KFRI Research Report S4 BASELINE STUDIES FOR THE PROPOSED NATURE STUDIES CENTRE AT KALADY IN THE MALAYATTOOR FOREST DIVISION Editors: S. Chand Basha K.K.N. Nair KERALA FOREST RESEARCH INSTITUTE PEECHI, THRISSUR 1993 Pages: 248 CONTENTS Page File 1 Introduction 1 r.s4.2 2 Angiosperm Flora and Specialised Ecological Niche of Malayattoor 15 r.s4.3 3 Macrofungal Flora and Checklist of Plant Diseases of Malayattoor 87 r.s4.4 4 Wildlife and Landuse Pattern of Malayattoor 111 r.s4.5 5 Status Survey of Insect Fauna of Malayattoor 135 r.s4.6 6 Soil Characteristics and Mapping of Malayattoor 159 r.s4.7 7 Vegetation Analysis and Mapping of Malayattoor 227 r.s4.8 GENERAL INTRODUCTION K.K.N. Nair 1. GENERAL INTRODUCTION K.K.N. Nair Botany Division Kerala Forest Research Institute, Peechi, Kerala, India Contents 1.1. Location 1.2. Topography 1.3. Vegetation 1.3.1. Forest plantations 1.3.2. Natural forests 1.3.2.1. Evergreen 1.3.2.2. Moist deciduous 1.3.2.3. Dry deciduous 1.3.2.4. Scrubs 1.4. Remarks on the forest types of Malayattoor Malayattoor (Ernakulam District, Kerala State, India) is a well known place in the central part of Kerala, mainly because of the pre- sence of one of the seven Churches which St. Thomas established in the State. The place is also historically reputed as it is very proximal to the birth place of Ad1 Shankara at Kalady, where there exists a temple and a Stupa (tower), and is the seat of the proposed first Sanskrit University in India. For the reasons mentioned above, at present, Malayattoor is often visited by both pilgrims and tourists, and to facilitate this, a tourist complex is also coming up there to provide accommodation and recreational facilities to the people who 1 visit the area. Also, there is a forest path that leads to the top of the hillock Kurishumudi at Malayattoor, where there is the Golden Cross and a church. Christians from different parts of South India come here to worship, almost round the year, which was rather seasonal in the past. To enjoy the sylvan environment of Malayattoor, lot of tourists and also people visiting the birth place of Adi Shankara and the Stupa at Kalady also extend their trips to Malayattoor. An added attraction of Malayattoor is the Manappattu Chira - a shallow but vast pond at the foothills of Kurishumudi with boating facility - which is now being beautified by the Tourism Development Corporation to attract more visitors. It is near this well known religious and tourist centre that Kerala Forest Department is planning to establish the "Adi Sankara Nature Study Centre" with financial support from the World Bank. As envisaged, the Study Centre tries to incorporate informative details on various aspects of natural and man-made forests of the State to be of educative value to nature lovers, students, forest dwellers, scien- tists, tourists, etc. who frequent the area. For this, information on various aspects of the natural and man-made forests of Kerala is a pre-requisite and the present study is intended to generate the same for Kurishumudi and surrounding forest areas of Malayattoor. 1.1. LOCATION The study area comes within the Kalady Forest Range of Malayattoor Forest Division, situated between 9o47' and 10o17' North 2 latitude and 76o16' and 76o57' East longitude, in the Ernakulam District of Kerala State (Fig. 1.1). The Forest Division includes four ranges, namely Kalady, Kodanad, Kothamangalam and Thodupuzha with a 2 total of about 680 km of forest land belonging to it with an effec- tive forest cover of 570 km2 (Chandrasekharan, Forest Resources of Kerala, 1973). Kalady Forest Range covers about 7199 ha and is bordered on the South by Periar river, East by a canal that joins Periar (locally known as Illithodu which is also the name of a place nearby), North by a tarred road that extends from Perum-Thodu to Post Office Junction near Pandupara Church and on the West by a tarred road that leads to Angamali through Manjappra village. The Range is divided into four sections (Fig. 1.2) namely Karakad (1887 ha), Kurishmudi (1118 ha), Kannimangalam (2237 ha) and Evergreen (1958 ha). The tarred road that deviates towards North from Kalady Junction of the Main Central Road of Kerala, after traversing for about 20 km in a northern direction ends at a point called Kadapara in the foot of Kurishmudi peak. From this point, to the top of Kurishumudi, there is a forest path of about 20 m width, now planted with shade trees on both sides of it to provide shade for people during summer when they go to the church at the top of the hill for worship. The path ends at the top of Kurishumudi peak (387 m above msl), where the Golden Cross and church of St. Thomas are situated. At Kadapara, along the northern boundary of the