The Valley of Flowers : Myth and Reality

Contents: 1. Prologue. 2. The approach. 3. The valley. 4. The valley and flowers. 5. Cultural milieu. 6. Myths and memoirs. 7. Tourism. 8. The economics of grass. 9. Floral diversity. 10. Phenology. 11. Medicinal plants. 12. Forest. 13. Wildlife. 14. Conservation and dilemma. 15. Kakbhusandi. 16. Ascent to Nilkanth. 17. Summary of a thesis. 18. Few clues for visitors. References. Appendix. "This book is the outcome of my decade long studies on the Valley of Flowers. The ethereal and beautiful Valley of Flowers was notified as a National Park in 1982, and since then it has been caught in a strange controversy. The point of contention is that the conservation attempt is proving to be the problem rather than the solution. For the past two decades, there have been occasional reports about weeds choking the plant diversity of the region, but none of them is based on an in-depth ecological study, and it appears that most of them are merely on the basis of speculations. The present work is an attempt to compile the existing literature as well as first-hand information on the floral and faunal diversity, phenology, the valley's beautiful landscape, tourism, status of medicinal plants, structure of forest, and status of wildlife. The grazing controversy and conservation dilemma that is mainly based on speculative arguments, has also been addressed, with realistic data collected from the valley by the author. Besides, a comparative study on the status of medicinal plants across the various pressure zones (heavily grazed to protected areas), and the change in forest cover and composition due to historical use pattern, are also addressed in the book."