When two worlds collide : Tales from two continents

Western Ghats-  A hotspot of biodiversity

With advances in health care, eradication and effective control of fatal diseases, the world population is on the rise. One collateral effect is the enormous consequence of such an increase on natural resources including land. Humans with their might are encroaching into the forests- the natural habitat of wild animals. Consequently, whilst human inhabited lands increase, the forests decrease proportionally. As has been highlighted repeatedly, the areas in the world that are maximally impacted are the tropics, which are the areas of highest human population density. Here, forest areas are cleared, making way for habitable land (legal and illegal), agricultural land (be it subsistence farming, large scale crop cultivation, or as land for livestock grazing),  stone quarrying, or the wood from the forest is used for fuel and furniture. The consequences of all these actions are colossal, and have led to brutally endangering the existence of flora and fauna. One group of animals that are gravely affected are the larger mammals, whose territory encompasses larger areas. The Royal Bengal Tiger, a subspecies of Tiger, is in the IUCN’s list of endangered species with only about 2500 animals alive today. A census report released in, 2011 by the National Tiger Conservation Authority, estimates the current tiger number in India at 1,706.

Kerala, one of the most densely populated states in India and at 859 persons per sq km, is thrice as settled as the rest of India. Once blessed with luxuriant forests; nearly three quarters of the geographical area of Kerala was under dense forest cover at the middle of nineteenth century, human activities have restricted the forest cover to 20 to 24 % area, based on the source for the facts. The Western Ghats comprise a range of mountains along the western side of India extending to Kerala and is abundantly diverse and is the habitat of at least 325 endangered flora and fauna species. When the Western Ghats was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as one of the eight hotspots of biological diversity in the world, the Kerala minister of forests highlighted the enormous challenge of protecting this fragile yet diverse landscape citing the pressures of development and population growth.

The forests in Kerala in the Western Ghats are of different types, depending on the area, elevation, proximity and other environmental factors, consisting of tropical rain forests, tropical moist deciduous forests, tropical dry deciduous forests, montane sub tropical forests, sholas, reed brakes, grass lands,  pockets of temperate forests and barren hillocks. The diverse forests promote diversity of animals and are home to endemic species. Estimates suggest that 17% of the world’s tigers live in the Western Ghats. There are 17 wildlife sanctuaries and 5 national parks, and 1 community reserve – areas that are legally protected, in Kerala. However human- animal conflicts occur as have been previously discussed in our blog (http://ecoratorio.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/fine-line.html)  in areas where the activities of the parties overlap, and that is not that difficult in Kerala with such high population density.  Occasionally cases are reported in the press, where a tiger, leopard, bear or elephant strays into the human communities. Whilst sometimes, the animals are coaxed into retreating from the human settlements, often their foray has disastrous consequences. The Western Ghats run throughWayanad which has a wildlife sanctuary that is shared by the neighbouring states and has a high tiger and elephant density. Earlier this year, a tiger strayed into coffee plantation in Wayanad district in Kerala. The tiger that had strayed into the plantation was reported to have preyed on domestic animals, was successfully trapped by officials and then released back into the wild ; an example of a situation which had gone according to plan. But such stories are exceptions as exemplified by the recent tragic incident. Recently, a tiger strayed into avillage area, again in Wayanad, reportedly preying on domestic animals. The wildlife authorities, attempted to tranquilize the animal. The first ‘tranquilizing’ did not affect the animal and the animal escaped. Meanwhile an ‘uncontrollable crowd’ had surrounded the forest officials on the witch hunt. After some time, the authorities and the mob found the agitated animal. The officials tried to tranquilize it again.  The animal was understandably violently aggressive, and was this time was repeatedly shot at and killed by the forest officials. It was a 10 year old male tiger. 

A Tiger at the London Zoo. Are tigers only going to be safe in captivity? (Photo : Sarah Stephen)

Environmentalists and environmental enthusiasts are bitter and distressed at the outcome. One environmentalist  who has worked extensively on biodiversity  in the Western Ghats condemned what had happened as ‘barbaric and insane’. He commented, ‘The hunting of this tiger was carried out by creating panic and insecurity among the public, that this tiger which had killed so many livestock, will eventually become a man eater.’ Several questions remain as to why the authorities resorted to the cold blooded killing of the tiger in broad daylight. It has been alleged that when the tiger embarked on the cattle hunt; the people were infuriated, blocking roads, setting ablaze the forest office, and demanding that the tiger be shot dead and that the authorities appeased the people by killing the animal. The environmentalist added, ‘The mass search of the forest areas with gunmen and a huge uncontrollable crowd following them was not the way to tranquilize an animal.’  Some sections of the media say that the story is much more complicated than what it appears to be and that illegal land mafia gangs are behind this. Allegations are rife that these unscrupulous cliques, who wanted the forests to be cleared for land, incited scare among the people in the pretext of the tiger menace, and that the animal paid a heavy price.

