**2. Initiatives of government authorities**

During last three decades, the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), GOI has undertaken a programme for conservation of 156 threatened plant species which has been successfully compiled and reviewed. A successfully tested protocol following an integrated approach for threatened species conservation is recommended for future conservation action.

Traditionally, community conserved areas throughout the country such as sacred groves and other community based protected areas have been providing in-situ conservation opportunities for the endangered and threatened species. Government has taken initiative for prioritization of threatened species and conservation actions largely on flagship faunal species. The successful in-situ conservation measures for plant groups are mainly Orchid Sanctuary at Sessa in Arunachal Pradesh and Rhododendron Sanctuary at Singba in Sikkim. The only means of ex-situ conservation of threatened plant species include field germplasm banks and institutional botanic gardens. Such programmes generally focus on ex-situ conservation of medicinally and economically important plants, and on-farm conservation of agricultural crops. All these activities are largely mentored and executed by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change and Ministry of Agriculture, GoI. Under Umbrella Species Conservation programmes targeting big mammals, threatened plants get conserved. A protocol has been formulated for conservation of threatened plant species as under [9].

