Preserve repositories of vulnerable biodiversity

By The New Indian Express |  03rd June 2013 07:42 AM
The India archipelago of Nicobar Islands, home to around 1,800 animal species and some of the world’s most endangered tribes, has now been declared as a world biosphere reserve. The 103,870-hectare reserve was last week officially declared as protected by the International Coordinating Council of UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme. The archipelago is also home to the indigenous Shopmen people, semi-nomadic hunters dwelling inland and the Nicobarese who live in coastal areas and are dependent on fishing and agriculture.

Biosphere reserves are chosen by the MAB programme to experiment with different approaches to manage terrestrial, marine, coastal and freshwater resources. They also serve as in situ laboratories for sustainable development. In India the biospheres of Simplipal (Odisha), Nokrek (Meghalaya), Pachmarhi (Madhya Pradesh), Nilgiri (Tamil Nadu), the Gulf of Mannar (Tamil Nadu), Sunderbans (West Bengal) Nanda Devi (Uttarakhand), and Achanakmar-Amarkantak (MP and Chhattisgarh) are already on UNESCO’s list. The designation is not binding under any law but aimed at building and promoting a network of places where people are attempting to mesh human activity with biological and scenic assets.

Man-made changes to ecosystems are now so alarmingly rapid that human lives and societies face epic challenges. Technological fixes cannot replace the role of robust, complex, and interconnected natural ecosystems in maintaining a biosphere’s favourable conditions. Any viable response to the global environmental crisis must greatly expand the level of protection afforded to wildlife and wild places through conservation. It is imperative to protect all old-growth habitats, as these remnants are ancient repositories of rich and vulnerable biodiversity and optimal arenas for life-sustaining processes.

Source: http://newindianexpress.com/editorials/Preserve-repositories-of-vulnerable-biodiversity/2013/06/03/article1617284.ece?commentId=76816&pageNumber=1#comment-76816

Farmers of the forests

N. SHIVA KUMAR

The bulky beaked hornbills, known for their perseveranceand seed dispersal skill, are facing the threat of vanishing woodlands and mushrooming concrete jungles

Great Pied Hornbill:Getting rare by the day.Photos: N. Shiva Kumar

Bangalore to Beijing and Baghdad to Bangkok there will be no husband worth his weight in gold when compared to the hornbill. A bird blessed with immense patience and perseverance in the world of bird brain — a definition with which human beings tend to delight in describing other creatures. Taking this into cognisance, recently the Environment Ministry declined a proposal to set up a RADAR installation on a secluded Island in the Andamans — thus saving the remaining 300 wild Narcondam Hornbills from extinction.

Hornbills are a group of birds distinguished by very large bulky curved beaks. If that is not enough, most Hornbill species have an extra projection known as casque on the upper beak and the precise use of this outcrop has yet not been deciphered by scientists. The utility of such an enormous beak in these birds is intriguing because it is almost half the size of its body.

Watching hornbills in the Silent Valley and Periyar Sanctuary of Kerala and in the jungles of Digboi, Kaziranga and Namdapha national parks in the north east, I wondered whether the birds topple forward with their oversized beaks. However, I learnt that the big beak is not as heavy as it looks since it contains perforated spaces to make it lightweight. Perfectly built and suitably streamlined, the beak of the bird is designed to fly like an airbus with a “nozzle nose” in front. The big beak is, however, dexterously deployed to pluck ripened fruits and berries from tree-top canopies.

Scientists at the San Diego Safari Park, USA, explain that hornbills are the only birds in which the first two neck vertebrae (the axis and atlas) are fused together. This probably provides a stable platform for carrying big beaks with ample agility even while airborne.

While most hornbills inhabit thick jungles of the north-east and south-west India, Indian Grey Hornbill, the smallest, is sighted even in Allahabad, Chandigarh and Delhi due to availability of tree canopy. Basically arboreal, all hornbills are sighted in pairs as they tend to be life-long couples. As the birds grow older, their feathers turn black and yellow from grey. The beaks also obtain grey, yellow to orange and all hues in-between as they mature.

