Project Title
Assessing the landscape to notify the Reserve Forest into Wild Life Sanctuary for the conservation of disjunctly distributed endemic, endangered plants and animals.
Project Grantee
Balachandran N (MSc, MPhil, BEd, PhD.)
Q & A with the Grantee
1) What are the imminent threats to the Pakkam Malai Reserve Forest, and which are the animals and plants that face the highest risk?
Grizzled giant squirrels, grey langurs and wild boar are hunted by guns, while porcupines, pangolins and monitor lizards are hunted by hooks and nets. At least one python is killed in a month by shepherds to save their goats. Young saplings of Drypetes porter, an endangered, endemic and disjunctly distributed species, are regularly cut for comb making; the species is under severe threat. Extensive collection of medicinal plants including Justicia beddomei, an endemic species, and Hedyotis sithiravaraiensis, a newly described species, and orchids, are additional threats.
2) Can you share one experience, while conducting fieldwork for this project, that filled you with hope?
Gangavaram and Pakkam Malai Reserve Forests are rich in endemic and endangered species. We observed both negative and positive signs. We observed frantic disturbance of animals and plants by villagers, and at the same time saw promise in their young generation. While we georeferenced 320 nests of the grizzled giant squirrel, grey langur juveniles were observed only twice.
3) How would it help the biodiversity of Pakkam Malai Reserve Forest, if it is made a wildlife sanctuary?
The Pakkam Malai Reserve Forest is a sacred hillock with three forest types spread over 2,263 hectares. In plants, it is home to several newly described, and twenty-four narrowly and disjunctly distributed endemics, out of which twenty-five percent are IUCN categorised, not to mention five rare orchids and a great number of medicinal plants. In animal diversity, species such as the gooty tarantula, grizzled giant squirrel, grey langur, yellow-throated bulbul, Indian golden gecko, bamboo pit viper, and yet unnamed large wolf spiders, make this forest worthwhile to be conserved.
Images courtesy: Balachandran N