Welcome to the Fungi From India
www.fungifromindia.com
Collection of Taxonomic Databases of Indian fungi.
In the current decade, there is a growing realisation about sustaining the biodiversity the Indian subcontinent is blessed with. Of particular interest, are the Western Ghats, which sustain rich resources and is also a part of our habitation. Unfortunately, the talk of biodiversity that reaches the common person is quite limited. The efforts undertaken by people to conserve rare or endangered floral or faunal members often overlook the value of microflora which includes fungi. India does need to strive its efforts towards generating a resource database of the variety of fungal species found in India so that it receives an awareness and interest at par with that of other forms of biodiversity. Such a database also offers opportunities for initiating collaborative endeavours across the globe to partner in studying fungal diversity in an enriching manner.
It is in the spirit of this dream that the work towards generating a database was initiated by Dr. Kiran Ramchandra Ranadive, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Botany, Waghire College, Saswad under the able mentorship of Late Prof. J. G. Vaidya of Botany Department, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune with the technical support of Mr. Harshavardhan Khare from Pune. The efforts have culminated into creation of a rich series of databases, from which Indian Aphyllofungal Database (IAD) is the first offspring.Remaining 6 more databases of maximum groups of Indian fungi are already uploaded and it will available soon to all.This is the only website from India which gives the data of Indian Fungi. Every species of this database is connected to the world reputed fungal website www.mycobank.org which helps people to get the information directly from the same website.
As we all know that the literature on fungi is scattered in journals and it is not easily accessible to the Indian students and researchers. The unavailability of the related literature may develop dislike about the subject and at times conceal the richness that we possess.A comprehensive database from this series viz. IAD-Reference Database gives Aphyllophorales references from India on a single click.Every database in this online series made available free of cost will be a rich resource, especially for the aspiring youngsters who would like to contribute meaningfully to the field. As an example, the IAD-Reference databaseprepared in MySQL forms a documentation of 1217 species of Aphyllophorales with a total of 1646 records from all over India. With sustained updates, it is hoped that a considerable understanding would be made accessible on wood rotting Aphyllophorales to the academic community and people at large. A series of such databases would definitely enrich the documentation of available knowledge and resources.One can anticipate the tremendous significance of such a contribution to the domain of mycology. Knowledge building and shared access to relevant resources has been the underlying philosophy in launching this website.