High Time to Formulate Policies to Tackle Alien Species in India, says experts

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It’s time for an all-out war with the aliens, at least in the protected forest areas, but we lack policies, says a group of conservation scientists in the country. Invasive Alien Species (IAS) of plants are the second largest threat to the diversity of the forests, behind habitat fragmentation, but the conservation policy makers are yet to swing into action to tackle the issue, alleges a group of scientists while reviewing the status of IAS in the country and related conservation laws in India.

Lanatana Camara flowers
Image courtesy: Obsidian Soul/Wikimedia Commons

According to an article written by them in the Current Science journal, plants like Chromolaena odorata, Lantana camara, Mikania micrantha, Mimosa diplotricha and Parthenium hysterophorus are some of the major invasive alien plant species in India which are spreading rapidly in protected areas (PAs), suppressing the growth of the native flora. The alien menace has affected birds, animals and has not even spared the tribal populations depending on forests, it says.  “Large numbers of forest dependent communities still depend on forest resources and their livelihood is at stake due to pervasive landscape alteration by major IAS in different parts of India,”, says the article.

Lack of policies and distorted interpretations

Though the threat and impact are high, most of the protected areas in India do not have a clear and active eradication programme to tackle IAS, mainly because of lack of awareness among wildlife officials and their twisted interpretation of the conservation laws in the country. Wildlife (Conservation) Act, 1972, which is the major legislation regarding protected areas in the country, prohibit harvesting or removing any plant or animal materials from the PAs. This is raised as a major reason by protected area managers for not taking active eradication programmes against invasive plant species.

Chromolaena odorata
Image Courtesy: Ashasathees/Wikimedia Commons

Moreover, the Protected Area managers and policy makers are yet to understand the importance to eradicate IAS. Most often, the notions of the officials often end up encouraging exotic species. “Their (PA managers’) species selection for plantations is based on three criteria: (a) fast growth, (b) good timber value and (c) unpalatability to game species. These criteria encourage the planting of exotic species …….in effect replacing one IAS with another alien species”, points out the write-up. According to it, some of them even think that IAS likeLantana are good for the animals since it give them cover to hide. But they forget that “such a role was played by indigenous understorey species prior to being replaced by vast swathes ofLantana, now dominant in many PAs”, it says.

How to eradicate Invasive Alien Species?

Removal of invasive plants from an area of infestation is not an easy job, since most of them show extra-ordinary abilities to reestablish themselves in the areas. “The seed bank of the major IAS remains and hence reinvasion occurs rapidly. Some IAS, such as Lantana, which are buried deeply can be stimulated to germinate when exposed to light and fire”, says the experts.

Presently, whatever nominal eradication programmes run in some protected areas are very narrower in their nature since they focus only on removing the IAS for the purpose of making fire lines. However, there is a need to develop early detection mechanisms to spot the menace when it begins so that the eradication is easier, constant monitoring to prevent spread of the IAS and resulting forest fragmentation.

Lantana Camara growing rapidly suppressing native plants in a farmland in Kangra District, Himachal Pradesh 

Manual removal is the best practice so far observed to tackle the menace, according to the article. Though it is very effective in small areas, it may not be so for large areas since the estimated cost of manual eradication is anything between 4000 to 5000 Rupees per hectare. But implementing any such measures on a wide scale may not be possible in the absence of legal provisions to facilitate it.

However, there is a possible way out, according to the experts. According to them, the issue can be raised with the Supreme Court appointed Central Empowered Committee (CEC) which can submit recommendations and suggestions to review existing conservation legislation to tackle the issue. So the ball is in the court of conservationists in the country. “We see a compelling case for scientists/managers to approach the CEC for clear guidelines and exemptions regarding programmes for the vigorous control and removal of IAS from the PAs.”, says the article.

Soma plant a fit veggie for troops in cold deserts, says Indian Defence research

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Indian troops deployed in the drastic terrains of the cold desert in Leh may look forward to get a new item in their menu, as the defense researchers find that Soma (Rumex patientia), a common plant found in high altitudes, can be used as a vegetable. According to researchers at the Defence Institute of High Altitude Research (DIHAR), a division of the Defence Research and Development Organisation ( DRDO), Soma is fit to be used as a vegetable in cold desert areas where cultivation of common vegetables are not supported.

Rumex patientia (Image Courtesy: Current Science)

According to a research correspondence published by DIHAR researchers in Current Science Journal, the leaves of the plant is rich with protein, fats, oil, crude fiber and carbohydrate which makes it a fit as spinach for common people and military personnel in the cold deserts areas like Leh and parts of Himachal Pradesh. “It (the plant) has the potential to meet the green leafy vegetable requirement of local people and troops deployed in Ladakh. It may also contribute towards development of products for helping in acclimatization and improved performance of especially the low-landers under high-altitude cold desert conditions.”, says the correspondence.

