Socio-Economic Utility of Coastal Flora Growing in and Around Mangrol Taluka (Junagadh) of Gujarat

Halophytes are widely distributed throughout several regions due to the presence of the saline condition. The present paper reflects vegetation cover along with plant species of different kinds in the coastal area of Mangrol taluka of Gujarat, India. It consists of 25 plant species under 25 genera and 12 families of angiosperm. During the field survey, observations were made and plant characteristics and habitat of flora were studied. The main objectives of the present study are the identification, baseline survey and utility of saline plants in the area. The utility of the plants such as ecological and economic (such as medicinal, industrial and commercial, etc.) which can reflect their significance to the society. Majority of the plant species found are naturally occurring, but a few of them are agricultural plants used for various purposes. Due to increasing population growth, urbanization and especially over-demanding medicinal plants people are harvesting without any knowledge of regeneration and conservation, due to which many species are threatened. Because of this, it is very important to conserve plant species, which are extensively utilized in various purposes.


INTRODUCTION
India has a coastline of about 7,516.6 km long with 2.02 million km 2 exclusive economic zone and 0.13 million km 2 continental shelf (Khoshoo 1996) and it covers nine states and two union territories. Gujarat coastal line has a length of approximately 1600 km; it constitutes about 24% of the total coastal length of India. Coastal zone is an important biogeographically habitats of the Indian subcontinent (Rodgers & Panwar 1998). Coastal areas are vulnerable to be invaded by tides, and conventional saline-alkali land management measures can hardly achieve the desired results because of serious salinity problems, harsh natural conditions, simple ecosystem structure, poor stability, and fragile ecological environment (Zhang 2018). According to Stoker (1928), the critical level of salinity for plants is 0.5% of the dry weight. Though the fact that only a small group of higher plants can grow in the saline habitats was recognized many hundred years ago yet the name "halophyte" was assigned to such plants by Pallas in the early nineteenth century. Researches on biological diversity and its values, uses, loss, conservation and management during the last two decades has made a spectacular niche in the field of environmental science (Vyas & Joshi 2014). In recent years, however, the attention is being paid worldwide to accommodate the salt-tolerant species such as Cressa, Suaeda, Trianthema, Salvadora, to support animal life and providing useful pharmacological as well as economic aspects for human (Nikalje et al. 2018).
The local community around the coast relies on these basic resources, collecting and using many plant species for food, wood, fibre, fuel and medicine. Their high utility in economic and medicinal usage is an important contributing factor to their overexploitation. Salinity is among the major environmental crisis and serious threat to food, fuel and fibre production in the world. This problem, which extends to more than 100 countries, is encountered in all types of climate due to the consequence of both natural processes as well as human interference (Shabala & Munns 2017). The continual use of coastal plants over many years without any replanting, it has resulted in an accelerated decline in the loss of a wide range of threatened and endangered species. This kind of survey is necessary to explain the usefulness of coastal vegetation to the human community living around the coast.

Study Area
Mangrol taluka of Junagadh district is situated on the extreme coast of Gujarat having dense vegetation of coastal flora. Nine villages of Mangrol taluka and three villages of Madiya taluka were surveyed for the present study 21°13'N to 21° 00'N and 69°59 ' E to 70° 13' E. Total area surveyed under the present study was approximately 40 km, along the coastline of Mangrol taluka consisting of various villages on the coast.

Data Collection
As described earlier, twelve villages were surveyed namely, Antroli, Diwasa, Sangavada, Shil, Lodge, Rahij, Maktupur, Mangrol, Khodada, Khambhadiya, Jujarpur and Chorvad. Plant species along the coast of 40 km around Mangrol taluka were observed and identified and recorded for the baseline study. The number of each species in all the surveyed villages was recorded along with their habitat in which they were found. Based on the number of species, they were distributed into families in which they belong and utility of all the species were studied.

RESULTS
In the present investigation a total of 25 species of coastal flora belonging to 18 families were enumerated (Fig. 2) in the coastline of Mangrol taluka (Junagadh). As stated earlier, 12 villages namely Antroli, Diwasa, Sangavada, Shil, Lodge, Rahij, Maktupur, Mangrol, Khodada, Khambhadiya, Jujarpur and Chorvad located on the coastal belt were identified and selected for the current study. From these locations, four species which were found to be dominant in the majority of areas were noted to be Cyprus conglomerates, Halopyrum mucronatum, Prosopis juliflora and Casuarinas equisitifolia. Habitats of these plants are saline and hence can be considered as halo-phytic vegetation. Halophytic vegetation is growing in different parts of the habitat by facing several environmental stresses.
For this study, a maximum of 15 species was found in the village of Lodge, and at least 4 species were found in the village of Shil, in the coast between Antroli to Chorvad village. As shown in Fig. 2, it was interesting to observe and note that the species in the rocky area are higher than in any other habitats such as sand dunes and moist areas.
SD=Sand dunes, M=Marshy, RP=Rock poolsAmong the habitat of selected coastal sites, sand dunes were found to be more followed by rock pools and marshy region. In the coastal areas surrounding Mangrol taluka, 9 villages with sand dunes are given in Table 1 such as Antroli, Sangavada, Shil, Maktupur, Mangrol, Khodada, Khambhadiya, Jujarpur and Chorvad; 2 villages with rocky pool are Lodge and Rahij and 1 village with marshy space is located in Diwasa. According to the survey, highly coastal floras are found on rocky pools (Fig. 2), while vegetation is less common on sandy dunes and marshy places. Table 2, the Fabaceae family is found to be most dominant than all other families. There are three types of plants found in the Fabaceae family, namely Lotus garcini, Prosopis juliflora and Indigofera oblingifolia. Two species are found in Convolvulaceae, Poaceae, Acanthaceae and Amaranthaceae family and in addition to this, 1 plant is found in all family found here.    For this study, a maximum of 15 species was found in the village of Lodge, and at least 4 species were found in the village of Shil, in the coast between Antroli to Chorvad village. As shown in Fig. 2, it was interesting to observe and note that the species in the rocky area are higher than in any other habitats such as sand dunes and moist areas.   Coastal vegetation is not commonly used for economic gain, but it also identified for ethnomedicinal, handicrafts and many other uses. Numerous reports have documented the utility of coastal flora in rural and tribal areas all over the world as a successful home remedy against different ailments (Hamburger & Hostettmann 1991, Hammiche & Maiza 2006, Hussain et al. 2003. Among the species, herbs were found to be more (14 sp.) followed by shrubs (4 sp.), trees (3 sp.), grass (2 sp.) and climbers (2 sp.) (Fig. 3). In the available literature, the vegetation of coastal flora was highly used in traditional and ethnobotanical interests were recorded after the critical screening.

CONCLUSION
The present work reflected a detailed and comprehensive database and descriptive survey of coastal flora which compiled the economic and ecological utility of the plant species observed for identifying the potential of the Mangrol coast. Throughout the 40 km coastline of the study area, twenty-five coastal species were observed and recorded for their utility. The interesting fact is to interpret that these 25 species were listed under 18 families, which showed the immense potential of all the species observed in various treatments of diseases. It also revealed that Mangrol taluka having a coastal belt in highly diversified in terms of plant species with reference to the coastal line based on the habitat. These plant species were recorded on different coastal habitats comprising of sandy, rocky and marshy.