pond Manappattu- Chira, there goes a tarred road towards West which after a course of 3 about 500 metres joins the road that leads to Angamali via Manjappra, mentioned earlier. Southern border of this road is the Manappattu- Chira, a shallow pond, which get almost dried up during summer, when several aquatic and semiaquatic species colonize at its bottom. Here and there, in the wet bottom of the pond, local people raise small patches of paddy crop when it is empty. The pond is with well built boundary walls around it and is provided with a boat landing platform in the middle on its sourthern side. About 500 metres before reaching the bottom of Kurishumudi peak, there is a metalled road which takes an easterly direction and runs along the side of I11i-thodu to link the tarred road that leads to P.O. Junction near Pandupara. Similarly, a forest road that goes interior from the P.O. Junction-Manjappra--Angamali road, from near Kannimangalam Guard Station, runs through the Kannimangalam forest section and meets the above mentioned road that runs paralleled to I11i-thodu. Apart from these, there is no motorable path within the reserve forest area. Hence, many parts of it are either approachable only by foot or inaccessible mainly due to topographical peculiarities and steep slopes with steep rock, characteristic to the area. 1.2. TOPOGRAPHY The study area is situated along the western slope of the Western Ghats of Kerala. The maximum height of the area is about 387 m above msl at the apex of Kurishumudi peak which comes down to 50 m in the foothills. The whole area is hilly in character and ground 4 surface is highly undulating and rugged. From the plains of Kalady, the hillock Kurishumudi suddenly rises to attain a height of 387 m above m5l. The southern slope of this hillock is steep, whereas to- wards West, the slope is gradual. In this region plantations of Cashew are quite common. Towards the eastern side of Kurishumudi also the south-eastern part is rather undulating and gradually descending whereas the narrow top of the ridge continues in an easterly direction and after taking a southern course comes down almost suddenly to the plains. The northern side of Kurishumudi is sometimes with sudden decends with sheet rock here and there and sometimes with shallow depressions harbouring moist deciduous forests. As it reaches the foothills, plantations of teak and a disturbed natural forest which was under illegal occupation previously and evicted during the emer- gency period, exist. In this area are quite common fruit trees like Jack, Mango, Citrus, Tamarindus and so on, and Glyricidia as hedge, planted by the encroachers. Even boundaries of each of the encroached private holdings are seen now in this area. When it reaches the bottom of the hillock, towards the north-eastern part, there exists an extensive grassland surrounded by moist deciduous forests and teak plantations. This grassland, during rainy season, become water-logged. Around this grassy patch is seen luxuriant natural moist deciduous forests with fairly rich floristic diversity. It is through this valley that the forest road that starts from Kannimangalam traverses and meets the above mentioned road bordering Illi-thodu, the eastern boundary of the Forest Range. Towards the northern side of the ridge that traverses the area from Kurishumudi, about a kilometer East of the peak, there is a depression harbouring a small patch of evergreen forest. This evergreen patch slowly descend, engulfing a small hill 5 stream and a waterfall. Beyond this, the forests get transformed into moist deciduous type, followed by plantations of teak, the once en- croached area and the grassy open land. Beyond the evergreen patch, the narrow ridge of the hill extending from Kurishumudi peak takes a southern direction with sheet rock here and there and merges with the agricultural land on the South-eastern boundary of the Forest Range. The sudden change in the direction of the ridge has created an extensive valley of moist deciduous forests at a place known as Pottah towards the eastern side of Kurishumudi. This sahghly disturbed area due to human interferences like collection of green manure, fodder, firewood, medicinal plants, and so on. The valley, when it reaches the southern limit of the reserved forest, is with several extensions of sheet rock or rock overlaiden with a thin layer of soil where there is a totally failed plantation of teak. This area is now being planted up with several indigenous timber species like Dalbergia latifolia, Albizia odoratissima, Tamarindus indica, Casuarina equi - setifolia, etc. by the Forest Department. Here and there, bordering or penetrating into the reserved forests, are private holdings.