Status Survey of the Floristic Diversity of Delhi in the Context of Rapid Urbanization and Habitat Loss

Delhi flora contains great position between Ridge and plains which over the years is undergoing great stress due to anthropogenic disturbances. Delhi flora consists dry scrub and thorn forests, The collections from this province and their subsequent critical study have resulted in the documentation of 604 species, distributed under 399 genera and 92 families of flowering plants. Out of these, 473 species under 310 genera and 78 families belong to dicots and the remaining 131 species under 89 genera and 14 families to monocots. The present area of Delhi is selected for the floristic studies because it has not been given attention after Maheshwari work's (1963) in the form his book, ‘The Flora of Delhi. The total geographical area of Delhi 1483 Sq. Kms, of this 5.73% is covered by forests in Delhi Province. The forests here are classified as Tropical thorn Forests. Since last six decades, Delhi faced a lot of urbanization and industrialization activities.