In July 2022, the Government of India launched the Indian Virtual Herbarium It is the biggest virtual database of flora in the country
It has details of about one lakh plant specimens
A herbarium is a collection of plant specimens preserved, labelled and stored in an organized manner
It is a critical resource for biodiversity, ecological and evolutionary research
Herbarium specimens are always accompanied with a label that indicates the location where the plant was growing, the collector and the date collected.
Who developed the virtual herbarium?
The Indian Virtual Herbarium has been developed by scientists of the Botanical Survey of India, or BSI
It was inaugurated in Kolkata by the Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupendra Yadav
Within five weeks since its launch, the portal has nearly 2 lakh hits from 55 countries
