Pachamalai hills

Pachamalai is an under-studied area, comparatively less disturbed than other hill complexes, and spread across Salem, Tiruchirappalli, and Perambalur districts of Tamil Nadu. It lies between 11° 10' 74.3"–11° 34' 18.6" N Lat. and 78° 32' 92.0"–78° 45' 94.1" E Long. and covers an area of 469 km with elevation ranges from 180–870 meters. According to the classification of Champion and Seth (1968), vegetation in the Eastern Ghats can be broadly classified into (1) Evergreen forests. (2) Tropical semi-evergreen forests. (3) Tropical moist deciduous forests. (4) Southern tropical dry deciduous forests. (5) Northern mixed dry deciduous forests. (6) Dry Savannah forests. (7) Scrub forests (8) Tropical dry evergreen forests and (9) Tropical dry evergreen Scrub. Pachamalai contains 59.5 percent forest area and 40.5 percent cultivation land with human settlement(Vivekraj et al 2015). Pachamalai including all the major hill ranges in the eastern clusters of eastern ghats generalizes a mosaic pattern of denuded inner valleys and the existence of forests in the riparian tracts, hilltops, and outer slopes. The valleys have been mostly taken over for human habitation and cultivation.(David et al. 2017). due to invaluable services from Pachamalai is making it an important region for conservation.

These hills are abundant in dense scrub forest, evergreen, and mixed deciduous type (Kolar et al.2013, TNAU).

Images of Pachaimalai from google earth

References:

Champion, H. G. and Seth, S. K. (1968). A Revised Survey of Forest Types of India, Govt. of India Press, New Delhi, p. 404.

David, J., Daniels, R., & Balasubramanian, V. (2017). A reassessment of the avian species diversity in the Eastern Ghats of Tamil Nadu, after the Vernary Survey. Journal of Threatened Taxa, 9(8), 10538-10550.

Kolar, B. A. & Basha, G.M. (2013).survey of medicinal plants and in vitro studies in gloriosa superba l an endangered medicinal plant of Pachamalai hills Tamil Nadu (Doctoral dissertation). Bharathidasan University, Tamil Nadu.

Kolar, B. A. & Basha, G.M. (2013). Survey of medicinal plants of Pachamalai hills, a part of Eastern Ghats, Tamil Nadu. International Journal of Current ResearchVol. 5, Issue, 12, pp.3923-3929.

Vivekraj, P. & Anandgideon, V. (2015). Medico-ethno botany: A survey of Topsengattupatti Pachamalai Hills of Eastern Ghats in Tamil Nadu, South India. Advances in Applied Science Research, 2015, 6(12):59-63

Wildlife conservation

Wildlife conservation

Conserving the species with their habitat intact from various threats like habitat destruction, poaching, over-exploitation and climate change is called wildlife conservation. Due to abnormal growth of the human population, catastrophic level of deforestation, and overuse of other natural resources that have occurred in the current and last century to full-fill the need of mankind this scenario will get worse in near future. The Living Planet Report documents 60% Populations of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians have, on average, declined by 60% between 1970 and 2014, this is the most recent available data.

Importance of wildlife conservation 

Each and every single species is part of a community or an ecosystem if a species gets threatened/extinct the entire community will lose its balance in some cases it ruptures the entire ecosystem.

Values of wildlife:

1. Aesthetic value— the enjoying of wildlife’s beauty and pleasure 

2. Scientific value— studying and research of wildlife for their use in medicines, integrated pest management, etc… 

3. Ecological Value— the interaction of wildlife in nature 

4. Commercial— using wildlife to earn money  

5. Game Value— the enjoyment value gained through hunting and fishing 

Threats:

Deforestation

Forest lands are cleared for various purposes including agriculture, human settlements, construction of dams, and monoculture plantations. Increased demand in agricultural products and industrial demands leads to monoculture plantations like palm oil plantation and rubber plantation. In Malaysia, it leads to the destruction of rain forests due to that many species are threatened. some examples are orangutan, Bornean elephants, and rhino.

