September-October 2017 NEWS LETTER KERALA 2017 Newsletter of WWF - India, Kerala State Office FROM THE STATE DIRECTOR’S DESK limelight since the past many years and the observation of the International Day for the Preservation of Ozone Layer The Marine Programme of WWF-India has initiated a came up in this background. But ever since we banned project to assess the Shark Fin Trade in selected states of CFCs and related products, the Ozone Layer has recovered India including Kerala. Mr. Vishnu, an intern has been well. This year also, we have been part of the observation of posted in Kerala for the data collection as part of this Ozone Day by various agencies in our network including project. Hope the comprehensive data collection and Dept. of Environment and Climate Change, Govt. of Kerala subsequent analysis will be able to throw light on the trade at VJT Hall, Academy for Mountaineering and Adventure of shark fins and highlight the plight of sharks and thereby Sports (AMAS), Neyyattinkara at Carmel Higher Secondary come up with effective and efficient conservation strategies School, Vazhuthacaud and Centre for Innovation in Science to protect the different species of sharks including the and Social Action (CISSA) at Bharatiya Vidyapeedom, Schedule ones. On the project ‘Marine Turtle Conservation Parassala. One among the five major programmes of in Kerala’, now that we have successfully completed the environment education of WWF-India is the national level, project in the first year and has submitted the Activity one of its kind, wildlife quiz named Wild Wisdom Quiz. Report and other documents, the funder Johnson Lifts This year, being the 10th edition, the competition witnessed and Escalators has conveyed to us their satisfaction in the very good participation of around 43 school teams in the project and as a result has agreed to fund the project in Junior category and 42 teams in the Middle category. the second year also. In this background, the Turtle nesting The City-level Competition of Wild Wisdom Quiz was sites were visited to have interaction with the Local Marine held at St. Mary’s School, Pattom on 21st September. The Turtle Conservation Groups (LMTCGs) to understand their Quiz Master of the day was Ms. Anjana Parameswaram need. The points shared by the LMTCG Members will from Thrissur. We were also part of the observation of be compiled into the project proposal. On the policy and Wildlife Week with the Senior Education Officer and State advocacy front, we attended the Consultation Workshop Director giving invited talks, leading technical sessions organized by Kerala State Biodiversity Board to discuss and conducting quiz in various forums at Bharat Aviation on the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan Academy, Nedumangad and Govt. Women’s College, and gave out inputs. We also attended the Stakeholder Thiruvananthapuram. The State Office is also gearing up Consultation Workshop organized in Kochi in October for the launch of One Planet Academy in Kerala. To ensure on the INTERACT Bio Project - a new biodiversity maximum outreach, we have initiated a discussion with conservation project for Kochi Corporation funded by the IT@Schools, Govt. of Kerala for possible association in the Federal Republic of Germany facilitated by ICLEI, New programme. Several outdoor learning programmes were Delhi and tabled the WWF Approach Note on the project. also organized including the Eco Trail to Chathancode The Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Social Forestry, forests falling under Peppara Wildlife Sanctuary for the Kerala Forests and Wildlife Department has invited WWF- team from L’ecole Chempaka, Eco-Trail to Kallar - Ponmudi India to prepare a White Paper on how to turn around forests in connection with Wipro earthian - Sustainability the agenda of the Social Forestry Division from planting Education programme in which there were 23 participants trees to protection of biodiversity outside forest area. The from Thiruvananthapuram district including students State Director has a personal meeting with the PCCF and who were doing the projects, guiding teachers, and WWF based on his comments and suggestions drafted a White volunteers and a two days Nature Orientation Camp Paper which was then circulated with Dr Sejal Worah, Ms. at Vazhachal Forests with 20 participants from Thrissur Vishaish Uppal and others in WWF-India for their inputs, district. finally revised and submitted for the Department to put it forward to the Government for necessary approval and financial allocation. The thinning of the Ozone Layer Renjan Mathew Varghese, State Director subsequently referred to as the ‘Ozone Hole’ has been in the of “exceptional value to evolutionary science” meriting its IMPORTANT NEWS ON listing as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Baikal’s high NATURE AND ENVIRONMENT biodiversity includes over 3,600 plant and animal species, most