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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Elephant census begins on May 17 in Kerala

E.M. Manoj, Kalpetta
The Hindu, May 12, 2017

An elephant census will be held in southern India from May 17 to May 19.
It is estimated that there are more than 6,000 elephants in the Wayanad, Nilambur, Anamudi, and Periyar elephant reserves of the State. The last census in 2012 had put the number of elephants at 6,177.
P.S. Easa, wildlife expert and coordinator of the programme, told The Hindu that along with Kerala, the census would be held in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. “Elephants are migratory animals and cross over to the adjoining States, which may lead to overestimation or underestimation. Hence, the count will be conducted simultaneously with the three States,” Dr. Easa said.
A twelve-member core committee has been constituted for the programme. Amit Mallick, field director, Periyar Tiger Reserve, is the nodal officer and chairman of the team.
The census, involving direct and indirect count, will cover elephant habitats spread around 9,670 sq km of the 11,119.3 sq km forest area of the State. The direct counting method is based on sightings of elephants, while in the indirect method, surveyors follow a dung decay formula for arriving at an estimate.
As many as 641 select blocks, a block may be of six to seven sq km, have been identified in the State and a three-member team, including a watcher and two beat forest officers, will be engaged in each block.
As many as 120 resources persons have been trained for the census and they will train close to 2,000 field staff.
The direct count will begin on May 17 and the indirect count on May 18.
The third day will be exclusively for collecting information on population structure of the jumbos and will be in open areas where the pachyderms are frequently sighted.
The Periyar Tiger Conservation foundation will coordinate the census.

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German who created Noah’s Ark for the Western Ghats is dead

E. M. Manoj

T. Nandakumar

Kalpetta/Thiruvananthapuram,  
The Hindu, November 8, 2014

 

Wolfgang Theuerkauf, a German who dedicated over 30 years of his life to the conservation of plants of southern India, passed away in Wayanad on Thursday. He was 66.

Affectionately called Swamy by his loved ones, Mr. Theuerkauf established the Gurukula Botanical Sanctuary at Alattil, near Periya, in north Wayanad, where he nurtured hundreds of thousands of plants endemic to the Western Ghats for over three decades without any external support. He is survived by his wife Leela and two children, a son and a daughter.

Mr. Theuerkauf was suffering from liver cirrhosis and was bedridden for the last couple of weeks. He breathed his last on Thursday night at the sanctuary. The last rites were performed on Friday at the sanctuary.

A German by birth, Mr. Theuerkauf decided to settle down in India in the late seventies when he was attracted by the teachings of Sree Narayana Guru. He was a disciple of Nataraja Guru, the successor of the spiritual leader. He was also closely associated with Guru Nitya Chaitanya Yati.

Mr. Theuerkauf established a small ashram at Alattil and created the sanctuary as a Noah’s Ark for endemic plants on 50 five acres in 1981. The botanist was known for his works related to rainforest restoration activities, especially in the Mukkuruti forest in Karnataka.

He pioneered the cause of conserving endangered plants, organic farming and alternative energy mechanisms. In 1981, Mr. Theuerkauf became an Indian citizen and married Leela, a Malayali woman from Periya.

A treasure trove

The sanctuary is a treasure trove for scholars, nature photographers and botanists across the globe.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature has named the Gurukula as one of the 25 global centres of biodiversity. In 2006, he won the Whitley Award, the highest environment honour in the U.K., for the most effective conservation effort across the world.

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Kumkis sought to keep wild elephants at bay in Wayanad

E.M. Manoj
KALPETTA,  
The Hindu, November 4, 2014 

The State Forest and Wildlife Department is preparing to procure Kumki (trained) elephants from Karnataka to drive crop-raiding wild elephants back into forests in Wayanad district.

The State Chief Wildlife Warden had requested his counterpart in Karnataka for six trained elephants to tackle the wild elephant menace in the district a few months ago, and the latter had agreed in principle to transfer the elephants. “We are awaiting a formal letter from the Karnataka government for transfer of the elephants,” Pramod G. Krishnan, Conservator, Northern circle (Wildlife), Palakkad, told The Hindu .

The Karnataka Forest Department would also provide the services of mahouts till the Kerala Forest Department trained its mahouts for the purpose, he said.

The elephants would be kept permanently here, and it was expected that the Kumki elephant squad would tackle the increasing wild elephant menace up to an extent, Mr. Pramod said.

Though the Forest Department has two tamed elephants at the elephant kraal at Muthanga in the district, they are yet to be trained to drive the crop-raiding pachyderms back into the forests, Forest Department sources said.

When the crop raids had increased considerably a few months ago, the officials of the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary planned to attach radio collar on the pachyderms after tranquillizing them. As many as five wild elephants were identified in different forest divisions of the sanctuary.

However, the project could not materialise owing to the dearth of radio collars, which were to be supplied by the WWF free of cost after import from South Africa.

The WWF could not provide it in time owing to technical reasons, but we have requested them to provide as many as six radio collars for future use, the sources said.

