E Himalayan Gazetteer: Introduction

introduction

This gazetteer has been compiled over the last 15 years at the Royal Botanic Garden Ediburgh for the use of plant taxonomists engaged on the of the Flora of Bhutan Project. Herbarium specimens, literature references and map resources have been used to aid in pinpointing collecting localites of botanists who worked in the area. It includes 5000 plant collecting localities in East Nepal, Sikkim, Darjeeling, Bhutan and the Chumbi Valley.

The geographical regions covered by the gazetteer are:

Bhutan (districts as defined by Grierson and Long in Flora of Bhutan 1(1))
The Indian state of Sikkim
Darjeeling District of the Indian state of West Bengal (south to latitude 26 30 N, east to the Gadadhar river (Sankosh river in Bhutan), and west to the Michi River)
Chumbi Valley, in Tibet or Xizang Zizhiqu province, China (north to latitude 28 00 N)
East Nepal (in part)

In a region where the great diversity of plantlife is matched by a diverse ethnic mixing of languages (lepcha, nepali, bengali, tibetan and various bhutanese including dzongkha and Shachop), coupled with the problems of transliteration, there is inevitably a plethora of local variant names. A few recent comprehensive maps were chosen to standardize spellings for the purpose of the gazetteer, but as these are in some cases out of date care should be taken when quoting 'accepted' names (please refer to recent official regional maps).

It is worth noting when looking at old herbarium specimens that some of the regional boundaries and names were somewhat different, particularly in the latter half of the 19th century: Sikkim was considered to extend over part of modern day Darjeeling district; and the part of Darjeeling District east of the Tista river (Kalimpong and environs) was referred to as British Bhotan. Localities given as just Terai are from the lowland areas of Darjeeling District bordering onto the Indian plains, and Duars refer to the low hills rising up from the plains.

Source Maps
Bhutan: Survey of India 1:250,000 map of Bhutan (1972) and Landsat map of Bhutan (World Bank, 1982), with additional information from the map of Ward (Geographical Journal volume 132, 1966), and the gazetteers of Stearn (Bull. Brit. Mus. Nat. Hist. 5: 243-268, 1976), and Long (Notes R.B.G. Edinburgh 37(2): 355-368, 1979).

Sikkim and Darjeeling: Survey of India 1:126,720 Map of Sikkim (1941) and Transfrontier Map, Skeleton Sheet 9, 16miles:1 inch (Walker, 1872), with additional information from Cave's manuscript map (held in the RGBE Library) and the published itinaries of Hooker (1854), and Smith and Cave (1913). Further reference sources are included in the Bibliography.