Orchids are increasingly finding a place in home gardens; but they are also one of the most illegally traded flowers in India. The rising demand for orchids has led to unsustainable harvesting practices. Orchids are illegally collected from the wild and traded as ornamental plants for use in traditional medicine. They are also consumed as food.
In order to create awareness about orchids among the public, Traffic (the Wildlife Trade Monitoring Network) and WWF-India recently developed a poster on legally-protected orchid species whose trade or any other form of utilisation is prohibited. This was also to increase the capacity of the enforcement officials to identify the 11 protected orchid species.
The poster was released ahead of the ‘Save the Himalayas Day’ on September 9 since the region is home to many orchid species, with the eastern Himalayas having the maximum orchid diversity. This second largest family of flowering plants has some of the most prized and traded flowers. In India, protected species of orchids such as Blue Vanda and Ladies Slipper have been found in wildlife seizures.
Of the 1,256 orchid species recorded in India, 307 are endemic to India, and only 11 species are protected under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. “There are more than 30,000 species of orchids in the world. The Western Ghats is home to 350 species, about 250 of them are found in Kerala,” says Dr C Sathish Kumar, principal scientist (retd), JNTBGRI, based in Thiruvananthapuram.
“The most commonly found orchids in Kerala include the Ladies Slipper and Red Vanda. The orchid-based industry is blooming in neighbouring countries such as Singapore. However, it has been just two decades since the orchid industry is witnessing a boom in our country,” he adds.
“Orchids are mainly found in tropical areas. Currently, the Palode botanical garden in Thiruvananthapuram consists of over 50 species of orchids. The costliest orchid in Kerala is Drury’s Paphiopedilum, which is found in Agastyamala hills .”
State director of WWF India, Renjan Mathew Varghese, says: “Many of us like to grow orchids at home, we like to use orchids for various ornamental and decorative purposes as well. Many a time, we are not aware of where they come from — whether they are wild or cultivated, legal or illegal in trade. So creating awareness among the masses is the need of the hour and this poster will cater to that.”