The inherent natural systems of the coastal zone and examples of changes in their state, at least at local levels, are recognized in the scientific arena and across much of the wider community. The entire spectrum of coastal habitats – coral reefs, mangroves and tropical wetlands, sea grass systems, rocky shores and estuaries, salt marshes and sand dune communities, coastal forests and woodlands, estuarine and deeper shelf communities – are subject to pressures from humans and natural changes. Coastal dunes are characterized by a high ecological diversity, which is the result of a wide set of geomorphological features, environmental heterogeneity, and species variability. These ecosystems have a worldwide distribution covering almost all latitudes from tropical to polar. Sand dunes are natural guard wall and also natural purifier at coastline throughout the world. The sand dune constitutes different types of plants as well as phyto-resources with different habits but moreover all of the plants having stress tolerance capabilities and more or less soil binding capacity. However, in spite of this global abundance and their ecological and economic relevance, coastal dunes have been substantially altered by human activities, and many are already severely and irreversibly degraded. So, the sand dune demands immediate attention for conservation as the vegetation is going towards destruction due to the development and other anthropogenic activities along the coastal areas. The sand dune also needs further study as several morphological geo-environmental, chemo-taxonomical variations are already been observed under different physiological conditions. This paper reports some preliminary study on the morphology and species found within the sand dune (including habit, habitat, morphological features, flowering time, floral biology, and some geoenvioronmental studies) along the coastal segments of Mandermoni and Tajpur over Midnapore coast in West Bengal. These coastal sand dune floras under tremendous anthropogenic pressure due to rapid elimination of sand dunes and its associated vegetations and because of this traditional knowledge with them, is also gradually diminishing. Such sensitive and useful ecosystems need immediate restoration, conservation actions and sustainable use of phyto-resources. Reasons behind the destruction of the sand dunes have been studied and the strategies have also been proposed for possible conservation and implementation of the sustainable use of sand dune vegetation in coastal areas for the benefit of farmers particularly for food, fodder and health aspects because, coastal dune floras have immense effect in dune stabilization and restoration. This paper depicts the composition and distribution of coastal sand dune floras including a total of 46 species surveyed during 2013 – 2016 using geo-ecological methodology along with direct interviews with ethnic groups adjacent to the dune vegetation, native traditional healers, Ayurvedic practitioners and botanists dealing with medicinal wild plants in selective coastal segments of Purba Medinipur. Finally, here, we attempt to address the issue and summarize the developments for dune sustainability as well as coastal stability from research efforts over the time, especially on drivers and pressures of change, and provide recommendations for focusing future research.
