Progress of Floristic Exploration in Chhattisgarh, Central India: A Century of Botanical Surveys, Taxonomic Advances and Conservation Perspectives

Abstract

Chhattisgarh, situated in Central India, is one of the most important phytogeographical regions of the Indian subcontinent owing to its extensive tropical forests, diverse habitats and rich angiosperm diversity. Despite more than a century of botanical exploration, information on the historical development of floristic studies in the state has remained scattered across regional floras, taxonomic revisions, protected area inventories, ethnobotanical studies and distributional records. The present review synthesises the progress of floristic exploration in Chhattisgarh from the earliest botanical collections of the early twentieth century to the publication of the three-volume Flora of Chhattisgarh in 2025. Historical accounts reveal that botanical investigations evolved from exploratory collections in Bastar, Surguja and the Bailadila hills to systematic taxonomic studies, district floras, protected area inventories and state-wide floristic syntheses. Major contributions by the Botanical Survey of India and several taxonomic researchers significantly enhanced the understanding of the state's angiosperm diversity through the publication of regional floras, family revisions, documentation of endemic and threatened taxa and reporting of numerous new distributional records. Floristic studies in protected areas such as Indravati Tiger Reserve, Kanger Valley National Park, Achanakmar–Amarkantak Biosphere Reserve and other conservation landscapes have highlighted the ecological and conservation significance of these ecosystems. Ethnobotanical investigations have further demonstrated the intimate relationship between indigenous communities and plant resources, emphasising the importance of traditional ecological knowledge in biodiversity conservation. Although considerable progress has been achieved, continued reports of new taxa and new records indicate that the flora of Chhattisgarh remains rather underexplored, particularly in remote forests, wetlands, grasslands and underexplored protected areas, including the Guru Ghasidas–Tamor Pingla Tiger Reserve. Future research should integrate classical taxonomy with molecular systematics, geospatial analyses, digital herbarium resources, long-term ecological monitoring and IUCN-based conservation assessments. This review provides a comprehensive synthesis of floristic research in Chhattisgarh and identifies future priorities for biodiversity documentation, taxonomic research and plant conservation in Central India.