Post-floods, Vazhachal’s winged species hit a low

Aathira Perinchery, Kochi
The Hindu, February 22, 2019

The results of a two-day survey in Vazhachal’s riverine stretches, including areas affected by last year’s floods, seem disquieting. It records a ‘low’ abundance of some insect taxa – butterflies and odonates (damsel and dragonflies) – as well as birds, especially along the Chalakudy river.
But with no similar surveys for comparison, do these results portray the actual impacts of the flood?
On February 9 and 10, volunteers – both amateurs and experts in species identification – from across the State recorded bird, butterfly and odonate species diversity and counted their numbers in 20 locations along the Chalakudy river and its streams. This revealed 196 bird species (including the great hornbill), 131 butterfly and 51 odonate species.
Though this shows “high” species diversity, the counts of all these taxa were lesser in flood-affected areas such as the Chalakudy river and higher in smaller streams not affected by the flood, claimed K.H. Amitha Bachan, an assistant professor, who supervised the survey, which was supported by the Kerala State Biodiversity Board and conducted by the Vazhachal Forest Department, the Western Ghats Hornbill Foundation and the Botany Research Department of MES Asmabi College, Kodungalloor.
“The flood damaged about 70% of the riverbank,” he said. “Areas immediately downstream of dams were most affected.”

Tell-tale changes

However, volunteers noted only tell-tale changes such as fallen trees and sand deposits which may not sufficiently capture the changes in the habitat. There is also no similar survey of the area, as well as its birds and odonates – especially abundances – before the flood to make comparisons.
But comparisons can be made, insisted Mr. Bachan, adding that small islands in the river disappeared due to the flood, as did existing mudbanks and sandbars. While new sandbanks appeared in some areas, the depths of pools in others decreased due to the silt deposition. Such alteration and loss of habitat could have caused the lower numbers of odonates, which are very dependent on specific aquatic microhabitats for survival, he said.
The flood would indeed have affected the habitat and its denizens, but without previous data for comparison it would not be useful, commented a scientist independent of the survey.
Rejuvenating ancient riparian forests would not be easy, but a project to initiate a tree nursery and plant riparian saplings in appropriate areas during the monsoon has been mooted, said Divisional Forest Officer of Vazhachal, S.V. Vinod.

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Wayanad sanctuary yields a new spider

Mini Muringatheri, Thrissur 
The Hindu, 16 February, 2019

A new species of spider has been discovered from the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary, a major biodiversity hotspot in the State. The new species, Cocalus lacinia, spotted in the Kurichiad forest range of the sanctuary, is taxonomically related to an Australian species, described by arachnologist Fred Wanless in 1981.
A biodiversity investigation team, based at the Centre for Animal Taxonomy and Ecology (CATE), Christ College, Irinjalakuda, spotted the new species.
The head of the 8-mm-long male spider is brownish yellow and there are black lines along the sides of the hairy head region. Its eyebrows and forehead are white. The oval shaped abdomen is yellow and covered with black and white scales. The head of the 13-mm-long female is brownish and hairy. There is a V-shaped black mark on the upper surface of the head and red lines along the sides.

‘United biosphere’

“The nocturnal spider hides in the crevices of teak plants during day, and hunts at night for small insects. This discovery of a new species of spider from India and the presence of its close relative from Australia supports the theory that millions of years ago the biosphere was united and the present continents were formed by splitting a single big continent named Pangea,” says Sudhikumar A.V., Assistant Professor, Department of Zoology, Christ College, who led the team. Investigations are on with the help of genetic samples from the Australian species and Indian species to get more evidence for the theory of supercontinents. It may give more information on plate tectonics and the evolution of modern spiders, he said.
Sudhin P.P., Nafin K.S., and Sumesh N.V., research scholars of CATE, also took part in the study.

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Blink and miss: Kerala’s mystery frog

Aathira Perinchery, Kochi
The Hindu, February 14, 2019

Forget dense forests. Even roadsides could be harbouring new species that are hard to find. Scientists from the University of Delhi have discovered a new amphibian — a mysterious narrow-mouthed frog, that makes only a four-day appearance in seasonal roadside puddles every year in Kerala’s Wayanad district — according to their study published on Wednesday in Scientific Reports.
The frog Mysticellus franki (named after evolutionary biologist Franky Bossuyt from Brussel’s Vrije Universiteit) is not just a new species but also belongs to a completely new genus, Mysticellus (after Latin mysticus, meaning mysterious; and ellus, meaning diminutive, for the frog is just around 3 cm long).
Sonali Garg, a doctoral researcher at the University of Delhi, first found tadpoles of the species — whose physical features and DNA did not match any known species — during routine field surveys in Wayanad district in 2013. After a long search, the team finally found large groups of around 200 adult frogs in 2015 in a single locality in Wayanad, just metres away from vehicular movement, plantation activities and human settlements.
After breeding for four days, the frogs mysteriously disappeared from the spot; a habit that earned the tiny amphibians their name. Back in the laboratory, Ms. Garg and her supervisor S.D. Biju studied multiple aspects of the species — including physical characteristics of adults and larvae, DNA and calls of adult males that they recorded on field — in detail.
Physical features (such as its marble-patterned underside) and DNA studies revealed the frogs to be a completely new species. Adults have two black spots that look like eyes on their backs, a defensive feature.
‘Genetic studies further revealed that the frog is around 40 million years old and its nearest relatives live more than 2,000 km away, in southeast Asia (including Indo-Burma, Malaysia and Vietnam). This southeast Asian connection adds strength to the theories that India and southeast Asia were connected in the past by land bridges, suggest the authors.

