Consequences of Climate Change on Medicinal and Aromatic Plants in the Indian Himalayan Region: An Overview

Climate change has become progressively recognized as one of the major challenges to humankind in all over the world and especially in the Indian Himalayan Region (IHR). Global climate change has been implicated in reports of altered seasonal/weather patterns, temperature ranges, and other associated occurrences in high-altitude regions. According to the several experts, the adverse consequences of climate change will increase extensively in the future. Medicinal and aromatic plants (MAPs) will not be exempted from these effects which are distributed in the Indian Himalayan Region. For most people on Earth, MAPs are a crucial part of their health protection. Consequently, it is necessary to be prepared for future challenges to mitigate the detrimental consequences of climate change and to provide safety for plants for humans and other living creatures. In recent years, the escalating risk of the extinction of endangered MAPs is a matter of serious concern which has undoubtedly threatened their sustainable use due to numerous factors, such as climate change, destruction of habitats, overexploitation, disease-pest invasions, etc., in the Indian mountain range. Due to their limited geographical range, the indigenous plant species of IHR are more vulnerable to climate change. According to the published reports, time-sensitive associations of plants will be altered in the future, e.g. plants relocating into new habitats, due to climatic change. Several advisory teams are taking action to mitigate climate change: for example, traditional knowledge must be preserved, harvesters must receive conservation training, and MAPs should be conserved using propagation, plant herbarium, germplasm, gene bank, and seed bank conservation approaches. Based on the most recent scientific research, this overview will emphasize the effects of climate change on MAPs in the Indian Himalayan Region. This chapter highlights the impacts of climate change on biodiversity, secondary metabolites of MAPs, adaptation approaches to climate change, and conservation strategies for MAPs, as well as future strategies to mitigate the effects of climate change.