Which animals are found in Nagarhole national park?



Kamataka's Nagarhole National Park officially Rajiv Gandhi National Park, spans the two districts of Mysuru and Kodagu together over an area of nearly 650 sq. km. Nagarhole is part of the 2,000-sq.km. Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, which also includes Kamataka's Bandipur Tiger Reserve, Kerala's Wayanad Sanctuary and Tamil Nadu's Mudumalai National Park Nagarhole and Bandipur - both tiger reserves - together account for a high number of not just tigers but also elephants. Named after the river flowing in the area, Nagarhole is full moist deciduous forests comprising rosewood and teakwood, among other species. The landscape also includes dry deciduous forests and swamps, making the region a haven for many species of birds, animals and reptiles. With a good balance between predators and prey, the area is also an example of a healthy ecosystem.



Wildlife



Nagarhole hosts more than 250 species of birds, including barbets, bush chats, buzzards, ducks, eagles, finchlarks, flowerpeckers, flycatchers, hawks, ibises, treepies, hornbills, kingfishers, kites, lapwings, larks, orioles, nuthatches, owls, parakeets, partridges, pipits, quails, sandpipers, shrikes, storks, swifts, teals, tits, vultures, wagtails, warblers and woodpeckers. In addition to the tiger and the elephant, one can also find the leopard, black panther, Indian wild dog, sloth bear, hyena, jackal, spotted deer. sambar, gaur, pangolin, common langur, porcupine, bonnet macaque, civet cat, mongoose, Malabar giant squirrel, wild boar, Russell's viper, Indian rock python, mugger, monitor lizard etc.



Threats and concerns



• Nagarhole like its neighbouring areas such as Bandipur, is prone to forest fires. However, in 2012, the region suffered one of its worst forest fires in recent years, leaving behind trails of large-scale destruction in its wake. In 2017, a drought that had exacerbated the severity of the heat and dry conditions, and gusty winds, raised fears of a repeat of 2012. However, the timely deployment of watchers thwarted this.



• The growth of lantana in the region is a cause for concert - it is an invasive creeper believed to be brought in from South America by the British as a decorative plant. But it chokes off native species of plants that many animals feed on.



• According to a data in 2018, the Nagarhole-Bandipur regions together accounted for 10,000 instances of human-animal conflict over a period of three years. This amounted to as many as nine instances every day, on an average.



 • Poaching of birds and mammals is one of the severe problems of the region. Another equally worrisome act is the continuous exploitation of forest products. leading to the deficits in food sources for the animals.



The Kabini migration



The words animal migration usually make us think of the great wildebeest migration that occurs in Africa annually. But there's an interesting migration happening in our own backyard - the elephant migration. Nagarhole hosts one of the highest populations of the Asian elephants in the world. Add to this the populations in neighbouring regions as well, and the number swells to many hundreds. Every summer when water and grass in their regions dry up, herds of these gentle giants take up the annual ritual of moving towards the Kabini backwaters and the most fertile regions around it. (There are up to 140 water holes in Nagarahole alone, in addition a few streams.) In 2017 though, the story was different - media reports said that following a severe drought the backwaters could not draw in the usual numbers of elephants. However, things changed in two years. Due to rains as late as November in 2019 and with most of the regular water holes still having water, forest officials had predicted that the pachyderms would start their yearly summer march in 2020 slightly later than usual!



 



Picture Credit : Google


Which National Park is located in Kerala and famous for Nilgiri tahr?



Colourful carpets



The undulating terrain of Eravikulam is marked by rolling grasslands, hillocks and shola forests. It is dominated by a stunning range of balsams and orchids. The region is also one of the best places to catch the neelakurinji in all its glory. A plant endemic to the Western Ghats the neelakurinji blooms once every 12 years to cover the region in carpets of a purplish blue pink colour. The most recent blooming of this flower happened here in 2018. Considered one of the rarest flowers due to its limited flowering window, the neelakurinji is said to have neither any fragrance nor medicinal value.



Bloom in doom?



Scientifically called Strobilanthes kunthianus, the neelakurinji was first documented in 1838, and has bloomed as many as 16 times since. They were once abundant. But now, just like the Nilgiri tahr, they have disappeared from much of their earlier range on the Western Ghats. At the heart of this problem is loss of habitat. Hilly grasslands are the homes of these plants. But according to the National Geographic "plantations of eucalyptus and acacia. Agriculture, and most recently, tourism have "stripped the grasslands in which kurinji grows. A study from 2018 "looked at satellite imagery in one part of the Western Ghats from the past 40 years and found that grasslands shrank 66 percent. It also showed that as grasslands decreased so did timber plantations increase.



With global warming and climate change already altering or destroying habitats and their inhabitants, additional human-induced destruction, deforestation and development activities around ecologically fragile and significant areas only add to existing problems.



Located in the Idukki district of Kerala and covering an area of nearly 100 sq.km., the Eravikulam National Park got its status in 1978 for its ecological faunal, geomorphological and zoological significance". Overlooking the Park is Anamudi, one of south India's highest peaks. Interspersed with grasslands and sholas, the region receives ample rainfall during the monsoons, making it an ideal habitat for wildlife. The Park is also synonymous with the endangered Nilgiri tahr and the blooming of the neelakurinji.



Bad news



Though the State animal of Tamil Nadu, the largest population of Nilgiri tahr is now found in neighbouring State Kerala's Eravikulam National Park. While these ungulates were once spread across several regions of the Western Ghats, today they are found only in a few fragmented areas of these two States. And there's more bad news for this population climate change. A study in 2018 analysed as many as 10 tahr habitats and different climate scenarios for three time periods - 2030s, 2050s and 2080s. The peer reviewed study published in the journal "Ecological Engineering" conducted there would be a drastic loss of tahr habitat in all three scenarios - a maximum of more than 60% in each time period. While population in areas such as Eravikulam may not face great threats, the concerns are more for the smaller and isolated populations in other areas.



...and some good news!



As the nation was braving the COVID-induced lockdown in April, there was some encouraging news coming in from Eravikulam. A survey held by the Forest Department that month showed that the number of Nilgiri tahr in the region had increased by 155 - newborns! With that the total count of the ungulates stood at 723. Around the same time last year, the numbers were 526 (with 91 newborns). Newspaper reports attribute the increase in newborns to the decline in human interference in forest areas". It's the mating season for the stars now, and with no human interference still the numbers of newborns are expected to go up in the next season too.



 



Picture Credit : Google