The New Indian Express: Tamil
Nadu: Tuesday, 04 August 2020.
In the
last column of the two-part series that focuses on the shrinking Thamirabarani
grasslands, experts talk about threat to the flora and fauna. For the
uninitiated, Agasthyamalai Community Conservation Centre, an unit of
Bangalore-based Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment
(ATREE), conducted a five-year research on the grasslands of Thamirabarani
river plains. The study declared that the grasslands are steadily being
converted for other purposes such as industries.
Senior
Research Assosiate Mathivanan said, “The grazing fields here are considered as
degraded thorn forests due to historical grazing. The presence of isolated
trees such as Dalbergia coromandeliana and Canthium parviflorum are evidence to
the fact that these grasslands were historically a scrub forest or a dry
deciduous forest.” These grazing fields are rich in wildlife like Indian fox
Jungle cat, Golden jackal and Common Grey mongoose. It was a home to the
now-extinct Asiatic Cheetah or ‘Shivangi’ which preys on Black buck deer. The
Black bucks still survive in Vallanadu hills.
The area
also supports Madras hedgehog, which is an endemic species particularly common
in the region.
Thamirabarani
grasslands are home to about 100 bird species, and of them, 65 species are 100%
dependent on grasslands. Of the 65 bird species, about 18 per cent are
protected under The Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. Thamirabarani grasslands are
southern limits for the rare Eurasian White Storks and for other migrant
species such as the Greater short-toed larks. Among these winged visitors is a
unique group called Harriers – raptors (birds of prey) that exclusively need
grasslands for foraging and roosting.
“Population
of harriers has crashed as grasslands have been incessantly destroyed,” said
Mathivanan and added that Paruthipadu grassland is one of the major roosts of
Harriers in Tamil Nadu. The Paruthipadu grassland belonging to Nellaiappar
Temple sprawls across 1,200 acre. It is a converging place for over 20,000
sheep and 5,000 cattle from 14 villages. The grassland has shrunk after the
HR&CE Department leased out to Tamil Nadu Newsprint and Papers Limited to
raise eucalyptus trees for pulp production in 2016. “The conversion has
aggravated decline in cattle grazing,” he said.
He said
the research on land utilisation by comparing the satellite imagery of year
2000 with 2016 reveals a drastic decrease of grasslands in Thamirabarani basin.
Taluk-wise analysis shows decrease of over 40 per cent grasslands in
Tiruchendur and over 20 per cent in Radhapuram and Sathankulam taluks, he said.
However,
comparing the data available with the State government recorded in 1996-97 and
2008-09 reveals that the 9,807-hectare permanent pasture lands in Tirunelveli
district shrunk to 5,271 hectares, while 5,001 hectares of permanent pastures
in Thoothukudi rose to 5,132 hectare.
Converting
wastelands into pasture lands would boost rural economy, said a senior officer.
The disappearance of grazing fields puts pressure on cultivable lands to
produce fodder, he claimed. Questions were posed to many revenue taluks under
RTI Act. Sathankulam tahsildar said there were no records of Meichal
porambokku, while many did not respond. As per the replies, Radhapuram has 511.30-hectare
grasslands, while Tenkasi has 30 hectares. Shencottai has 1.54 hectares and
Sankarankovil has 169.84 hectares.
Mathivanan
said windmills obstruct the grazing route since those are fenced. Herders are
often forced to shepherd cattle along roads leading to road mishaps, he said.
Lead researcher Dr M Soubadra Devi said the grasslands balance the food chain,
absorb carbon dioxide and protect groundwater table. The herders of various
places said they could not voice concerns since they are sparsely populated.
When asked, officials claimed fields were not given to industries, while animal
husbandry officials fixed the onus on revenue department.
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