Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Renewed thrust on conservation of shola forests, grasslands

Roy Mathew

In view of continuing water disputes between Kerala and Tamil Nadu

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Protection of the shola grasslands of Kerala and Tamil Nadu assumes more importance with threats to water security of the two States.

Water disputes between the two States have intensified with the Supreme Court rejecting the review petition against the Court order allowing Tamil Nadu to raise the water level of the Mullaperiyar reservoir. What is often forgotten is the decline in availability of water, which is one of the root causes behind the imbroglio.

The shola forests and associated grasslands (tropical montane forests), which are found 1,800 metres above the sea level, store large quantities of water on the mountain ranges, thus serving as huge `water harvesting and storage structures.' Some of these shola forests, which have not been disturbed seriously, receive rain for up to nine months a year. Besides, the shola habitat is covered by mist for most parts of the day and year and precipitation occurs continuously in the form of dew. The sholas release these waters throughout the year.

Many of the rivers in Kerala and Tamil Nadu originate from the shola grasslands and were perennial. With depletion of sholas and other forests, the streams that supply water to them dry up in summer.

The Forest Departments of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, besides private planters, were responsible for large-scale destruction of sholas during the past two centuries. It is estimated that 26,000 hectares of shola grasslands were lost between 1949 and 1992 in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve area alone. Only about 9,000 hectares of sholas remain there now. Similar was the situation in the upper reaches of Palanis and Munnar. The Munnar Grasslands Division of the State Forest Department has been undertaking massive planting of the area with eucalyptus and wattle. On the Tamil Nadu side, it was pines and eucalyptus. Development of tourism in places such as Udhagamandalam, Ponmudi (Thiruvananthapuram district) and Munnar is also leading to destruction of shola grasslands.

Studies, done near Udhagamandalam, have shown that eucalyptus plantations cause about 16 per cent (on first rotation of eucalyptus) to 25 per cent reduction in annual average yield of water. The damage to biodiversity and sustainability of the eco-system has been much more severe.

The shola grasslands, known for their dense stunted tree growths surrounded by grasslands, are rich storehouses of biodiversity. About a third of their species are estimated to be endemic. Many are rare and endangered. But only 7,000 hectares of these rich forests remain in Kerala now.

Interest in shola forests has revived in Kerala and Tamil Nadu on account of the flowering of the shola species kurinji (Strobilanthes kunthiana) that blooms gregariously only once in 12 years. The Environmental activists in Kerala are demanding declaration of a sanctuary for kurinji. A similar demand is there for protection of a different area in Tamil Nadu also.

The Kerala Government has written to the Union Government to include the kurinji plant in the Sixth Schedule of the Wildlife (Protection) Act. However, kurinji now grows in several areas in the Nilgiris, Palanis and Munnar.

Though threatened by advancing plantations, it is not a plant meriting inclusion in the Red Data Book. There are many more plants in the shola grassland system that calls for protection. Some of them have been classified as rare and endangered. So, the need is for the protection of the entire shola grassland system.

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