 

Soma plant is more productive than actual spinach, says the correspondence. “It grows fast and produces more biomass in a short period than spinach even in stony, sandy and less fertile soils”, it says.

Unlike the dietary benefits, the medicinal properties of the plant are rather known for years. It is used in traditional medicine systems as well. According to the researchers, the roots of the plant were used for the treatment of variety of ailments like pain, inflammation, bleeding, ringworm infection, tumour and constipation in Chinese folk medicine. Practitioners of Tibetan traditional medicine also utilize the plant for medicinal purpose. Several chemical compounds found in the leaves are the reason for the medicinal property, says the correspondence.

The researchers claim that planting soma will be beneficial to the environment also since it fights soil erosion and desertification. “It is beneficial for soil and water conservation, protects desertification and contributes towards land reclamation in the fragile cold arid ecosystem of Ladakh”, says the correspondence. 

While the plant is capable of surviving extreme temperatures, it can grow in arid, water logging conditions also. During April and August, about 300 to 900 grams of leaves can be collected in 7 to 8 pickings from an average plant, according to the researchers. The research correspondence also calls for mass cultivation of the plant in the cold desert areas.

During the study, the researchers have collected 40 seed samples of the plant and has preserved in the National Permafrost Facility at DIHAR. Narendra Singh, J. S. Arya, S. B. Maurya, R. B. Srivastava of Defence Institute of High Altitude Research, Leh-Ladakh have co-authored the correspondence.

Rare plant rediscovered after 75 years from Kallar Valley in Western Ghats of Kerala

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Researchers at the Jawaharlal Nehru Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute has discovered an elusive plant - Ophiorrhiza barnesii, which was thought to be ‘possibly extinct’ since its first discovery, from Kallar Valley in Idukki district of the Southernmost Indian state of Kerala. According to a journal article about the discovery published in the latest issue of the Journal of Threatened Taxa, the plant was last reported 75 years ago, in 1937 by British botanists.

Ophiorrhiza barnesii, a rare plant
 rediscovered from Southern Western Ghats

According to sources, the researchers accidentally zeroed in on the plant while making a collection of threatened plants of Southern Western Ghats for ex situ conservation. The discovery now throws light into the still to be explored floral richness of Western Ghats, which is one of the eight hottest hot-spots in the world. The plant is one among the 20 members of the Ophiorrhiza genus found in the state of Kerala.

‘Possibly Extinct’

It was in 1939, that the plant was first described by a British botanist C E C Fischer based on two collections made by another British Botanist Prof. Edward Barnes. Both of the two specimens were collected from Kallar Valley during 1937. However, the plant has remained elusive since then with no further collectors or researchers reporting the plant from any other part of the state. According to researchers, subsequent botanical explorations even considered the chances that the plant may be possibly extinct by this time.

However, the rediscovery now puts it in the class of the rarest plants found in the Southern Western Ghats. To confirm the authenticity of the claim, the researchers reportedly compared the present specimen collected form Kallar Valley with the specimens in the earlier collections preserved at Royal botanic Gardens, Kew in London.

The Elusive plant of Western Ghats

The elusive plant is just like any other casual plant you may find in the Western Ghats with its perennial erect herb nature. Usually found as part of the under growth in the evergreen forests of the Western Ghats at an altitude of 1200 to 1600 meters from the mean sea level, the plant bears small white flowers. The flowering and fruiting season of the plant falls in the September to December period.

According to researchers, the plant is also found along the banks of the streams in the forests. It is found “usually associated with Sonerila wallichii, Ophiorrhiza roxburghiana, O. barberi, Elatostemma sp., etc”, says the research article.

However, with the rediscovery, researchers are raising doubts about the identity of another rare plant of the same genus found in Western Ghats - Ophiorrhiza falcate. Described by British naturalist Beddome in 1861 from the Anamalais, the plant resembles O. barnesii, in its description.

Flowers of Ophiorrhiza barnesii

However, rigorous searchers in the specimen collections in the foreign herbariums where the collections from pre-independent India are kept failed to trace back the original specimen based on which Beddome described the species. 

“Unfortunately, searching the specimens at The British Museum, Natural History (BM); Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (K) and The National Herbarium, The Netherlands (L) also became futile.”, says the researchers.

Researchers seriously doubt that both the species should be one and the same; however, without detailed surveys at the Anamalais, it will be too early to speculate in that direction, say the researchers.

After the discovery, now a specimen of the plant is preserved at the herbarium at the Jawaharlal Nehru Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute in Palode in Thiruvananthapuram. The researchers have also added some individuals of the plant to the gene pool that is developed in the institute as part of ex situ conservation of wild plant varieties.

E.S. Santhosh Kumar, P.E. Roy, and S.M. Shareef from Jawaharlal Nehru Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute, Palode, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala have co-authored the study.