Breathing Life Back In

Conservation APRIL 20, 2012 Breathing life back in There is a pressing need to restore habitats in the Palani Hills before the ecology of the The hills now face threats from with the High Range and Anaimalai Hills. Sri Lanka also has a similar elevated range in the Central High- lands, and all of these mountains have similar Pre- tourism, a tidal wave of waste, Cambrian geological origins. Today the fragile eco- expanding development projects, systems in the Palani Hills are under threat – from both anthropogenic and ecological actors – and and ecological changes linked to there is a pressing need to restore habitats before there is an irreversible change to the area’s ecology. invasive species. This article explores the idea of ecological restoration, what it means and why it is an idea whose time NOT far from the bustling streets and temples of has come in the upper Palani Hills landscape. Madurai, a city with some of the oldest links to Although they are named for the temple town southern India’s cultural history, is a mountain land- dedicated to Murugan, the Palani Hills are most scape that has experienced relatively little ecological often associated with their hill station of Kodaikanal. change since the advent of Homo sapiens in India. Once a sleepy, little-known summer village, it has The Palani Hills are composed of a lofty 1,000- now metamorphosed into a major tourist hub at- 2,000-metre plateau protruding eastwards from the tracting visitors from across the State, country and spinal-cord-like Western Ghats into the semi-arid world throughout the year. People are drawn to the plains within eyesight of the temple town. Composed town’s salubrious climate, viewpoints, man-made of weathered charkonite schist, the hills host a range lake, confectionaries and other attractions. Most of different ecosystems and forest types. Morpholog- tourists come for short visits from the nearby urban ically they are similar to the Nilgiris and contiguous centres in southern India, and the traditional “sea- 64 FRONTLINE APRIL 20, 2012 A PAN0RAMIC VIEW of the nto the sholas Palani Hills. e area changes irreversibly. TEXT & PHOTOGRAPHS BY IAN LOCKWOOD son” that happens in the months of Issues of competing claims on land in upper Palani’s plateau supported a April and May has now been extended the lower hills towards the east of the vast shola/grasslands mosaic, stretch- for most of the year. Some visitors stay range and the cash-laced issue of tou- ing from the present lake basin to the on. The town hosts an eclectic mix of rism are factors that have contributed western boundary with the High people fleeing India’s urban centres: to the stalemate. In the meantime, the Range. This particular vegetation type cheese-makers, organic farmers, re- myriad set of pressures on the land- is typical of the upper areas (roughly tired civil servants, missionaries, art- scape has steadily increased. The Pala- above 1,500 m) of the Western Ghats. ists and many others. While most of ni Hills now face threats from tourism The notable areas that support (or sup- these people are drawn to the beauty numbers, a tidal wave of waste, ex- ported) it are in the Nilgiri Hills, the and appeal of the hills, few of them are panding development projects, and High Range and the Anaimalai Hills aware of the unique ecology of the area ecological changes linked to invasive as well as in a few other highland and the dramatic changes that have species. It is a crucial moment, and patches. Undisturbed shola/grassland taken place in recent years. though the challenge is significant, systems are characterised by large ex- Nine years ago an article in this this is the time to act. panses of montane savanna grasslands journal (Frontline, August 15, 2003) interrupted by pockets of dense ever- addressed the lingering issue of pro- ON THE NATURE OF green tropical and subtropical broad- tected area and community-based SHOLA/GRASSLANDS leaf forests called sholas. conservation initiatives in the Palani One reason why the Palani Hills are Ecologists recognise undisturbed Hills. To this date, the issue remains in special is that they still host remnant shola/grasslands as important hydr- limbo, while proposals and counter- examples of the once dominant shola/ ological systems, especially compared claims work their way through various grasslands vegetation mosaic. There with plantations of introduced tree government offices and elected bodies. was a time not so long ago when the species. They help to intercept damp FRONTLINE 65 GRASSLANDS AT IBEX Peak. These are threatened by encroaching exotic vegetation. 