Butterfly survey records 140 species

A recent butterfly survey in the North Wayanad Forest Division organised jointly by the Ferns Naturalists Society, an environment organisation, and the Forest and Wildlife Department reported the sighting of 140 species, including 17 which had not been hitherto reported in the region.

The three-day survey was conducted at three locations under the division at Brahmagiri, Makkimala, and Kunjome.

Four researchers, V.C. Balakrishnan, Padman Karayad, Sasi Gayathri, and P.A. Vinayan, and 40 students from the Department of Wildlife Biology, AVC College, Mayiladuthurai, Tamil Nadu; Centre for Wildlife Biology, veterinary college, Pookode; Department of Applied Zoology, Kannur University; Department of Zoology, Mary Matha College, Mananthavadi, and the College of Forestry, Mannuthy, took part in the survey.

The team reported 38 species of skippers, 14 species of blues, 15 species of swallow tails, 18 white and yellows, and 55 species of brush-footed butterflies, A.T. Sudheesh, coordinator of the survey, said.

Rare species such as Yellow-Jack Sailer and Club Beak were sighted at the Thirunelly reserve forest. Species such as Orange Awlet, Nilgiri Tiger, Tamil Lacewing, and Malabar Banded Swallow-tail were sighted in the Periya reserve forest, Brahmagiri Hills, Hilldale reserve forest, and at the Kunjome forest.

The sighting of 140 species of butterflies is an evidence of a healthy butterfly habitat in the region, V.C. Balakrishnan of the Society for Environment Education in Kerala (SEEK) said.

The new species in the region included Black-Veign Sergeant, Dark Pierrot, Nilgiri Tiger, Blue Pansy, Common Banded Demon, and Yellow-Jack Sailer, he added.

Source: The Hindu 30-11-2011

Malabar ornithological survey: Kerala sets new benchmark

The Forest Department of Kerala has just completed the first-ever ornithological survey for the Malabar region recording 341 species of birds.

The survey is one of a kind notable for its sheer depth and span, more comprehensive than all such surveys undertaken so far in India. Hopefully, the five-member team including four eminent ornithologists commissioned by the Forest Department of Kerala, having completed such a through status report on the birds of Kerala, has established a new national benchmark for all such wildlife surveys in future.

The survey spans locations in North Kerala, which covers Palakkad, Malappuram, Kozhikode, Wayanad, Kannur and Kasargode districts. The area extends from the Ghats, through the midlands, to the seacoast, which lies north of Palakkad Gap.

The forest areas studied are the Silent Valley National Park, Mannarkad forest division, Nilambur North and South divisions, the Malabar Wildlife Sanctuary, the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary, Aralam Wildlife Sanctuary and their neighbouring areas as well as the Reserve Forests of Kasargode district and the wetlands of North Malabar.

Twelve locations, within them 58 sites and 103 transects, covering a distance of 2,200km were identified in the survey. This included six habitat types – tropical evergreen, tropical moist deciduous, tropical dry deciduous, Shola grassland, low elevation evergreen grassland and wetland areas.

The 341 species of birds surveyed comes to 73.27 per cent of all bird species so far recorded from Kerala. The survey could successfully estimate the density of 48 species of birds. Yellow-browed Bulbul is credited with the highest density (122.4 birds/sq km) followed by Small Sunbird with a density of 109.7.

The other high-density birds recorded are White-cheeked Barbet, Red-whiskered Bulbul, Black-headed Babbler and Oriental White-eye. Interestingly the density estimate also includes some of the skulking birds such as Indian Blue Robin, White–throated Ground Thrush and Spotted Babbler but the density of such birds could not be estimated during the Travancore-Cochin Survey 2009.

Density estimate for six migratory birds including Green Leaf-Warbler, Large–billed Leaf Warbler and Blyth’s Reed Warbler, and for some Western Ghat endemic birds such as Blue–winged Parakeet, Malabar Hornbill, Grey–headed Bulbul and Indian Rufus Babbler are also be obtained.

The survey also records the encounters of raptors, globally-threatened species of birds, rare birds, and abundant birds, as well as sightings of heronries of Malabar and breeding nests of birds. Of the 1,149 individual raptors belonging to 32 species encountered, 11 species are migrants and 21 residents. The two critically endangered vulture species, the White-backed vulture and Red-headed vulture, are sighted in Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary, the only region in Kerala that supports these vulture species.

22 of the 341 species surveyed belong to globally-threatened category as notified by IUCN. Alarmingly, of the 22 threatened species 17 are residents and, of which 9 are specifically endemic to Western Ghat. 15 species of birds are found to be abundant in the region, of which two are migrants, and one endemic. They include Yellow-browed Bulbul, Small Sunbird; Green Leaf-Warbler, Large–billed Leaf-Warbler and the three species of Bulbuls including the Black Bulbul.

