Ecological Sustainability of Riverine Ecosystems in Central Western Ghats
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© Kamla-Raj 2018 J Biodiversity, 9(1-2): 25-42 (2018) PRINT: ISSN 0976-6901 ONLINE: ISSN 2456-6543 DOI: 10.31901/24566543.2018/09.1-2.078 Ecological Sustainability of Riverine Ecosystems in Central Western Ghats T. V. Ramachandra1, 2, 3*, Bharath Setturu1 and S. Vinay1 1Energy and Wetlands Research Group, Centre for Ecological Sciences (CES) 2Centre for Sustainable Technologies (ASTRA) 3Centre for infrastructure, Sustainable Transportation and Urban Planning (CiSTUP) Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, Karnataka, India KEYWORDS Biodiversity. Ecological Sustainability. Land Use Land Cover. Western Ghats ABSTRACT The conservation and sustainable management of ecosystems are the vital requisites in the pursuit of environment friendly development goals. This requires an understanding of the complex functioning of ecosystems, diversity of resources, ecosystem goods and services and their quintessential role in supporting people’s livelihood. Ecological units with the exceptional biotic and abiotic elements are designated as Ecologically Sensitive Regions (ESRs). Identification of ESRs has been done by considering spatially, both ecological and social dimensions of environmental variables. The current research maps ESR at village levels in the Kali River Basin of Central Western Ghats through aggregated weightage metric score as ESR (1-4) based on attributes (biological, Geo climatic, Social, etc.). There are 203 villages in ESR-1, 73 in ESR-2, 77 in ESR-3, and 181 villages in ESR-4. Ecologically fragile regions to be conserved on priority with no disturbances are ESR 1 and ESR 2, while ESR 4 is for development. INTRODUCTION mosaic of interconnected forest and non-forest patches, constituting a complex ecological, eco- Sustainable development of a region requires nomic and socio-cultural systems. Forest eco- a synoptic ecosystem approach that relates to systems have been playing a crucial role in sus- the dynamics of natural variability and the ef- taining life on the earth through the sustenance fects of human interventions on key indicators of ecological goods and services, biological di- of biodiversity and productivity (Ramachandra versity, regulation of climate, carbon sequestra- et al. 2007). Ecosystems are the distinct biologi- tion, protection of soil and water bodies, etc. cal entities that sustain the biosphere and are They provide abundant resources and sustain characterised by a range of functions: nutrient the livelihood of the global population (Gibson cycling, bio-geochemical cycle, hydrologic cy- et al. 2011; Hansen et al. 2013), They act as prime cling, etc. They are interrelated in space and time biodiversity repositories (Kindstrand et al. 2008; in complex dynamic patterns depending on the Li et al. 2009) and mitigate global warming (Ca- health of landscape (Lin et al. 2018). Ecological bral et al. 2010) by absorbing 30 percent of fos- sustainability refers to the ecosystems ability to sil fuel CO2 emissions (Pan et al. 2011). The cope with various kinds of environmental dis- goods and services provided by forested land- turbances that have the potential of adversely scapes are vital to the socioeconomic develop- changing the character of the natural landscapes ment of human populations (DeFries et al. 2004) while maintaining the sustenance of natural re- and their survival (Ramachandra et al. 2017). sources (water, soil, etc.). The landscape is a However, the forests are being altered due to the uncontrolled and unplanned anthropogen- ic activities such as agriculture, deforestation, *Address for correspondence: Dr. T.V. Ramachandra etc. affecting the ecosystem structure and health. Energy and Wetlands Research Group, CES TE15 Forests cover about 30 percent today at global- Centre for Ecological Sciences, ly as opposed to 50 percent of the earth’s land Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560 019 area 8000 years ago depleted with the expanded Web URL: http://ces.iisc.ernet.in/energy, http://ces.iisc.ernet.in/foss extents of croplands, pastures, plantations, and Phone: 080-22933099/22933503 Extn 107 urban areas (FAO 2011). The Earth’s land sur- E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] face has lost 40 percent of natural forest by 1990 26 T. V. RAMACHANDRA, BHARATH SETTURU AND S. VINAY due to the expansion of cropland and perma- 2018) and disease vectors. This necessitates nent pasture (Ramachandra and Shruthi 2007). quantification of LULC changes to evolve sus- The rapid conversion of forests for agriculture, tainable natural resource management strategies. timber production, infrastructure activities and Conservation of forest ecosystem has become a other anthropogenic uses has generated vast, critical task