Crude oil is of organic origin and is an extremely complex structure of hydrocarbons. Besides carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and sulphur many other elements are present in crude oil. In oil fields, during drilling, gathering, transporting or in some other operations, some quantity of the crude oil gets spilled over the neighboring areas. The spilled crude oil affects the bio-chemical nature of the soil. As a result no vegetation occurs in those areas. Therefore, a study was made with an objective to revive the soil condition for vegetation development.

In a degraded secondary tropical forest along a traditional elephant route of Mokokchung District, a total of 157 flowering plants were enumerated distributed in 66 families. Although the forest had undergone various degrees of degradation, remnant of different growth forms was found in the component species. Presence of 113 plants used by the locals for various purposes such as timber, medicinal, ornamental, scientific, ethno botanical values including wild vegetables and wild fruits popularly consumed locally indicate high biodiversity valuation. (Sep 2007)