Wild guests start migration

E.M. Manoj. Kalpetta
The Hindu, January 8, 2018


With the rise in mercury in the Nilgiri Biosphere, the seasonal migration of wild animals from wildlife sanctuaries in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary (WWS) has begun.
Mammals such as elephants and gaurs migrate to the sanctuary from the adjacent Bandipur and Nagarhole national parks in Karnataka and the Mudumalai national park in Tamil Nadu in search of food and water.

Haven

“The WWS is a haven for migrating wild animals during summer owing to easy availability of fodder and water.
We have made highly structured measures at nearly ₹1 crore to ensure fodder, water and protection for the migrating wild guests,” N.T. Sajan, wildlife warden of the sanctuary, told The Hindu.

Early start

Though the wildlife migration has started a little early this year, man-animal conflict is comparatively very low on the fringes of the sanctuary, Mr. Sajan said, adding that no case of lifting of domestic animals by predators such as tiger or leopard has been reported so far.
Mr. Sajan said water sources in the sanctuary, including 30 earthen bunds, 45 check-dams and 235 waterholes, have been closely monitored with GPS every week to ensure drinking water for the wildlife.
“Though water scarcity has not affected the sanctuary till now, around 150 temporary check-dams are being built with dried bamboo poles inside the WWS, especially in the Tholpetty forest range, where streams may dry up during summer,” he added.
As part of fodder management, around 300 hectares of coarse grasslands have been trimmed to grow soft grass.

Fire line

Fire line has been erected along 230 km on the forest fringes to prevent wildfire. Apart from 25 permanent anti-poaching camps and five watch towers at important strategic points, 12 new treetop machans (temporary watchtowers) will start functioning in a week.
Forest officials, including guards and watchers, have been deployed there to keep watch over poaching and wildfire.
As many as 340 watchers have been deployed inside the sanctuary, including 290 fire watchers and 50 anti-poaching watchers, with essential equipment and wireless sets.

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Presence of invasive mussel confirmed in Kochi backwaters

Aathira Perinchery, Kochi
The Hindu, January 03, 2019  

From clambering lantana plants to karimeen-like red-bellied paku, invasive species come in all sizes. The latest addition to Kerala’s invasives list is only around a centimetre or two long: scientists have confirmed the presence of the invasive black-striped mussel Mytilopsis sallei in Kochi’s backwaters.

'Alien' mussel

In a study published on December 25 in the scientific journal Current Science, researchers at the Cochin University of Science and Technology (Cusat) used basic genetic methods to confirm the identity of mussels they collected from Cochin harbour and Ezhupunna in Alappuzha. They extracted DNA from these mussels. While running this through an international online database, they matched it to the DNA of mussels observed from the Lam Tsuen River in Hong Kong (China), confirming that it is the same species that is now found in Kochi’s backwaters.
The black-striped mussell, native to the South and Central Americas, is an invasive species in most parts of the world and has been recorded from countries including Hong Kong, Australia and Japan. In India, it has been recorded from the ports of Mumbai (Maharashtra) and Vishakapatnam (Andhra Pradesh). It spreads primarily through the discharge of ballast waters of ships (seawater carried in the ballast tanks of ships to improve its stability and balance). The fast-growing species – which dwells in shallow water – can tolerate a wide variety of environmental conditions (salinity, water temperatures and oxygen levels; tests in the laboratory confirmed this again), which helps them thrive in the new areas they colonise.
The researchers estimate that one square metre near Fort Kochi (from where they collected some of the mussel samples) contains as many as 748 individuals. This is extremely high, said Dr. Bijoy Nandan, professor at Cusat’s Department of Marine Biology and one of the scientists who conducted the study.

Several costs

Though tiny, these invasive mussels are ‘biofoulers’, he added: organisms that accumulate on wet surfaces, causing huge ecological and economic losses. They can cause the deterioration of coastal infrastructure; the Australian government, for instance, spent approximately US$ 2.2 million to eradicate Mytilopsis mussels from Darwin Harbour. The mussels can also displace native species of clams (which local fishermen depend on for their livelihood) from their coastal habitats and cause a reduction in native biodiversity. Now the mussels can be spotted along most of Kerala’s coastline, added Dr. Nandan.
“We do not know what other problems could occur if these black-striped mussels proliferate,” said Dr. Nandan. “Or if changing climates could be enhancing their survival in any way. Our molluscan resources are extremely under-studied and we need more research to address these gaps.”
If their numbers grow, harvesting the mussels for use as poultry feed or manure could be a possible management tool, he said.

