The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Where are our creatures great and small?

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Wednesday, May 14, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Where are our creatures great and small?

Divya Gandhi and Swathi Shivanand

Shrinking green spaces and water bodies are forcing our native birds and animals out of the city

Bangalore’s wetlands support 40 per cent of the city’s 340 bird species
Barn owls, blue rock pigeons have learnt to nest in concrete buildings

— K. Gopinathan

Vanishing: Believe it or not, this is Bangalore. But how much longer will our rapacious city sustain its native wildlife?

BANGALORE: An “urban biosphere reserve” might sound like an oxymoron. How much biodiversity can a growing city possibly harbour to merit this title, one might ask. But this is the status that the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) might soon be considering for Bangalore — a city whose wetlands and green spaces, ecologists point out, are home to a staggering variety of wildlife that quietly co-exist with our frenetic lives.

We do not have to look far to find some unexpected urbanites. The Indian Institute of Science and the University of Agricultural Sciences are home to slender loris, the shy inhabitant of the Ghats. And no fewer than 160 different species of butterflies flit about on the Bangalore University campus. Few cities can claim to have elephants, leopards and wild dogs in their backyard as Bangalore does, with its proximity to the Bannerghatta National Park.

Biodiversity hotspot

And so you have a city that is a veritable “hotspot” of biodiversity, says Ravi Chellam, Director of the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), a Bangalore-based non-government organisation that has approached UNESCO with the proposal of a biosphere reserve.

While this status salutes Bangalore’s existing biodiversity, it is aimed equally at drawing attention to the precarious position much of its wildlife what with unplanned development decimating their habitat, says Dr. Chellam.

Sparrows are not the only casualties of the city’s changing landscape. The city’s conservationists and “serious amateurs” are concerned by the many species of birds, animals and reptiles, so easily spotted even a decade ago, that are now dwindling if not locally extinct.

“The spotted dove is hardly ever seen anymore,” says ornithologist S. Subramanya. “These birds are ground feeders and their habitat is easily disturbed.” As for the city’s four vulture species, two are no longer to be found, he adds.

If the receding green cover has played its role in this loss, the city’s active bird watchers group is alarmed at the shrinking wetlands that support 40 per cent of the city’s 340 bird species.

Waterfowl census

M.B. Krishna, an ornithologist, recalls how a waterfowl census in 1996 of 120 lakes had revealed that Hoskote, Puttenahalli, Hebbal, Hessaraghatta and Bellandur were “high population” lakes. “We had on a single day spotted as many as 56,000 migratory ducks in Bellandur. You would be lucky to find even 1,000 now,” he says.

For reptile conservationist Anees Mohammed, it has been eight years since he last saw the common cat snake and the worm snake — two of the city’s 20 resident species. Another one on the red list, says Mr. Mohammed, is the slender green vine snake.

At his wildlife rehabilitation centre at Bannerghatta, while Saleem Hameed has begun to receive unusual creatures such as anteaters and jackals — from as far as Devanahalli — injured by dogs or displaced by development, he has noticed that mongooses, once a common sight even in gardens, are now rarely ever seen.

“They are hardy creatures, they survive on anything — whether rodents or fruits. But their traditional hunting habitat and breeding burrows have disappeared with construction,” he said.

There are those tenacious critters, however, that are thriving. Thanks to the burgeoning rodent population, rat snakes and cobras have never done better, says Mr. Mohammed.

Barn owls and blue rock pigeons are now ubiquitous, having learnt to nest in concrete buildings, points out Mr. Subramanya.

Preserving urban biodiversity appears to be nobody’s responsibility — it is an issue that seems to be falling through the cracks, says environmental researcher Rohan D’Souza.

“While the Bangalore Development Authority looks only at land use planning for commercial and residential purposes, the city corporation restricts itself to maintaining parks. The Forest Department has washed its hands off the city,” he says.

Success story

However, a success story has been the reforestation of the Bangalore University where over 400 acres of land has been turned green. “We have planted 300 different native species. Our studies even show there has been an increase in the number of birds and butterflies — keystone species that point to rich biodiversity,” says A.N. Yellappa Reddy, veteran environmentalist.

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