ABSTRACT
Botanical gardens (BGs) are of crucial importance, especially in the twenty-first century when mother earth is facing mass extinctions of biodiversity in a span of just 100 years. Botanical gardens attached to educational and research institutes are of prime importance in documentation, education, research, conservation, bioprospecting, and sustainable utilization of plant resources. Educational and research institutes have required experts, prodigious strength of enthusiastic students, and research scholars who can play a vital role in the conservation of plant diversity in general and important plant resources of the globe in particular. If educational and research institutes are encouraged and supported, they can play a significant role in conservation of biodiversity. Lead Botanical Gardens (LBGs) are a brilliantly thought concept by the Government of India for the cause of education, research, and conservation. In addition to a garden’s own mandate of conservation of regional plant diversity, LBGs provide required guidance to other small gardens of municipal corporations, colleges, schools, and gram-panchayats (village councils) in their regions thereby achieving a common goal of conservation. Indeed, botanical gardens are the germplasm and gene banks for years to come. The present chapter narrates the establishment of the LBG at Shivaji University, Kolhapur, its achievements, and the role played by the garden in education, research, bioprospecting, restoration of threatened species, and ex situ conservation of plant diversity during the last three decades.