 

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Exotic trees eating up Western Ghat’s grasslands

Aathira Perinchery, Kochi
The Hindu, January 3, 2019

The new year heralds bad news for the high-altitude grasslands of the Western Ghats. Over four decades, the country lost almost one-fourth of these grasslands and exotic invasive trees are primarily to blame, find scientists. Though grassland afforestation using pine, acacia and eucalyptus ceased in 1996, the exotics still invade these ecosystems, confirms a study published on January 2 in the international journal Biological Conservation.
When satellite images revealed to a team including scientists from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER, Tirupati) grassland loss in Tamil Nadu’s Palani hills in early 2018, they decided to study how shola-grasslands (characterised by patches of stunted evergreen shola trees in the valleys and grasslands on hill slopes) across the Ghats – from the Baba Budan Hills in Karnataka to Tamil Nadu's Ashambu Hills – changed in extent between 1972 and 2017. The satellite images they accessed reveal that 60% of the shola-grassland landscape has changed; almost 40% (516 km2) of native high-elevation grasslands have disappeared.
Most of this loss occurred on the mountain tops of the Nilgiri, Palani and Anamalai hill ranges, which comprise more than half of the Ghat’s shola-grassland ecosystems, primarily due to the expansion of exotic trees (pine, acacia and eucalyptus). Even though no plantations were established between 2003 and 2017, invasion by existing trees increased areas under exotic plantations by 27% in the Palanis and 17% in the Nilgiris. Broadly, shola-grassland ecosystems in Tamil Nadu showed the highest rates of invasion. The researchers also visited 840 locations across the Ghats to confirm these changes. Despite this, there’s some good news: shola forests have remained “relatively unchanged” over these years. The Anamalai-Munnar areas have also remained stable during this time.

‘Little research focus’

However, all possible efforts must be made to conserve the remaining grassland tracts, said scientist Dr. Robin V. Vijayan (IISER Tirupati), one of the authors who led the study. “There is very little research focus on grasslands and mechanisms to restore them are also few, unlike forests,” he added.
“The immediate reaction would be to remove all exotics including mature plantations from grasslands but that should not be done,” said Godwin Vasanth Bosco, who has restored some grassland patches in Udhagamandalam.

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State may have to redraw CZMP now

K.S. Sudhi, Kochi
Tht Hindu,  January 02, 2019

After the laborious preparation of the Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP), which will influence development activities in coastal districts, coastal States, including Kerala, may now have to redraw the document following the notification of a new Coastal Regulation Zone approved by the Centre.
The Central government last week approved the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) notification, 2018 when the CZMP prepared by Kerala was awaiting approval.
The preparation of the CZMP, which once approved, will dictate the development patterns along the coast, was a long-drawn affair and it took several nudging from the National Green Tribunal and the Supreme Court for the States to prepare the document.
The Kerala document took almost three years to be prepared after a series of deliberations involving stakeholders, including coastal ecosystem management specialists, builders, fishermen, and coastal communities.
The National Centre for Earth Science Studies, Thiruvananthapuram, was assigned the task of preparing the document.
The public hearing organised on the draft document had witnessed unruly scenes and protests in some districts.
The CRZ 2018 notification, said Veena Madhavan, member secretary of the Kerala Coastal Zone Management Authority, was approved soon after the State submitted the CZMP for its 10 coastal districts. After the CRZ notification, 2018, being published as a gazette notification, Kerala may have to revise the document, she said.
She said the procedures to be followed for the revision would be known only when the gazette notification was published. There would also be a guideline for the States to follow.
At the same time, experts involved in the preparation of the earlier CZMP said Kerala may have to introduce changes in the CRZ 3 A category, which deals with panchayats having population density of 2,161 per sq km.
According to available information, the No Development Zone (NDZ) has been reduced to 50 metres from the High Tide Line against the earlier 200 metres in CRZ 3 A, permitting more construction towards the seaward side. The NDZ has also been reduced for backwater islands in CRZ 3, which also have to be reflected in the CZMP, said K.K. Ramachandran, former member secretary of the authority.
There may not be any changes in the CRZ categories 1, 2 and 4, he added.

