitigate and conserve the native climbers' species of this landscape. Threats on climber's species were made using the rapid threat assessment (RTA) technique. The survey observed different types of threats on climbers, including; habitat loss, intensive resource use, harvesting for food and medicine, infra-structure development, invasion, etc. Among the climber species of the district; Corallocarpus epigaeus, Ipomoea muricata, Tinospora cordifolia as the highest risk, while Bougainvillea spectabilis, Merremia aegyptia, Ipomoea pescaprae has the lowest risk. The study concluded that climbers are an ecologically important ora distributed in all habitats of the district and the intensity of threats was found to vary from species to species and also among the habitats of its distribution. Therefore, suitable conservation measures need to be adopted preferably for the species and habitats which are comparatively facing more threats.