Abstract:Medicinal plants play an important role in health care. The use of medicinal plants for treatment is growing in view of cost and non-compliance of modern medicine as in case of non-communicable diseases. Plants such as Boswellia, ovalifoliolata, Cycas beddomei, Pimpinella tirupatiensis, Pterocarpus santalinus, Shorea thumbuggaia, Syzygium alternifolium, Terminalia pallida are endemic to Tirumala hills of seshachalam range falling under the Eastern Ghats of India. These plants species have medicinal properties such as anti-tumorogenic, anti-microbial, purgative, hypoglycemic, abortificient, analgesic, anti-septic, anti-pyretic and anti-inflammatory. We created a database named DEPTH in an attempt to communicate data of these plants to the scientific community. DEPTH contains data on scientific name, vernacular name, family name, morphological description, economic importance, known medicinal compounds and medicinal importance.

Ocean state forecast (OSF) along ship routes (OAS) is an advisory service of the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) of the Earth System Science Organization (ESSO) that helps mariners to ensure safe navigation in the Indian Ocean in all seasons as well as in extreme conditions. As there are many users who solely depend on this service for their decision making, it is very important to ensure the reliability and accuracy of the service using the available in situ and satellite observations. This study evaluates the significant wave height (Hs) along the ship track in the Indian Ocean using the ship-mounted wave height meter (SWHM) on board the Oceanographic Research Vessel Sagar Nidhi, and the Cryosat-2 and Jason altimeters. Reliability of the SWHM is confirmed by comparing with collocated buoy and altimeter observations. The comparison along the ship routes using the SWHM shows very good agreement (correlation coefficient > 0.80) in all three oceanic regimes, [the tropical northern Indian Ocean (TNIO), the tropical southern Indian Ocean (TSIO), and extratropical southern Indian Ocean (ETSI)] with respect to the forecasts with a lead time of 48 h. However, the analysis shows ~10% overestimation of forecasted significant wave height in the low wave heights, especially in the TNIO. The forecast is found very reliable and accurate for the three regions during June–September with a higher correlation coefficient (average = 0.88) and a lower scatter index (average = 15%). During other months, overestimation (bias) of lower Hs is visible in the TNIO.

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