66 FRONTLINE APRIL 20, 2012 monsoon air currents and absorb much of the dramatic rainfall of the two wet seasons. Shola/grasslands are thus vital elements in the watersheds that millions of people living in the drier shadow of the mountains depend on for sustenance. Biodiversity is unique in shola/grasslands, with lead- ing scientists calling them “sky islands” isolated from each other by changed conditions in the lowlands. There are relic populations (such as rhododen- dron species) whose nearest relatives are in the Himalayas and still older species (such as tree ferns, Cyathea sp.) that date back to the age of Gond- wanaland. The high altitude of the southern highlands means that cold temperatures and frost play a key role in the winters. The system periodically experiences fires, and there has been much debate in the past about the role of fire in shola/grassland systems. The shola/grasslands mosaic is now broad- ly recognised as the climax vegetation of these hills rather than as an accident of anthropogenic influences (grazing, fire, and so on). For much of the 20th century, montane grasslands were categorised MIST RISING UP to cliffs at 2,500 metres in a relatively undisturbed part of as “wasteland”. As a result, most of the the Palani Hills escarpment. montane grasslands were converted into commercial plantations of non- native, fast-growing tree species (nota- bly eucalyptus, pinus and acacia) in all the major upper plateaus in the West- ern Ghats. In the Palani Hills, this most often left the pockets of shola undisturbed, but today these are hard to spot amidst the massive plantations. Afforestation of the montane grasslands started in the colonial period but continues into the present in some areas. Very few areas in the higher West- ern Ghats were spared from plantations. Today the largest expans- es of undisturbed shola/grasslands survive only in Kerala’s Eravikulam National Park and Tamil Nadu’s Muk- kurthy National Park and the Anaima- lai Tiger Reserve (all areas that had been set aside for controlled hunting at one point in time). However, crucial places like the upper Palani Hills (un- AT PRAYER POINT near Marion. Small populations of der reserve forests) have pockets of Nilgiri tahr are still holding out on the southern habitat that still retain surviving rem- escarpment but are threatened by invasive tree species. FRONTLINE 67 The biodiversity of Palani Hills WHITE-BELLIED SHORTWING. A LARGE-SCALED PIT viper. GREEN FROG. SHRUB FROG. A GAUR AT Kukaal. 68 FRONTLINE PRUNELLA VULGARIS. VALERIAN. EXACUM WIGHTIANUM. LYSIMACHIA LESCHENAULTII. FRONTLINE 69 APRIL 20, 2012 nants of the mosaic. It is these areas HERE, SYMPLOCOS that offer a significant opportunity for COCHINCHINENSIS in ecological restoration efforts. a wattle forest near Gundar Valley. Shola INTO THE REMOTE PALANIS species are starting to Last summer, I had the good fortune to colonise plantations of spend an extended period in the Pala- exotic trees on their nis where I participated in two surveys edges. of the upper Palani plateau that helped give a real sense of both the incredible VCT VOLUNTEERS ecological wealth of the area and the AND workers cut back fragility of the ecosystems. Both sur- wattle at the Vatapari veys were organised through the Vat- marsh. This degraded takanal Conservation Trust (VCT) marsh and grassland is with the support of the Tamil Nadu a key experimental site Forest Department. The aim was to get to gauge the a qualitative assessment of the ecosys- effectiveness of the tems along the southern escarpment restoration measures. 70 FRONTLINE APRIL 20, 2012 that stretches from Kodaikanal to Top experiments in potato cultivation, but Station. Several of us had surveyed the in the end it was the large monoculture same area in 1996 during the kurinji tree plantations that came to dominate (Strobilanthes sp.) blooming (Fron- the landscape. tline, August 8, 2006). On this trip we The road to Munnar was closed in were specifically interested in the state the 1990s because it seemed to encour- of grasslands in these remote parts of age uncontrolled tourist traffic and il- the Palanis. legal activities (poaching and ganja The southern escarpment of the cultivation). It has now been taken Palani Hills hosts what are arguably over by a mix of introduced and native some of the grandest, yet least known, vegetation. Fallen trees lie across large landscapes in the entire Western sections, a deep layer of humus has Ghats. The cliffs of the escarpment rise built up over tarmac, and there are abruptly from the plains of the Vaigai only remnants of the former road. basin and ascend to a tableland whose Strands of Rubus ellipticus, the exotic edge undulates from 1,800 to 2,500 raspberry of the hills, and other shrubs metres. The escarpment runs in a have engulfed large areas. The old roughly east-to-west direction and is granite milestones, citing mileage to interrupted by steep ridges and cliffs Cochin (Kochi) and Madurai, bear si- diving precipitously downwards to the lent testimony to a time gone by.

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