15 species are found to be rare with only one sighting for each. Syke’s Warbler, Indian Grey Hornbill, Jerdon’s Bush Lark and Sirkeer Malkoha are some of the rare birds recorded. 121 breeding records for 58 species, of which five records each are for Malabar Grey Hornbill and Small Sunbird, four for White-bellied Blue Flycatcher, one each for Nilgiri Laughing-thrush and Black and Orange Flycatcher, and two for Wayanad Laughing-thrush, all of which are endemic to Western Ghat.

The landmark survey was conducted by an efficient team of five ornithologists led by C. Sasikumar, the Chief Investigator, and his four research associates, C.K. Vishnudas, S. Raju, P.A. Vinayan and V.A. Shebin. The surveyors spent a year (from November 1 2010 to the middle of October 2011) during, which they had covered over 4000 km, trekking through treacherous forest areas enduring extreme weather conditions and threats from wild animals.

Source: The Hindu 30-10-2011

Nilgiri langurs continue to be hunted: WII

Kollam: Nilgiri langurs ( Trachypithecus johnii ) continue to be hunted for the preparation of crude medicines despite the implementation of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. Prior to the Act coming into force, these primates were ruthlessly hunted to the brim of extinction.

According to a National Studbook on Nilgiri langurs published in May this year by the Wildlife Institute of India and the Central Zoo Authority, poaching continues to be a main threat to Nilgiri langurs. The studbook says the primates were being hunted mainly for their pelt, blood, flesh and organs to produce crude medicines and even so-called aphrodisiacs.

Before the Act came into force, such medicines were freely available with traditional medicine practitioners in Kerala and the products were even advertised. ‘Karingkorangu Rasayanam' was one of the leading products available then. Later the Kerala Forest Department launched a publicity campaign to save the Nilgiri langurs.

Though the campaign produced desirable results, the langurs are still not free from poaching; medicines brewed from the flesh, blood and organs of these primates are available illicitly and are said to be very costly. Habitat destruction, which includes construction of hydroelectric projects, is another threat to the primates, according to the studbook.

Red list

The glossy black Nilgiri langurs with a reddish-brown crown are colobines endemic to the southern part of the Western Ghats from Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu through Kerala up to the Coorg Hills in Karnataka. The studbook, authored by Manjari Malviya, Anupam Srivastav, Parag Nigam and P.C. Tyagi, says the present Nilgiri langur population in the wild can touch 15,000. They find a place in the red list of the International Union for Conservation of Nature that includes vulnerable animals.

About 45 per cent of their diet comprises tender leaves of 115 species of flora, out of which 58 species are trees. They also feed on fruits, flowers, buds, seeds and bark. In fact, they eat up the largest number of plant species among all primates in the Western Ghats. Hence, habitat destruction even on a small scale would hit them very hard.

Source: The Hindu 24-10-2011

Forest department to conserve heronries in North Kerala

The Forest Department will soon launch a programme to conserve heronries, communal nesting places of large water birds, in four districts in North Kerala.

It plans to enlist public support to protect 15 “resident and breeding” water bird species, which are vulnerable to poaching and loss of habitat, in Kannur, Malappuram, Palakkad and Wayanad districts.

Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Raja Raja Varma, is finalising the scheme in consultation with ornithologist C. Sashikumar, who is the principal investigator of the department’s ongoing Malabar Ornithological Survey 2010-11.

The investigators had surveyed 102 sites and counted 8,677 nests of 12 species of water birds in August. They recorded their habits, documented the nesting trees (34 different species including bamboo clumps, mangroves and some exotic varieties planted as avenue trees) and mapped nearby wetlands. They also assessed the threats to the sites and problems such habitats posed to local populations.

The surveyors found that Kannur had the highest number of heronries (28) and nests (3917). In Wayanad, 766 water birds of nine different species nested in three heronries. More than 93 per cent of the heronries were on Government land, mostly on trees near roadsides, markets, bus stops, police stations, hospitals and riverbanks.

The Indian Pond Heron and the Little Cormorant were the most common species and shared 71 per cent of the heronries in the region.

Oriental White Ibis, classified as “near threatened” by the International Union of Conservation of Nature (IUCN), was perhaps among the rarest of the resident water birds and nested “only” at Panmaram in Wayanad. In the South, the Ibis nested at Kumarakam in Kottayam district.

The surveyors, arguably for the first time, found that the Darter (Snake Bird), another “near” threatened species, nested in North Kerala in a heronry near Nanniyoor on the banks of Valapattanam River.

