Dehradun, July 13 -- In a unique initiative, the Research wing of the Uttarakhand Forest Department has initiated a program of reintroduction of rare and endangered plant species to their old natural habitat. Initially, the program has taken up 14 such plant species which are in the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as endangered or critically endangered or in the list of threatened plant species of the State Biodiversity Board and later on, it will be extended to more such species.

Sanjiv Chaturvedi, Chief Conservator of Forest (Research), said, "Earlier, such conservation programs were for faunal species only, and it is for the first time that such an initiative is being taken for plant species as we...