A task force will now conduct an independent enquiry.

Despite such incidents, some hope remains, a wildlife survey of 2011 indicates that in the state, the elephant population is growing.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Closer to home, a few weeks ago, one peaceful Sunday afternoon was interrupted by the sound of a gunshot. As the hunting season has started in the county, it is not uncommon to see people dressed in hunting attire, en route hunts and distant sounds of shots being fired are not uncommon. But this time, the deafening noise was closer to our house. It transpired that someone had shot two squirrels. For some time, it had been a common sight seeing squirrels scurrying up and down with nuts and burying them in the gardens. They had provided unlimited entertainment to the enclave where we live. Brown squirrels are classified as vermin and can be legally shot. However, I will never comprehend the mentality of macabre recreational shooting.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PS: If you witnessed the tiger incident or have comments on the issue, please use the comments field to voice your opinions. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

References:

http://www.fao.org/docrep/v5200e/v5200e0b.htm

http://www.wwfindia.org/about_wwf/critical_regions/western_ghats/

http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/where_we_work/western_ghats/

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1342

http://animals.nationalgeographic.co.uk/animals/mammals/bengal-tiger/

http://www.iucn.org/?6481/IUCN-Council-statement-on-the-tiger.

http://keralaforest.gov.in/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=534&Itemid=327

http://www.ndtv.com/article/south/kerala-welcomes-unesco-s-decision-to-give-western-ghats-world-heritage-status-240826

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kozhikode/NTCA-to-conduct-independent-probe-into-Wayanad-tiger-killing/articleshow/17484167.cms

http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/kerala/straying-tiger-meets-with-a-bloody-end/article4159420.ece

http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/kerala/tiger-killed-in-wayanad-was-not-a-maneater-maneka/article4160564.ece

 http://www.manoramaonline.com/cgi-bin/MMOnline.dll/portal/ep/malayalamContentView.do?contentId=12949143&programId=1073753760&tabId=11&contentType=EDITORIAL&BV_ID=@@@

http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/kerala/article3240036.ece

http://www.coplac.be/Tropical-Forests.1713.0.html?&MP=1627-169

http://www.forest.kerala.gov.in/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=43&Itemid=273

http://keralaforest.gov.in/index.php?option=com_content&view=article
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/forest-officials-blame-land-mafia-for-protests/article4118109.ece.

When introductions go bad

My first sighting of the red squirrel was in Camperdown Park in Dundee in 2003. I remember that scene vividly. I had since tried desperately to see this elusive animal again but to no avail, save a brief sighting, again in Camperdown Park, in Autumn 2010. This is because although red squirrel, which is native to UK and  is  protected in Europe, is outnumbered by its foreign relative, the grey squirrel that was introduced to the UK from America. Grey squirrel has several competitive advantages including its resistance to squirrel parapox virus which is fatal to the red (grey squirrels are vectors), increased fecundity, and greater ability to digest a wider variety of food. In fact, the future of the red squirrel in the British Isles is rather precarious. The Forestry Commission estimates that there there are only 140,000 red squirrels compared to over 2.5 million greys.

Recently during a holiday near Lake Geneva, Switzerland, I encountered 2 red squirrels and 1 black squirrel  (resembled the red squirrel with respect to the ear tufts, but with a black/grey rather than red coat). You can see a video here in Youtube:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4SqcK9CME8

There is a lot of debate on how the introduction of alien species can affect the native species and tilt ecosystems, but studies indicate that certain ecosytems could be more vulnerable that others. As early as 1958, Charles Elton claimed that ecosystems with higher species diversity were less subject to invasive species as there are  fewer available niches. A recent paper by Eisenhauer et al shows that species diversity could stabilise communities during invasions. It appears as if biodiversity of ecosystems provides increased resilience against onslaughts including that by foreign invaders. Caution should be exercised when foreign species are introduced. In light of these observations, a  proposed law in Brazil is of importance. A recent correspondence in Nature by Vitule et al (May 2012) warns of the repecussions of a new law that, if approved, would allow farming of foreign fish species in cages. The fishes that are being considered for introduction are tilapia and carp. The authors warn that the indigenious aquatic ecosystem would be disrupted if these  introduced species were to escape and would jeopardise the aquatic biodiversity which is already fragile due to  human activities such as pollution and construction.

References:
Vitule JR (2012). Ecology: Preserve Brazil's aquatic biodiversity. Nature, 485 (7398) PMID: 22596145
Eisenhauer N, Scheu S, & Jousset A (2012). Bacterial diversity stabilizes community productivity. PloS one, 7 (3) PMID: 22470577
http://www.europeansquirrelinitiative.org/the_threat.html


Red Squirrel image source: Sarah Stephen

Plastiki: The vessel of awareness

For the past few months, I’ve been following the progress of Plastiki, and given the extent of media coverage (especially CNN), it is likely that my readers too may have read about it. For those that haven’t, read on….

