The dried bamboo groves inside the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary and the adjacent sanctuaries such as the Rajiv Gandhi National Park, Nagarhole, and the Bandipur Tiger Reserve in Karnataka are posing a threat to the wildlife population of the Nilgiri Biosphere, a major tiger and elephant habitat.
The bamboo groves in the Wayanad forest are the mainstay of the herbivores in the Nilgiri Biosphere during summer. With the advent of the season, migration of wild animals starts from the adjacent sanctuaries in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to Wayanad owing to shortage of fodder and water there.
“This season may be a period of famine for wildlife, especially elephants, wild gaur, and other lower herbivores owing to the mass destruction of bamboo groves in the area,” forest officials said.
“Bamboo groves, which grow in 100 sq. km. of the 344.44 sq. km. of the sanctuary, have completely withered away except for a few patches after the gregarious flowering of the plants started in 2005,” K.K. Sunilkumar, Wildlife Warden, Wayanad sanctuary, told The Hindu.
Nearly 60,000 tonnes, worth Rs.4 crore, of it is extractable. But norms forbid the extraction of plants from the sanctuaries, sources said.
Moreover, posing a threat to the wildlife as well as the ecology of the Nilgiri Biosphere, it is reported that close to 25 per cent of the bamboo groves in the adjacent sanctuaries have bloomed since 2010 and the phenomenon is continuing.
Thorny bamboo (Bamboosa Bambos) is a monocarpic (flowering only once) plant belonging to the Poaceae family (grass family) and its flowering cycle varies from 30 to 34 years and 44 to 49 years, Ratheesh Narayanan, senior scientist, M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, Kalpetta, said.
Profuse natural regeneration occurs from seeds after gregarious flowering. Seeds have no dormancy and this helps germination under favourable conditions soon after seed fall, Mr. Narayanan said.
But, protection from fire and grazing is essential for proper establishment of seedlings, he added.
Fire incidents have been comparatively low in the sanctuary for the past two years following summer rain and the conservation measures implemented by the Forest Department. But, combustible materials have accumulated in the sanctuary this year and a spark may cause an uncontrollable disaster, the sources added.
Meanwhile, dearth of funds for implementing conservation measures inside the sanctuary, after the Union Ministry drastically cut the funds in the current fiscal, is a major concern.
The Central government is yet to allot any funds for implementing forest fire protection measures in the sanctuary so far, the sources added.
Farmers adjacent to the sanctuary fear that destruction of the bamboo groves may worsen the increasing man-animal conflict in the district.
Source: The Hindu, December 16, 2011
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