 

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Wayanad completes biodiversity documentation

T. Nandakumar
Thiruvananthapuram,  
The Hindu, October 31, 2014 

Local self-government institutions in Wayanad district are now armed with an effective weapon against biopiracy. As many as 25 grama panchayats and one municipality in the district have completed the documentation of biodiversity.

The People’s Biodiversity Register (PBR) has been prepared for all the local bodies in Wayanad, making it the first district in Kerala to have completed the process. The PBRs have been submitted to the Kerala State Biodiversity Board (KSBB), the custodian of the document.

Prepared through a participatory effort coordinated by the panchayat-level Biodiversity Management Committee, the PBR is a statutory document detailing floral and faunal diversity and its distribution in each local body. “The process involves a lengthy and exhaustive data collection exercise by an army of field workers, followed by compilation of the information,” K.P. Laladhas, Member Secretary, KSBB, said.

The PBR is designed to be an effective tool in planning for biodiversity conservation and development activities at the local level. “Regularly updated, it can help to keep a close tab on environmental degradation and species extinction,” Oommen V. Oommen, Chairman, KSBB, said.

Running into hundreds of pages, each register lists the agro biodiversity, wild biodiversity, aquatic biodiversity, and urban biodiversity in a local body, including trees, shrubs, climbers, crops, fruits, fodder plants, weeds, pests, domesticated animals, tubers, medicinal and ornamental plants, timber trees, culture fisheries, landscape, waterscape, soil type, wild relatives of crops, mammals, reptiles, and domesticated animals. Rare species are described along with pictures.

Traditional uses of biodiversity are also recorded in the PBR. Pointing to the failed move to patent the use of turmeric and neem in the U.S. and Europe, Prof. Laladhas said, “Documenting prior knowledge of the use of biological resources is important to check biopiracy and exploitation.”

Prof. Oommen said efforts were on to digitise the PBRs and update them periodically. The software for digitisation has been prepared by the Department of Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, University of Kerala.

As many as 716 grama panchayats and nine municipalities in the State have submitted PBRs while the remaining 100 local bodies are collecting data.

 

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Four districts categorised as climate change hotspots

T. Nandakumar 
The Hindu, Thiruvananthapuram,March 20, 2014 

Alappuzha, Palakkad, Wayanad and Idukki districts are climate change hotspots in Kerala, with a high degree of vulnerability to natural hazards like flood and drought and impact on biodiversity and human life.

The State Action Plan on Climate Change (SAPCC) has classified Alappuzha and Palakkad as the most vulnerable districts. Palakkad is listed as very highly vulnerable because of the higher percentage of population relying on agriculture, a lower ranking in the human development index and higher social deprivation. Alappuzha has been included in the same category because of the network of environmentally sensitive wetlands, lagoons and sandy beaches. Idukki, Wayanad, Thiruvananthapuram and Kannur have been listed as highly vulnerable. The two hilly districts are categorised as climate change hotspots because of the large area of dense forest cover and shola forest.

The degree of vulnerability of climate sensitive sectors like agriculture, fisheries and forests, tribal population and low ranking in the human development index were also considered in identifying the hotspots.

Kannur has been included in the high vulnerability list because of the extensive mangrove forests while Thiruvananthapuram makes it to the list because it has registered medium values in terms of all the indicators.

The SAPCC, due to be taken up for implementation this financial year, assesses that Kerala is severely threatened by climate change. The projected climate change scenario estimates that the atmospheric temperature across Kerala will rise by 2 degrees Celsius by the year 2050. The minimum surface temperature in the Western Ghats region may rise by 2 to 4.5 degrees Celsius. The number of rainy days is likely to decrease along the entire western coast including the Western Ghats. Also, it is projected that if the sea level rises by one metre, 169 sq km of the coastal region surrounding Kochi would be inundated.

Implementation

The Department of Environment and Climate Change is preparing to implement the SAPCC from this year, Director P. Sreekantan Nair told The Hindu. He said the programmes would be prioritised and implemented in a phased manner. “Discussions are on with NABARD, the funding agency identified by the Global Environment Fund (GEF). We are also trying to find other sources of funds.” Mr. Nair said a monitoring committee would be set up to oversee the implementation of the action plan.

The SAPCC report estimates that paddy production in Kerala would drop by six per cent with each degree rise in temperature. The document says changes in temperature and rainfall would be detrimental to thermo-sensitive crops like cardamom, coffee, tea and black pepper cultivated in the high ranges. The action plan recommends strategies focussing on climate-tailored agricultural management, integrated pest management, improved land use, organic farming, farm mechanisation, water use efficiency, weather forecasting, crop insurance and diversification of agriculture.

In the animal husbandry sector, the report warns that higher temperature and changing rainfall pattern could enhance the spread of vector borne diseases and macro parasites, besides leading to the emergence of new livestock diseases.

It estimates that heat stress and humidity variation could also have a significant association with bacterial, viral and other parasitic infections and animal diseases. Some of the viral diseases such as goat plague may also reappear while the frequency of incidence of mastitis and foot diseases among crossbred cows may increase, the document says.

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