Local people often viewed such habitats as a nuisance owing to the excess of bird droppings, dead chicks and half eaten frogs and fish that litter the ground beneath nesting sites. The birds were most vulnerable during their breeding season, which coincided with the south west monsoon.

The Forest department will rope in students, bird watchers and ornithologists to sensitize the public on the importance of water birds to the vast wetland and agricultural eco-systems in North Kerala.

Source: The Hindu 21-09-2011

12 night frog varieties found in the Western Ghats

There is hope on the green front. That is what the croaks resonating from the Western Ghats proclaim. A team of scientists from Delhi University, Bombay Natural History, Zoological Survey of India and Brussels' Vrije University has discovered 12 new frog species in the Ghats.

The discovery was announced in 'Zootaxa', the international journal for zoologists, on Wednesday in a paper, 'A taxonomic review of the Night Frog genus Nyctibatrachus Boulenger, 1882 in the Western Ghats, India with description of twelve new species'.

The 12 species of frogs belong to the genus or scientific classification 'Nyctibatrachus' - 'Nycti' from the Greek word for night and 'batrachus', the Greek word for frog. The findings included the rediscovery of three frog species which were not seen for more than 75 years since their original descriptions by C R Narayana Rao in the 1920s and 1930s. The Coorg Night Frog hadn't been seen for 91 years. The Kempholey and Forest Night Frogs had been missing for 75 years.

S D Biju, from Delhi University's Systematics lab, now has a personal tally of 45 new amphibian species. "The Night Frogs require unique habitats - either fast-flowing streams or moist forest floor - for breeding and survival. Further, it is the only group of frogs that can fertilize and reproduce without physical contact," he said.

"They lived alongside dinosaurs, which have long since disappeared, but amazingly frogs continue to exist," he says. Biju is not optimistic about their future. "Their existence is precarious. If the present trends in extinction continue, many frogs could disappear forever," he says. Six out of the 12 new species are from unprotected, highly degraded habitats and require immediate attention to conserve these species and their habitats, he adds.

Source: Times of India Oct 13, 2011

This is a rare cat now

Mangalore: A leopard cat, five toddy cats (the common palm civet), a civet cat (the Indian small civet), and a wild cat are among the feline members at the Pilikula Biological Park.

These cats have been rescued from some villages in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts, according to H.J. Bhandary, Director of the park. He told The Hindu that the cats had been added to the park over the past five years. The leopard and civet cats were rare now owing to loss forest cover and poaching, he said. The leopard, as the name suggested, had spots all over its body. The civet cat was known for its musk, and the toddy cat was called so because it lived atop palmyra palms, Mr Bhandary said.

He said the cats lived for 16 to 20 years if they were kept in a zoo. They were fed with meat and eggs. Like other animals at the park, the cats were made to starve one day in a week, he added. The cats were dozing when The Hindu team visited the park. They would be active in the evening as they were nocturnal animals, Scientific Officer of the park Jerald Vikram Lobo said.

Source: The Hindu, 11-10-2011

Royal beasts are cynosure of all eyes here

Mangalore: Tigers, lions and panthers continue to be the cynosure of all eyes at Dr. Shivarama Karanth Biological Park which has completed 10 years' of its existence.

The park, which was opened on January 12, 2001 with a few animals, now has 550 mammals, and 80 reptile and bird species, according to its director H.J. Bhandary.

It is the only biological park in the State being managed by Pilikula Nisargadhama Society, a registered society, with a governing council approved by the Central Zoo Authority (CZA), a statutory body under the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests for controlling zoos.

Mr. Bhandary said the CZA had listed the park under the category of major zoos. The primary objective of the park was to conserve and breed endangered species found in the Western Ghats. It also functioned as a rescue centre for orphaned animals. A recent addition of such an animal to the park was a two-month-old panther cub.

“The orphaned panther cub was rescued from near Bajpe. It is now in the rescue centre and is being hand fed. The cub will be reared in the park,'' Mr. Bhandary said.

The park has four male and three female tigers. The male tigers have been named as Raja, Vikram, Kumara and Kadamba. The tigresses have been named after the major rivers in the region — Sharavathi, Netravathi and Shambhavi. There are two male (Siri and Bharat) and two female (Sara and Victoria) lions in the park. The park has six panthers of which, three are females. Four panthers have been named as Shwetha, Karna, Chandu and Shankar.

Mr. Bhandary said that each tiger and lion was fed with 6 to 10 kg of meat daily except Sunday. Each panther was fed with 6 to 7 kg of meat daily except Sunday.

Scientific officer at the park Jerald Vikram Lobo said that the animals were subjected to health check-ups twice a day. In morning, while letting them out of the animal houses to display enclosures and in the evening, when they returned to the houses. They were fed late in the evening as they were nocturnal beasts. They were given de-worming tablets after stool test or once in three months. They were vaccinated once a year. Mr. Bhandary said that Sunday's starvation helped animals in digestion.

