Sanctuary | In The Field More at www.sanctuaryasia.com | In The Field THE HILLS OF MURUGAN LANDSCAPE, ECOLOGY AND CHANGE IN THE PALANI HILLS I was only 15 when our school’s three-day ‘80 Text and photographs by Ian Lockwood mile’ trek came through this isolated corner of the Palanis. It had been raining and mist obscured the views, but when it cleared, there was little doubt that the landscape t is July in the high reaches of the Palani Hills and a group of us is here was majestic beyond our I wildest imaginations. negotiating a bewildering tangle of fallen trees and vegetation that has been blown across our path by gusts from the southwest monsoon. We are a disparate group – an ecologist studying shola birds, a GIS specialist mapping TOP The idea of the southern Western Ghats as grassland patches, two forest guards armed with arivaals (curved blades) ‘sky islands’ highlights the fact that the upper, and my son Lenny who has agreed to accompany us on a path that his great montane portions are remarkably different grandfather walked in the early 20th century. We are forced to scramble from the plains areas at their base. Here a using all fours on damp moss and a bed of undecomposed leaf litter through crisp winter line over the Agamalai range of the Palani Hills delineates areas above 1,500 m. the mess of wattle. Our destination lies ahead on a precipitous escarpment Distant ranges on the Kerala border to the west that drops dramatically from 2,500 m. in vertical granite cliffs to the dry are also visible. plains that surround the edge of the lofty plateau of the Palani hills. This is FACING PAGE BOTTOM This large-scaled pit one of the last corners to have escaped the plantation wave in which large viper Trimeresurus macrolepis in the Pambar areas were ostensibly carpeted with non-native timber species to replace shola is an endemic species associated with ‘wastelands’ (grasslands) with commercially-valuable tree species. wet evergreen forests, including sholas, in the I have walked this same trail many times and can vividly remember a southern Western Ghats. time when it was a gentle pathway through pockets of bonsai-like sholas BOTTOM LEFT Montane grasslands on the and rolling montane grasslands. I was only 15 when our school’s three-day windy slopes of Perumal Malai, the distinctive hat-shaped peak of the Palani Hills, survives ‘130 km.’ trek came through this isolated corner of the Palanis. It had been amongst a plantation of non-native Eucalyptus raining and mist obscured the views, but when it cleared, there was little sp. plantation. This is an area ripe for ecological doubt that the landscape here was majestic beyond our wildest imaginations. restoration where thinning of the trees would At the time, most of our group was focused on slogging through the rain- allow a return of the grassland habitat. 74 Sanctuary Asia, August 2018 Sanctuary Asia, Auguat 2018 75 Sanctuary | In The Field More at www.sanctuaryasia.com | In The Field VAISHALI RAWAT VAISHALI anthropocentric-influenced hybrid ecology eucalyptus, Acacia and Mexican Pinus in the upper hills. These changes pose species. Wildlife populations are changing In the decades since dilemmas for conservationists seeking to with large herbivores moving into urban independence, there were no protect the hills in an age where there environments in Kodaikanal township. important Protected Areas are unprecedented demands on land Native shola species are regenerating in resources for commercial development many of these plantations – a potentially designated in the Palani Hills and water extraction. positive impact though different from and the area escaped the The Palanis are an important range what was originally in place. Species attention of national-level in the southern Western Ghats, the dependent on the montane grasslands conservation organisations. heterogeneous mountain spine that runs such as the endemic Nilgiri Pipit Anthus During the same period, parallel to India’s western coast from nilghiriensis and Nilgiri tahr Nilgiritragus aggressive plantation of non- Kanyakumari to Maharashtra’s Tapti river. hylocrius are vulnerable to these changes. native timber species The Western Ghats chain, with its mix of The hydrological impact of plantation in montane grasslands landscapes and different forest types is cover in the Palanis is not well understood (regrettably considered to be recognised for its high species endemism but studies from the Nilgiris Hills have ‘wastelands’) accelerated. and the key role it plays in providing water shown significant decline in water after to peninsular India. The fact that there is non-native timber plantations replaced significant pressure on the Western Ghats montane grasslands. This reminds us have placed it (together with Sri Lanka) of the Palani Hills Conservation Council as one of Conservation International’s FACING PAGE EXTREME LEFT This exquisite (PHCC) adage “the health of the hills is the shola set amidst the iconic Pillar Rocks has soaked hike, avoiding pangs of hunger and nursing blistered designated ‘hottest biodiversity hotspots’. feet. I felt those things too, but the cliffs, mist and silence of wealth of the plains.” been badly damaged by tourists as well as The southern Western Ghats, including the After several hours of hiking through those trying to protect it. Haphazard iron grills the edges evermore etched a vivid place in my memory. What Palani Hills, host a variety of vegetation, plantation-dominated systems our group have been installed in an unsuccessful effort we didn’t know in the 1980s was that the plantations of fast- including lowland tropical rainforests, moist to keep tourists from clambering over roots of arrives at the edge of escarpment. We growing Australian and Mexican timber species would soon deciduous forests, dry scrub forests and the Photinia integrefolia ssp. sublanceolata or have more or less uninterrupted views overwhelm the same grasslands. Now, with my colleagues and the sholas/grasslands mosaic in the upper devil’s kitchen and a precipitous edge. back across the plateau towards Berijam son, I am following the old trails to map the last grasslands reaches (above 1,500 m.). TOP These montane grasslands in the and Kodaikanal. We can see multiple layers and see if we can contribute to the protection and possible In the decades since independence, Kodaikanal area have given away to urban growth as the popular tourism centre has restoration of the ecology of these hills. there were no important Protected Areas of dense growth of plantations – the tall grown. Poor enforcement of an enlightened designated in the Palani Hills and the area eucalyptus, the wave patterns of pine CHANGES OVER TIME trees and the yellow-flowered wattle are township management plan has led to an escaped the attention of national-level explosion of buildings with dire consequences The Palani Hills in the southern state of Tamil Nadu is named conservation organisations. During the visibly distinguishable. There is a large to natural habitats, the hydrology as well as for the temple town to the north, which hosts the most same period, aggressive plantation of marsh below us but the pine trees are the overall carrying capacity of the hill station. important Murugan temple in India. The hills have undergone non-native timber species in montane creeping up beyond its edges into the FACING PAGE CENTER Agricultural dramatic ecological change in the last 150 years with mixed grasslands (regrettably considered to middle. To the south, the cliffs of the practices and an increase in area of land impacts on the area’s biodiversity and hydrological properties. be ‘wastelands’) accelerated. The upper escapement leave the group spellbound. under cultivation threaten the fragile shola/ New studies based on satellite imagery and ground Palanis are now carpeted with timber They fall in dizzying, knife-sharp edges grasslands mosaic of the upper Palani Hills. Together with expanding unsustainable tourism of granite into the deep valleys below. observations are helping us to better understand change in plantations, which show up dramatically and plantation spread, clearing fields for this range of rugged mountains. They have shed light on the in satellite imagery. The impact has There are pockets of sholas that fill the agriculture as seen here below the Kukkal shola dramatic change in vegetation and land cover, its complicated been complicated: there is more forest valleys right from the top down to several is a challenge that ecosystem managers must (but not always disastrous) impacts and the emergence of an cover but it is dominated by Australian hundred metres of the valley floor. On deal with. 76 Sanctuary Asia, August 2018 Sanctuary Asia, Auguat 2018 77 Sanctuary | In The Field More at www.sanctuaryasia.com | In The Field place in Sanctuary Asia magazine clear that the plantations have spread 15 years ago and dramatic change since my far beyond the original boundaries than Our grasslands mapping project’s Our observations give grandfather’s generation walked the hills in they were originally designed to be in. goal was to better study and fresh impetus to our team and the early 20th century. The good news is Most of the southern escarpment has a quantify the ecological changes in we return to our campsite with that there is still a chance to reverse this fire-line etched into its grasslands and the Palani Hills. This important work invasion at this sublime location. In fact, the now plantation species are spreading the sobering realisation that represents the combined efforts Vattakanal Conservation Trust, headed by beyond this boundary and down the our study must be more than of several disparate individuals, an academic exercise, that it Bob Stewart and Tanya Balcar, led a team steep slopes of montane grasslands.