due to increased high intensities of human-dominated landscapes with potentially anthropogenic disturbances in the form of LULC calamitous consequences for biodiversity to changes as compared to natural disturbance pro- sustain (Gould et al. 2017). Despite significant cesses (Kivinen and Kumpula 2013). This has services of these ecosystems, global deforesta- led to the development of systematic conserva- tion rates have remained alarmingly high over tion planning approaches as an increasingly vi- the past decades (DeFries et al. 2010). This ne- tal tool for protecting the nature around the cessitates synthesis of causal factors which world. would aid in formulating location specific man- The comprehensive knowledge about LULC agement plans to mitigate impacts. The struc- has become increasingly important for planning ture of a landscape depends on land cover (LC), and visualization of future growth to overcome which decides the functioning of respective ec- the problems of haphazard, uncontrolled devel- osystems. LC refers the physical cover of a land- opment in ecologically sensitive regions scape such as vegetation, non-vegetation (soil, (Kennedy et al. 2009). Temporal remote sensing water), etc., whereas land use (LU) describes data, geographic information systems (GIS) tech- management and modification of natural envi- niques, free and open source software technolo- ronment to a human with socioeconomic func- gies are providing efficient methods for the anal- tions and services. ysis of LULC dynamics required for planning and Land use land cover (LULC) analysis helps protection (Ramachandra et al. 2014). The forests in understanding bio-geophysical processes of Western Ghats are undergoing deforestation, and anthropogenic pressures on the ecosystem. while the forest under protected areas is also ex- LULC change resulting in deforestation has been periencing the risk of land use changes. recognized as an important driver of environ- The conservation and sustainable manage- mental changes due to alterations in tempera- ment of ecosystems are the vital requisites for ture-humidity response pattern affecting plant sustenance of natural resources. The impact of physiology and diverse ecosystem functions unplanned developmental activities during the (Findell et al. 2017). The uncontrolled LU chang- post-independence period is evident from the es in forested landscapes induce imbalances by barren hilltops, conversion of perennial streams subdividing the contiguous native forests in to to seasonal ones, loss of livelihood, etc. This smaller fragments with isolated patches, which necessitates an understanding of the complex is known as forest fragmentation (Laurance et functioning of ecosystems, diversity of resourc- al. 2002; Bharath et al. 2012). Fragmentation re- es, ecosystem goods and services and their fers to breaking up of contiguous natural forest quintessential role in supporting people’s liveli- patches into smaller tracts of forest surrounded hood. Ecological units with the exceptional bi- by other land uses, causing a disruption in con- otic and abiotic elements are designated as Eco- tinuity of the natural landscape (Ramachandra logically Sensitive Regions (ESRs). Identifica- et al. 2016a). Forest fragmentation with subse- tion of ESRs has to be done considering ecolog- quent edge effects due to infrastructure devel- ical, bio-geo climatic, social dimensions of envi- opments (linear projects, etc.) has impaired eco- ronmental variables. Ecologically Sensitive Re- system goods and services including carbon gions (ESR) are defined under conservation sequestration ability, hydrologic regime, biodi- planning approach as ‘‘large units of land or versity (Harper et al. 2005; Vinay et al. 2013; Bhar- water containing a geographically distinct as- ath et al. 2014), aggravate predation (Cagnolo et semblage of species, natural communities, and al. 2006), fire susceptibility, alters microclimate environmental conditions” (Olson et al. 2001). and enhance carbon emissions (Houghton and ESR has the capacity to support and maintain Nassikas 2017). The unrestrained deforestation the balanced and integrated ecosystem in a par- will alter microclimate of the region, leading to ticular region under protective measures. Sys- increasing in land surface temperature and pro- tematic conservation by prioritization of sensi- liferation of exotic species (Ramachandra et al. tive regions has become an effective and eco- ECOLOGICAL SUSTAINABILITY 27 nomical method (Myers et al. 2000) and is wide- This involves understanding LULC dynamics, ly used to improve ecosystem by conservation ecology and socioeconomic status in the Kali practices. With respect to Indian scenario, Union River Basin (Kali Tiger Reserve - KTR). Ministry of Environment Forests and Climate change (MoEFCC) has taken an initiative to pro- Study