Biodiversity scenario, conservation management and environmental sustainability in Bangladesh M. Atiqur Rahman Department of Botany, University of Chittagong, Chittagong 4331, BangladeshEmail: atiquerahman125@hotmail.com

Key words: Biodiversity scenario, conservation status, environmental sustainability, Bangladesh.

AbstractThe flora of Bangladesh was initially a part of the then flora of British India until 1947 and there after flora of Pakistan until its independence in 1971. The plant biodiversity in Bangladesh has been analyzed since William Roxburgh, the father of Indian Botany, who for the first time in 1814 listed c.766 species of angiosperms in his Hortus Bengalensis from Chittagong, Sylhet and other parts of Bengal. Thereafter Nathanial Wallich (1828-48), Joseph Dalton Hooker (1872-97), and David Prain (1903) reported about 296, 1437 and 2221 species respectively from the area now in Bangladesh, especially from Sylhet and Chittagong. Robert Lawrence Heinig in 1925 listed 1559 species from only Chittagong and Hill Tracts areas and J. Sinclair in 1956 reported 756 species from Coxs Bazar area only. Since its independence in 1971, another c.300 species have been added to the account by several workers and estimated c.5000 species to be represented in the flora although inventory has not yet been completed. Only 11% of the estimated species of the flora have been inventoried and till today c.4000 species of angiosperms, so far, have been recorded from the flora of Bangladesh. Inventory of the flora for threatened taxa are also in progress and presumed c.44.53% species threatened under various IUCN Red List Categories of which c.20.54% species have already been extinct from the flora. In this communication, the detailed scenario of plant diversity since Hortus Bengalensis of Roxburgh in1814, the rate of depletion and the conservation status for sustainability of the environment are stated with updated data obtained from field investigations, literature survey and examination of the herbarium specimens.

Species recorded from the area of Bangladesh

Recorded byChittagong

SylhetEast BengalOther areasBengalTotal speciesExtinct (no record after -)

W. Roxburgh (1814, 1832)2392333422766

N. Wallich (1828-1849)296

J.D. Hooker (1872-1897)4805781041023051437

D. Prain (1903)731-18822410782221

R.L.Heinig (1925)1559

J.M.Cowan (1928)98

M.B.Raizada (1948)

J. Sinclair (1956)756

M.S. Khan )1971-2003)

EFFB (200 - 200 )3611

After EFFB

M.A.Rahman (2014)

IntroductionA number of British and Danish workers have made plant explorations and collections throughout the territory of the then British India including the area now in Bangladesh during the period between1805-1947. Francis Buchanan Hamilton for the first time explored and collected a number of plant specimens from Laxmipur of Noakhali and Chittagong district during 1796-1798 while he was posted for 3 years in the East India Companys factory. His collections were later sent to William Roxburgh, the Superintendent of the then EICs museum at Calcutta. W. Roxburgh gathered a huge number of plant specimens in Companys Museum at Calcutta during 1793-1814. Through field explorations made by himself and many other associates in Bengal including Sylhet and Chittagong on which basis he published a list of plants only in his Hortus Bengalensis in 1814. In it, he named and listed a total of . species from the area of Bangladesh as well. Thereafter N. Wallich, the next Superintendent of the then EICs museum at Calcutta also gathered a huge number of species of plants from the Indian sub-continent through numerous explorations made by himself and many of his collectors, like, W. Gomez, De Silva and others during 1814-1846. He catalogued about 20,000 specimens in his lithographed Wall. Cat. (1828-49) including *** species from the area of Bangladesh.