He said the carnivorous animals were fed late in the evening and the herbivorous during the day.

Source: The Hindu, 11-10-2011

Project to make Pathanamthitta plastic-free

The district administration has chalked a novel scheme to make Pathanamthitta plastic-free from November 14, according to District Collector, P.Venugopal.

An official meeting convened by the Collector here the other day has resolved to make necessary arrangements to supply eco-friendly carry bags made of cloth, priced at Rs 1 and Rs 2, to all shops and other commercial establishments in the district during October 2 to November 14.

Mr Venugopal said Kudumbasree units in the district have been producing cloth bags for supplying it to various commercial establishments. He said the district administration would purchase eco-friendly carry bags from various other agencies too, if needed, to meet its growing requirement during the annual Sabarimala pilgrimage season.

Plastic menace at Sabarimala

Mr Venugopal said the Divisional Forest Officer at Ranni, R.Kamalahar, has prepared a project named `Harita-poonkavanom' with a view to reduce the plastic menace at Sabarimala and surrounding forest areas, especially during the annual pilgrimage season.

Littering of plastic waste has been a major source of environment pollution at Sabarimala situated in the Periyar Tiger Reserve during the Mandalam-Makaravilakku festival when as many as double the population of the State congregate in a short span of two months.

Mr Kamalahar has prepared a project to make Pampa and surrounding reserve forests pollution-free with the help of school-college students, local population and Vana Samrakshana Samiti (VSS) workers. The project stresses the need to make people well aware of the need to make their surroundings clean and litter-free, upholding the slogan of environment conservation.

Adequate publicity would be given through television channels and newspapers in Kerala and neighbouring States on the alarming pollution menace posed by the plastic waste at Sabarimala.

Special check-posts

The collector said special check-posts would be set up at Kanamala, Laha, Plappally, Elavumkal and Angamozhy on the main trunk roads leading to Sabarimala to collect plastic carry bags brought by devotees and replace it with eco-friendly cloth bags on the spot itself.

Mr Venugopal said arrangements would also be made to remove empty pet bottles from Sabarimala, Pampa and surrounding forest areas.

He said six workers would be posted at Pampa Manalpuram round the clock to remove the waste accumulated along the iron fence erected across river Pampa during the annual pilgrimage season. Solid waste would be segregated and degradable waste would be disposed in earthen pits in the forest area itself and the non-degradable waste would be taken outside the forests for recycling, Mr Venugopal said.

Vana Samrakshana Samiti members would deployed at the proposed Pilgrim Service Centres at Vadasserikkara, Laha, Plappally, Angamoozhy, Nilackal and Pampa. This is besides a 24-hour mobile rescue force headed by Forest officials.

The Collector has also sought active support and participation of the general public, traders and all other sections of the society in the administration's efforts to make the district plastic-free and ensure effective environment conservation.

Source: The Hindu October 3, 2011

Restriction on plastic use in Kerala soon

Steps are under way to restrict the use of plastic materials, especially plastic carry bags, as part of implementing the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest's (MoEF) Plastic Waste (Management and Handling) Rules 2011 that replaces the earlier Recycled Plastics Manufacture and Usage Rules 1999. Municipal authorities here had started enforcing the rules which ban the use of plastic carry bags below 40 microns.

Shops and commercial establishments here had been directed to use bags above 40 microns. The initiative is being made as part of improving municipal solid waste management systems envisaged in the rules. The Pollution Control Board (PCB) officials here have already urged municipalities in the district to take steps to implement the rules

that also seek to ensure safe collection, storage, segregation, transportation, processing and disposal of plastic waste. The local bodies are also tasked to set up collection centres for plastic waste involving manufacturers, ensure safe channellisation of plastic waste to recyclers and prevent open burning of plastic waste, they said. Environmental Engineer of the district PCB here A.M. Sheela said that under the earlier rules the minimum thickness of carry bags was 20 microns. The 40-microns norm has now been made uniform standard to be followed across the country, she said. The new rule had also banned plastic materials in sachets for storing, packing or selling gutkha, tobacco and pan masala in the wake of the Supreme Court order, she informed. Under the new rules, foodstuffs would not be allowed to be packed in plastic materials, she added. The additional safeguards under the rules include provisions for marking or labelling to indicate name, registration number of the manufacturers of the plastic carry bags, their thickness and whether they are recycled or compostable. The municipalities are required to establish plastic waste collection centres involving the plastic manufacturers. Municipal officials here, however, say that the plastic carry bags being mused here are mostly manufactured outside the State.

Source:The Hindu October 2, 2011