 

Fragmentation

The western ghats of Tamil Nadu are rich in biodiversity especially its homes to many endemics. Tea plantations of Anaimalais is a prime example of fragmentations of the forest it endangers animals like lion-tailed macaque this primate species is a specialist for evergreen forest types with preferential altitude and weather because of fragmentation leads to loss of continuous canopy so they need to come to the ground for reach another fragmented forest patch when they reach the ground they are vulnerable to predators and humans and they hit by the vehicles so often.

Poaching:

Poaching animals for illegal trades that occur globally is a huge problem for wildlife conservation. There are many state and international agencies that monitor and prevent illegal trade.

 

Animal	Parts in trade	Uses	Species status
Elephant	tusk	Aesthetics, jewelry	endangered
Tiger	Skin, bone, and teeth	Medicinal purposes and Aesthetics	endangered
Turtles, Tortoises, Terrapins	Shells or live specimen	Aesthetics and pet	Least concern to endangered
Deers	antlers	Aesthetics and sports	Least concern to endangered
Red panda	skin	Aesthetics	endangered

Pollution

A pollution is also an important form of threat to wildlife conservation by causing disturbance to smaller organisms or closed ecosystems. Insects like lower organisms got affected by air, water, and noise pollution. They are also affected by pesticides and insecticides and they transfer this carcinogenic or mortality causing substance to higher fauna and affect the food web of life.  If sewage runs into the pond they change the physiochemical nature of the system it affects the plants and fishes. Plastics and other thrashes that are found in the ocean affect marine life like dolphins and turtles.

Climate change

An increase in temperature by human activities triggers the melting of ice in polar even faster. Due to this sea level rises and changes the weather pattern all over the globe due to this sudden change in weather patterns leads to habitat destruction. Meanwhile, a warming climate, fluctuating precipitation, and changing weather patterns will impact species ranges. Overall, the effects of climate change increase stress on ecosystems and species unable to cope with rapidly changing conditions will go extinct.

Temperature rise in the sea causes calcification of corals(death of corals). Coral reefs are a unique ecosystem with numerous services providing a home for at least 25% of all marine species. habitat specialist species are struggling to adapt to the changes it will lead to species extinction or moving to suitable conditions like they move towards higher altitudes where the species never been recorded. 

Invasive species

Introduced species have most frequently caused species extinctions through predation/parasitism. Perhaps some of the best-documented examples have concerned the introduction of exotic predators to lakes and islands and the consequent extinction of plants and animals that had evolved no defenses against them. Thus, numbers of species of fish, many endemic, from the lakes of the East African Rift Valley may be extinct as a result of the intentional introduction of the Nile perch Lates niloticus, a voracious predator.

Islands are more vulnerable against invasive species, for example spotted deer that introduced in Andaman islands causing destruction in the forest ground covers by grazing due to absence of predator they multiplied in thousands and occupied nearly islands in the main archipelago.

Habitat conservation

Selecting a keystone species like woodpecker, elephant, and the tiger is the best way to conserve habitat. Example: Tiger. To save tigers it needs a sufficient number of prey species if a prey species number to be healthy it needs huge foraging ground and food ultimately we end up saving a habitat or ecosystem or biome.

 Conserve the gene pool or make it more variation

When the gene pool is fewer variant species will be prone to disease and the possibility of extinction by epidemics is increased. So the gene pool needed more variation for adapting to the climate changes. 

States policy on wildlife conservation

The state acts like the Wildlife Protection Act 1972, Forest Conservation Act 1980, the Environment Protection Act 1986, the Biological Diversity Act 2002 protects and preserves the Indian wildlife.

Key stone species initiatives:

Project elephant, project tiger, project rhino, and project gharial are some of the successful projects that use the keystone species as a target species by conserving them and conserving their habitat with all the species intact.

International agencies on wildlife conservation 

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. It is involved in data gathering and analysis, research, field projects, advocacy, and education. IUCN's mission is to "influence, encourage and assist societies throughout the world to conserve nature and to ensure that any use of natural resources is equitable and ecologically sustainable".

The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance especially as Waterfowl Habitat is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands. It is also known as the Convention on Wetlands.

CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, also known as the Washington Convention) is a multilateral treaty to protect endangered plants and animals.

 

TRAFFIC,

The Wildlife Trade Monitoring Network is the leading non-governmental organization working globally on the trade of wild animals and plants in the context of both biodiversity and sustainable development.

 References:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_(conservation_programme)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CITES

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramsar_Convention

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Union_for_Conservation_of_Nature

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildlife_conservation

WWF_REPORThttps://c402277.ssl.cf1.rackcdn.com/publications/1187/files/original/LPR2018_Full_Report_Spreads.pdf.

PHOTO PLATE

Image1. coral bleaching, Image2.deforestation, Image3.Elephant trunks(poaching), Image4.Invasive species, Image5.Florida panther(poor gene pool), Image6..Agriculture, Image7.Pollution, Image8.Over fishing.

IMAGE CREDIT: GOOGLE IMAGES

Human-Wildlife Conflict

Human-Wildlife Conflict

Human-wildlife conflict is not a new scenario, it continues for thousands of years. Earlier we Humans were dependent and coexisted with nature as a part of the system. These start changing when humans gain the power to control the environment and change it through their will. cultivation and domestication led us to Complacency so we had the time to strengthen social bonds and hierarchy was formed. It gave him more chance of survivability so groups became organized villages and later these villages became towns and cities. In the last two millenniums, the human population increased tremendously, especially in the last 500 years. In 2020 it reached 7.8 billion so fulfilling the need itself is a major problem, it leads to deforestation by turning the forest lands into agricultural lands.

Habitat loss:

Forest lands are cleared for various purposes including agriculture, human settlements, construction of dams, and monoculture plantations. Increased demand in agricultural products and industrial demands leads to monoculture plantations like palm oil plantation and rubber plantation. This habitat loss leads to species extinction and contains the animals in minimal and pocketed space so conflicts between humans and wildlife are unavoidable. In India many species of larger mammals lives outside the protected area like wolves, leopard and striped hyena when they encounter with the human it will lead to death in many incidents for both of them. If it comes to herbivores like the bonnet, rhesus, hanuman langur, and blackbucks more than 50% of the population present in human habitation. Especially macaques' high adaptability helps them to increase their population successfully compared to their natural habitat. These species cause huge damage to agricultural productivity so local people cause them a huge threat.

Fragmentation: 

Habitat fragmentation is also a major cause of human-wildlife conflict. Prime examples for fragmentation that cause conflict will be served below.

 

1. The western ghats of Tamil Nadu are rich in biodiversity especially its homes to many endemics. Tea plantations of Anaimalais is a prime example of fragmentations of the forest it endangers animals like lion-tailed macaque this primate species is a specialist for evergreen forest types with preferential altitude and weather because of fragmentation leads to loss of continuous canopy so they need to come to the ground for reach another fragmented forest patch when they reach the ground they are vulnerable to predators and humans and they hit by the vehicles so often.

2. Palakkad gap is located between the Nilgiri Hills to the north and Anaimalai Hills to the south.  24-30 km with splits the western ghats, forest cover was converted into human habitation area and this Gap used as an important transportation route for Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Due to this Gap elephants from Nilgiris and anaimalais got trapped their migration ceased. Elephants try to cross the gap but they will get hit by trains and vehicles. In these areas, conflicts will happen in high numbers.

Poor quality:

Poor quality of the forest is one of the main reasons for human-wildlife conflict examples like Invasive species.

Invasive Species like Lantana camara (common lantana)  and Parthenium invading the forest vigorously reduce the productivity of native species that serve as food for herbivores, So that leads to food scarcity for animals so species enters the human habitation and causing the conflict with the human. Carnivore numbers are directly proportional to the herbivore population likewise herbivores number is based on the quality of the forest so forest quality is an important component for Human and Wildlife Conflict.

In this Current scenario, Human and wildlife conflict is unavoidable but we can minimize the damage for both sides by spreading awareness to the people about the importance of Wildlife and creating a curriculum that has the motto for conserving nature for the future generation.