|
Why it is in news?
|
- Timber plantations, expanding agriculture and the spread of invasive species have eaten into as much as two-thirds of natural grasslands in the Palani Hill range of Western Ghats, shows a recently published study.
|
|
Loss of grasslands
|
- If in 1973, shola grasslands spread across 373.78 sq.km. of the landscape, four decades later in 2014, it had shrunk to just 124.4 sq.km., marking a 66.7% decline.
- The reduction is seen even in native shola forests, whose area has declined by a third to 66.4 sq.km.
- These drastic declines are particularly stark in shola grasslands (which are stunted forest growths of diverse grass species) and seem to be accelerating through the decades.
- For the shola forests, however, the decline seems to have been arrested since 2003.
- For the department, much of their training is in managing forests, either for conservation or a source of income.
- In the place of these grasslands and forests, timber plantations have thrived. From barely 18 sq.km. in 1973, plantations have grown by a staggering 1093% to 217 sq.km.
- Similarly, agriculture and fallow land have increased three times to 100 sq.km. in the past four decades.
|
|
Invasive species
|
- The use of satellite imagery also revealed the nature of the growth of plantations.
- If till the 90s, it was a policy push for plantations ”” particularly after the settlement of Sri Lankan refugees ”” after that, it seems to be a natural march of invasive species such as prolific-seed-producer, Acacia.
- The grasslands are in trouble, much more than the forests. It is important to preserve whatever patches are remaining and push back invasive species.
- Tackling this would require ecological understanding, rather than a knee-jerk reaction of harvesting invasive trees which (counter-intuitively) ends up actually accelerating the spread of Acacia
- As grasslands vanish or become more fragmented, local flora and fauna, particularly endemic species such as Nilgiri Pipit, may be under threat.
|
|
Source
|
The Hindu
|