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Grizzled squirrel safe at Chinnar: Forest dept

The Hindu, October 25 2018
Thiruvananthapuram:

The Kerala Forest Department has clarified that 68 Grizzled Giant Squirrel individuals were directly sighted at the Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary during a 2017 survey. The squirrel population was estimated to be 104 individuals in the potential riparian habitat.
No hunting incidents
Referring to a report on the dwindling population of the Grizzled Giant Squirrel species, which appeared in these columns, P.M. Prabhu, Assistant Wildlife Warden, said no hunting incidents of the species had been reported since the sanctuary was established.
He said the sanctuary had a “very healthy and stable population of another flagship species, the Indian Star Tortoise, indicating that habitat disturbance was very negligible”.
Help of tribes
The study was conducted in 50 km of potential habitat of the “sanctuary (riparian forest) which was selected based on the indigenous knowledge of the tribal people inhabiting the sanctuary”, he said.
For the survey, 21 line transects were taken and surveyed repeatedly by 31 participants for six days. “This recent study report is more relevant and authentic,” Mr.Prabu said.

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Dwindling Grizzled Giant Squirrel species

K.S. Sudhi, Kochi
The Hindu, October 03, 2018  

Grizzled Giant Squirrel is living on the edge in the Chinnar Wild Life Sanctuary, one of its habitats in Western Ghats.
Researchers could count only 24 squirrels (Ratufa macroura) there, giving rise to fears that its population might have depleted by 85% in the sanctuary over a decade.
A recent study pointed out that the “current population estimation is about 78% to 85% lesser than the previous population estimation carried out in 1993 and 2007 respectively, which is quite alarming.” It was after gap of a decade that the status of the species was estimated.
The findings of the study, carried out by Kiran Thomas and P. O. Nameer of Kerala Agricultural University, was published in the Journal of Threatened Taxa recently.
The animal, which got its common name from the white flecks of hair over its greyish body, is seen in pairs or as a family party of three individuals only during the breeding season.
The species is endemic to the southern States of Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka. The only known population of the squirrel in Kerala is in the sanctuary. The population of the species in the country is estimated to be less than 500 mature individuals.
Earlier studies had indicated that the squirrel population was declining by over 30% during the last quarter century, thanks to the hunters and habitat loss.
The current population density of the species is estimated to be 15.26 squirrels per sq km against the density of 18 to 23 squirrels/sq km of 1993 and 64 squirrels/sq km of 2007, the study noted.
The Chinnar population is troubled by the increased predator pressure and the extremely low regeneration of its preferred food plant species due to heavy grazing by cattle.
During the study, the researchers chanced upon several suspected hybrid squirrels.

 

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Climate change threatens the Nilgiri tahr

Aathira Perinchery Kochi

The Hindu,  July 11, 2018  

The antics of the sure-footed Nilgiri tahr are a treat to watch, but these endangered wild mountain goats – found only in high altitudes in India’s Western Ghats — could be losing their footing with increasing climate change. Even under moderate scenarios of future climate change, tahrs could lose approximately 60% of their habitats from the 2030s on, predict scientists in their study in Ecological Engineering, an international journal that emphasises the need for ecological restoration.
Scientists tried to predict how climate change can affect tahr habitat in the Ghats by mapping tahr distribution (using existing information and field surveys) and then using climatic factors of these locations to see where tahrs would be able to survive, given current and future climate change scenarios.
They found that tahr strongholds such as Chinnar, Eravikulam and Parambikulam in Kerala will still be stable habitats under different climate change scenarios.
However, other regions, including parts of Tamil Nadu’s Kalakkad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve and the wildlife sanctuaries of Peppara, Neyyar, Schenduruny and Srivilliputhur, could experience severe habitat loss in future; in total, approx. 60% of tahr habitat could be lost across the Ghats from 2030s onwards. There are only around 2,500 tahrs left in the wild and their population — “small and isolated, making them vulnerable to local extinction” — shows a “decreasing” trend, as per the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Local threat

According to senior author Jayahari K. M. of Delhi-based World Resource Institute India, the study has to be seen in the context of this identified vulnerability; the impacts of climate change may further increase the chances of local extinction, he said. The study’s findings demand a comprehensive species management plan, said co-authors Sony R.K. and Sandeep Sen of the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment.
Scientists, including P. S. Easa, member of the National Board for Wildlife (who also co-authored the latest report on Kerala’s tahr populations), had drafted a tahr recovery plan in 2010. According to the report, only the Eravikulam and Mukurthi National Parks stress on tahr-centered conservation activities in their management plans. Though the recovery plan identified “conservation units” and made site-specific recommendations, how much of it has been implemented is unclear, said Dr. Easa.
“It is important that we focus our efforts on these conservation units and monitor isolated populations,” he said.

 

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