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Rare butterfly species found

Sarath Babu George, Thiruvananthapuram
The Hindu, February 11, 2019

Garhwal Large Branded Five-ring, a rare butterfly species, was rediscovered in the Himalayas over five decades after it was initially recorded.
The species, scientifically known as Ypthima hannyngtoni Eliot, was recorded and photographed by nature conservationist and wildlife photographer Kalesh Sadasivan of the Thiruvananthapuram-based Travancore Nature History Society from Dehradun in June 2018 while on a butterfly walk to the Western Himalayas.
“It had been initially described by noted English entomologist J.N. Eliot in 1967 in the scientific paper The Sakra Moore, 1857 Section of the Satyrid Genus Ypthima Hübner, which appeared in the famous journal Entomologist. Since its original description, the species was never spotted or photographed,” Dr. Sadasivan said.
The identification was confirmed recently by subject expert Krushnamegh Kunte of National Centre For Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bengaluru. In an e-mail, he was quoted as saying,
“These are the first images of the species from India as far as I know. I have been looking for this species for a long time.”
According to Dr. Sadasivam, the species appeared to be a rare one and was possibly confined to the mid-lower elevations of the Western Himalayas. “Nothing is known about the early stages of its natural history,” he said.

Uploaded

The images were compared with the Type specimens in the London Museum of Natural History (BMNH) for confirmation of identity.
The species images have been uploaded in the peer-reviewed site on Indian Butterflies www.ifoundbutterflies.org/ ifoundbutterflies.
This discovery implied that lepidopteran diversity of Western Himalayas called for a more dedicated study.
Further species were likely to be found with scientifically structured butterfly surveys, Dr. Sadasivan said.

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Kole Fish Count records 82 species

The Hindu, February 3, 2019

Kochi: The Kole Fish Count, conducted on February 2 in connection with World Wetland Day across the Kole wetlands of central Kerala, recorded 82 aquatic species. These include 71 fish species (18 species of brackish water fish and 53 species of freshwater fish), five shrimp species, four crab and two mollusc species.

The participatory assessment, in which scientists, students and nature enthusiasts from the Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies, the Kerala Agricultural University’s College of Forestry and the Kole Birders Collective participated, covered the entire expanse of Kole habitats distributed across Thrissur and Malappuram districts. Among the major Kole regions, Ponnani had a higher diversity than Thrissur.
Maranchery in Ponnani Kole had the highest diversity (45 species) followed by Uppungal (also in Ponnani Kole) and Enamavu (Thrissur Kole) with 34 species each.
With just 18 species, Adat (Thrissur Kole) recorded the lowest diversity.
Some of the most common species encountered during the survey include the orange chromide (known as pallathi in Malayalam), the dwarf pufferfish, Malabar leaf fish, and pearl spot or karimeen.

Future threats

However, the teams also came across six non-native fish species, raising concerns on the sustainability of the fishery and aquaculture practices being followed in the Kole and vicinity.
The presence of six species of non-native fish in the Kole is of significant concern as these have the potential to compete with, and outnumber native species, said Rajeev Raghavan, assistant professor at KUFOS and the South Asia Coordinator of the IUCN’s Freshwater Fish Specialist Group.
“Particularly alarming is the frequent catches of the Amazonian sucker catfish from various parts of the Kole,” he added.
The government needs to take immediate action to prevent illegal fishing practices carried out during the annual harvest of auctioned waterbodies that are part of the Kole wetlands, noted M. K. Sajeevan, Head, Department of Fisheries Resource Management, KUFOS.
In addition to aquatic biodiversity, the teams also collected samples to assess the health of the ecosystem through evaluation of key water quality parameters, results of which will be released soon.

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Vellarada set to take on quarries

Sarath Babu George, Thiruvananthapuram
The Hindu, February 3, 2019

After a lull of two years, the ecologically fragile Vellarada and adjacent areas have again come under the threat of quarrying. Concerned over repercussions, local people are gearing up for another long-drawn agitation to conserve their land.
The many hill ranges, which form part of the tail-end of the Western Ghats, had come under focus in the past when constant attempts were made since 2010 to establish manufactured sand (M-sand) plants in the area. Vehement opposition raised by the residents, spearheaded by the Action Council Vellarada, against commencing the units had met with success.
Their efforts also led to the last of the 36 small-scale quarrying units winding up its operations two years ago.
According to action council president V. Resalayyan, several large quarrying firms had targeted the region over the years, but they were kept at bay.
Though the grama panchayat had earlier given approval for establishing M-sand factories, the decision had to be withdrawn following an order issued by the Principal Secretary of the Local Self-Government Department.
“However, three firms have now obtained no-objection certificates (NOC) from the panchayat and have sought the licences required to operate M-sand factories. They eye large tracts of land usurped by the quarry mafia after coercing local people to cede their properties at rates lower than the market prices,” he said.

6,000 families to be hit

The resumption of quarrying will destroy a major portion of the Vellarada grama panchayat as well as adjacent parts of the Amboori village, an ecologically sensitive area, they feared. Such activities also threaten to impact around 6,000 families. They have now pinned their hopes on the Kerala High Court, where they have filed two petitions against commencing the M-sand units.
As a prelude to their stir, the action council took out a torch rally from Vellarada to the city on Friday and submitted a petition to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan at the launch of the Nava Kerala Samskarika Rally being undertaken by the Purogamana Kala Sahithya Sangham.

3-day satyagraha

The action council will undertake an intense sensitisation campaign among the residents, following which they will launch a three-day satyagraha in front of the Vellarada grama panchayat office on February 11, demanding the withdrawal of the NOCs.

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