Providing an image/diagram is a good technique of deepening understanding of a concept; providing a demonstration would complete the picture. And this is exactly what Plastiki does.

The unique Plastiki
Plastiki is the innovative result of the impact which UNEP’s report, on ‘Ecosystems and Biodiversity in Deep Waters and High Seas’ (which presented the threats faced by marine biodiversity due to pollution, particularly by plastic wastes), had on eco-adventurer David de Rothschild. After months and years of brainstorming, Plastiki emerged - the 60 ft/18 m catamaran with a difference- manufactured mainly with solar energy and composed of 12500 reclaimed plastic bottles (about the same number of plastic bottles consumed every 8.3 seconds in the US) filled with CO2 to make her solid and consistent (and the bottles provide 68% of the buoyancy); structure made out of easily recyclable self-reinforced polyethylene terephthalate (srPET) called Seretex; sails made out of recycled PET; and recycled waste products. The catamaran is self-sustaining, using renewable energy systems (solar panels, wind and sea turbines, and a biodiesel engine to be used only in emergencies), and a vacuum water evaporator (for desalination). A bicycle generator, the ‘Human Dynamo bike’, provides exercise for the crew and also provides energy for the boat’s electrical systems.

The journey and aims
After setting off from San Francisco on March 20th, 2010, the six-man crew (including expedition leader de Rothschild) have explored many ecologically/environmentally important sites in the Pacific Ocean so as to provide more awareness on issues such as global warming and sea level rise (which poses a terrible threat to island nations), ocean acidification and damaged coral reefs, and marine pollution (especially by plastics). As of June 17th, they are south of Tuvalu and are en route for the final and most challenging leg towards Sidney, where the approximately 11,000-nautical mile expedition will conclude. So far, they have travelled for 90 days/2160 hours and 5785 nautical miles (and Plastiki helpfully adds that during this duration, 5400 million plastic bottles were used in the US alone!).

Plastiki’s mission is to raise awareness of environmental issues and the damage caused by ‘one-use culture’, and to enthuse individuals, communities, and businesses to find solutions to use waste as a valuable resource. Plastiki herself is an excellent example of how the discarded plastic bottles (usually meant to be a single use item, which we all use, and perhaps discard, everyday) can be utilised efficiently.

The plastic menace
Plastic is a huge menace (you may refer to my short summary on plastics and my longer essay on the effect of plastics in marine fauna in Our Gossamer Planet) since most are not biodegradable and takes a long time to degrade. Even then, these disintegrated minute pieces of plastic cause problems, most notably by leaching chemicals into the environment. It is estimated that out of approximately 100 million tonnes of plastic produced per annum, 10% ends up in the oceans- hardly surprising since 60-80% of total marine pollution is due to plastics (the UN had estimated that every square mile of the world’s ocean has approximately 46,000 minute floating pieces of plastic). But, the devastating effects of plastics in the ocean are no different from what happens on land: hundreds of thousands of marine fauna (including fishes, birds, turtles, and mammals) tends to mistakenly ingest these or gets entangled, resulting in death or poisoning. This, in turn, affects the biodiversity and the entire system.

Plastiki’s insights
Plastiki has also shed more light on the ‘garbage patch’, a subsurface sea of waste with mass of 3 ½ tonnes and about five times the size of the UK, floating in the North Pacific gyre between California and Hawaii. de Rothschild related of how Plastiki’s hull was covered with a fine, extra layer of plastic fragments. But more interestingly, the crew states that they have seen more plastic than fish during their journey so far, having caught three fishes and haven’t seen any sharks- a far cry from the Kon-Tiki expedition of Thor Heyerdahl, 40 years ago, when the crew caught fresh fish every day and could not enter the water fearing sharks.

Plastiki’s website is definitely worth visiting- with lots of interesting facts, photos, blogs, and videos, apart from live tracking and up-to-date information. MyPlastiki also allows visitors to make a pledge to better our oceans and planet by not using plastic bottles, bags, and styrene foams. The number of pledges, however, is quite disappointing - plastic bottles (1698 pledges), plastic bags (1589 pledges), styrene foams (1413 pledges), and all three (1143 pledges).

What we can do
But may be there is no need to be disappointed- each individual’s wholehearted actions can make a great effect, more so if the same is communicated to their peers and communities. Humans can exist by reducing or replacing (with ecofriendly alternatives) their usage of plastic bottles, plastic bags, and styrene foams (particularly the single use disposable types). One good method for an ecofriendly living is to follow the 4Rs- Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Rethink, and ultimately 2Rs- Replace and Refuse.