of which are endemic to the lake. Over the past several years, however, the lake, a major international tourist GLOBAL attraction, has been crippled by a series of detrimental phenomena, some of which remain a mystery to Scientists. World’s deepest lake in peril They include the disappearance of the Omul fish, rapid Lake Baikal is undergoing its gravest crisis in recent history, growth of putrid algae and the death of endemic species says experts. Holding one-fifth of the world’s unfrozen of sponges across its vast 3.2 million-hectare area. Starting freshwater, Baikal in Russia’s Siberia is a natural wonder in October, the Government introduced a ban on all Mruthika/ September-October 2017 / 1 ommercial fishing of Omul, a species of the Salmon family focused on unexplored Snow Leopard habitats. (The Hindu, only found in Baikal, fearing “irreversible consequences for 6 October, 2017) its population”, according to the Russian Fisheries Agency (The Hindu, 21 October, 2017) Fish-lizard’ fossil from Kutch is a Jurassic first A near-complete Jurassic-era fossil of an intriguing animal Hunter vs hunted: how different species react to smell that looks like a mash up of a Dolphin and Lizard has been of blood unearthed in Kutch, Gujarat. Ichthyosaurs or ‘fish- lizards’ The faintest whiff of a molecule from mammal blood known in Greek were large reptiles that lived at the same time as E2D sends some animals into a predatory frenzy but as dinosaurs. While many Ichthyosaur fossils have been frightens others, including people, into retreat, Scientists found in North America and Europe, the fossil record in have discovered. Never before has the same molecule the Southern Hemisphere has mostly been limited to South been known to provoke diametrically opposite behaviours America and Australia. Guntupalli Prasad, a Geologist in creatures ranging from horseflies to humans, hinting at the University of Delhi, said “when a fossil bone from at deep evolutionary roots, they reported in the journal the animal’s skeleton was first found by an Indo-German Scientific Reports. Animals, especially mammals, use their research team in Kutch in 2016, they suspected it to belong sense of smell to find food, hook up with partners, and to a dinosaur. But the bone was too long and later the whole detect danger. Many of these chemical triggers are specific skeleton was unearthed. It’s the first Jurassic Ichthyosaur to one species, or work in combination with other odours. find in India”. (The Hindu, 20 October, 2017) (The Hindu, 24 October, 2017) STATE NATIONAL Kanthalloor’s crop diversity to be mapped Yamuna in distress after immersions A joint effort to make a registry documenting the food Government agencies in the National Capital have failed crop diversity of the Perumala region of Kanthalloor the dying Yamuna yet again this year, as the nine-day-long Gramapanchayat in Idukki got under way with Sacred Durga Puja festivities, left the river in dire straits. Despite Heart College at Thevara dispatching a team of 21 students a strict order by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in for an in-situ camp and documentation of the varieties. The September, following a story by The Hindu on the state of Jaiva Jeevitham Collective, steered by the CPI (M), which the immersion ghats across the city almost over two weeks has cultivated organically 46 types of fruits, vegetables, after Ganesh Chaturthi, no visible change can be seen. On pulses and native grains on just an acre of land in the area, the banks of south Delhi’s Kalindi Kunj Ghat and north and the Organic Kerala Charitable Trust are joining hands Delhi’s Nigam Bodh Ghat, half submerged idols of Durga, in the effort. “Clearly, the region is a top food crop diversity most of them made of Plaster of Paris (PoP), were seen. The hub. We cultivated 20 odd varieties of fruits, 10 types of winter river water also saw a sea of plastic bags floating with glass vegetables, roots, and native varieties of rice, some under the threat bangles, flower petals and other decorations made of metal of extinction” says M.M. Abbas of Jaiva Jeevitham. “Local and plastic. Hans Raj, 35, a lifeguard sieving the debris to people say they used to have some 100 food crop varieties earlier, the shore, said that most of the idols immersed were made but some just faded away, thanks to the issues with farming, global of PoP. “Idols made of PoP do not dissolve in water, unlike idols warming which has upped temperature in the region by a few made from mud. We also find it difficult to pull them out because degrees, pollution and unsustainable farming practices. The effort the broken idols pierce our hands and feet and often cause grievous is to see if we can scientifically retrieve some of these lost varieties injuries” he said. (The Hindu, 2 October, 2017) and popularise natural farming practices” he says (The Hindu, 30 Snow Leopard photographed in Arunachal September, 2017).