The most exceptional aspect of all hornbills is that they nest in naturally ‘prefabricated’ cavity of large trees that are refurbished with love and care. A peculiar characteristic of this bird during nesting is that the female stays inside the nest and is literally imprisoned. The male, assisted by the female from inside, seals the nest entrance leaving only a small opening for feeding the female. By this clever modus operandi, the eggs and hatchlings are protected from possible predators and vagaries of nature as well. The entire process takes about three to four months depending upon specific species.

Inside the nest, the female uses its own feathers to line up the nest bottom to cushion the delicate eggs and the chicks as they hatch. All the while, the male feeds the female and the fast growing chicks even as it itself becomes emaciated with the toil. The fresh growth of feathers on the female hornbill corresponds with maturity of the young chicks at which point the nest entrance is broken open and the mother escapes from its captive tree hollow. Now both parents feed the perpetually hungry chicks in the nest until they grow big enough to flutter away to freedom. As hornbills are omnivorous, they feed on fruits, occasionally crunchy insects, lizards; even rodents and small snakes are also relished.

Unfortunately, most of the 10 hornbill species in the subcontinent are now endangered due to fragmentation of forests, vanishing woodlands and mushrooming concrete jungles. These birds cannot live and procreate without the help of large trees. While the tree provides space to make a home in its wooden lair, the birds provide bird excreta rejected from the nest serving as manure for the tree. They are also excellent at dispersing seeds from the canopy to various locations propagating forest growth. A perfect example of interaction between two different organisms that is beneficial to both species, hence scientists the world over acknowledge that hornbills as the farmers of the forests.

In December last year, a Hornbill Festival was held in Nagaland to enhance the understanding of hornbills through tourism and a variety of cultural activities. The event used rock concerts, motor races, trekking, painting competitions, dance and drama to spread the message of nature conservation and to discourage tribal hunters who use hornbill beaks as decorative headgear for their rituals.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-in-school/farmers-of-the-forests/article4351884.ece

Supreme Court bans tourists from taking trunk road passing through Jarawa area in Andamans

J. VENKATESAN

Order follows Andaman and Nicobar Administration’s January 17 notification

In this file photo, a Jarawa woman is being offered some
edibles by a bus passenger on the Andaman Trunk Road
that has been ordered shut for tourists.
Photo: Pankaj Sekhsaria

The Supreme Court on Monday banned tourists from taking the Andaman Nicobar Trunk Road that passes through the area where the Jarawas live. The road is used to reach the Limestone Cave.

The court has already banned all commercial and tourism activities within a five-km radius of the Jarawa Tribal Reserve on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

A Bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and H.L. Gokhale passed the order, taking on record the Andaman and Nicobar Administration’s January 17 notification to comply with the court directives issued last year.

Except 30 villages notified in the schedule, the notification declares a buffer zone of an area up to a five-km radius, adjacent and contiguous to the Jarawa Tribal Reserve Area — starting from the Constance Bay in South Andaman to Lewis Inlet Bay in Middle Andaman. No person shall operate any commercial or tourist establishment directly or indirectly in the buffer zone. Furthermore, no one shall carry out any activity, which may be prejudicial to the safety, security and interests of the Jarawas in any of the settlement villages.

The Bench directed that only government officials, persons residing in the reserve and vehicles carrying essential commodities for the Jarawas would be allowed on the Trunk Road.

Justice Singhvi told counsel, “You provide helicopter service to… tourists to reach the cave as there is a total ban in the buffer area.”

“File affidavit”

The Bench directed the Andaman and Nicobar Administration to file an affidavit, along with a detailed map indicating the areas of Jarawas and settlement of others. It posted the matter for further hearing on February 26.

The October 30, 2007 notification, imposing the ban, was quashed by the Calcutta High Court.

On an appeal, the Supreme Court, stayed the order and asked the administration to strictly enforce the notification till it was considered by the court. This was followed by the January 17 notification.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/supreme-court-bans-tourists-from-taking-trunk-road-passing-through-jarawa-area-in-andamans/article4329360.ece