Paper of the Week: Humans and Biodiversity

A new study interestingly implies that human activities may not always be bad for biodiversity. Long before the colonizers arrived in South America, indigenous farmers, belonging to the Arauquinoid cultures, had already interfered with the Amazonian biodiversity. Their novel agricultural engineering methods had changed the savannah ecosystem, resulting in increased biodiversity. Thus states the solid paper, on 'Pre-Columbian agricultural landscapes, ecosystem engineers, and self-organized patchiness in Amazonia', published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (online before print, April 12th 2010), by Doyle McKey (Université de Montpellier II, France), Stéphen Rostain, José Iriarte, Bruno Glaser, Jago Jonathan Birk, Irene Holst, and Delphine Renard. The savannahs of coastal Guyana tend to flood during the rains and are dry during the summer. However, strange complexes of mounds are seen in the terrain of these plains, running for 360 miles from Berbice River to Cayenne. Due to their perfect symmetry, the mounds were deduced to be man-made. The mounds drained well during the rains and floods (their drainage capacity was nine times as high as the seasonally flooded savannah). The authors deduce that these are large raised beds/fields, made out of the surrounding topsoil, for cultivating crops (a theory further substantiated by soil samples containing microfossils of maize, cassava, and squash), constructed by the pre-Columbian farmers, around 1000-700 years ago. The interesting point is that this farming was practiced in wastelands considered to be unsuitable for agriculture- a feat achieved due to their effective agricultural engineering. When these fields were abandoned, the mounds were colonised by flora and fauna, thus creating a new ecosystem. These 'ecosystem engineers' (viz., ants such as Acromyrmex octospinosus and Ectatomma brunneum, termites such as Nasutitermitinae, and earthworms) built their nests on the raised beds so that the colonies wouldn't be flooded. Their burrowing aerated it further, helping in accumulating sufficient rainfall. Moreover, the mounds were fertilised as a result of them congregating organic matter into their nests and accumulating minerals such as nitrogen, potassium, and calcium. As a result, the perennial plants on the mounds flourished and their strong roots prevented the erosion of the mound. All of these alterations initiated by humans have resulted in a higher biodiversity than seen in the normal savannahs. This study would give additional impetus to the debate over whether most of the Amazon rainforest and savannahs (commonly considered to be pristine) are sites of significant human occupation, especially during the pre-Columbian times. The authors suggest that this agricultural system could be a model for modern farming, especially considering the beneficial ecological changes. Although this is a perfect example of a terrain modified by humans and maintained by Nature, it must be noted the increase in biodiversity was a result of 400-800 years of no/minimal human intervention. Secondly, the ‘punja’ technique of rice/paddy cultivation has a very similar methodology and is followed in parts of Kerala. link: http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2010/04/07/0908925107.abstract?sid=93317154-3ce6-43c8-9a1e-456e24272c2b

McKey D, Rostain S, Iriarte J, Glaser B, Birk JJ, Holst I, & Renard D (2010). Pre-Columbian agricultural landscapes, ecosystem engineers, and self-organized patchiness in Amazonia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 107 (17), 7823-8 PMID: 20385814

Global Forest Resources Assessment 2010

The Food and Agriculture Organisation’s Global Forest Resources Assessment 2010, which surveyed 233 countries, stated yesterday (25th March)that the global rate of deforestation has slowed down over the past decade, from 16 million hectares per annum in the 1990s to 13 million hectares per annum in the 2000s. Natural forest progression and afforestation programmes (mostly in China, India, Vietnam, and the US) have resulted in an addition of more hectares of new forests per annum (Asia had a net gain of 2.2 million ha per annum in the 2000s). Two countries which had the highest deforestation rates in the 1990s, Brazil and Indonesia, have significantly reduced this in the 2000s: from 2.9 million ha p.a to 2.6 million ha p.a in Brazil and from 1.9 million ha to .5 million ha in Indonesia). North and Central America had stable rates, whilst Europe had a slower rate of forest expansion than before. Yet, forested areas around the size of Costa Rica is being destroyed each year, mainly due to clearing lands for agriculture and natural causes. The highest net annual forests loss were in South America (4 million ha) and Africa (3.4 million ha). Primary forests (36% of total forested area) have decreased by more than 40 million ha since 2000. I have referred to some aspects of deforestation in Our Gossamer Planet, but I would like to point out the one great benefit of the forests (currently over four billion hectares)- they act as carbon sinks- absorbing and storing greenhouse gases. There’s more in ‘Biodiversity in India’ in The Ship 09/10, published by St Anne's College, Oxford. The Assessment’s findings are seminal, with 2010 being the UN-designated International Year of Biodiversity. Yet, the aim should be to reduce global annual deforestation rates to the proportions of a school’s playground, or perhaps even less!