The spread of invasive plant species has incrementally degraded the natural habitats and feeding grounds of wild animals, causing a worrying fall in the elephant and tiger populations in Kerala.
Ecologically sensitive marshy wetlands that sustain mega herbivores and predators are most at risk. Such circumstances have aggravated human-animal conflicts, a study conducted by the Forest department has flagged.
Recommending steps to conserve elephant population in its wildlife census report submitted to the government, the department has highlighted how the ecological perturbations caused by biological invasions by alien plants affect the survival of local species, damage soil quality and impact groundwater availability. It also indirectly affects animals by intruding the food chain.
Shrinking habitats
The floods that ravaged the State a few years ago intensified the dispersal of species such as Lantana, Eupatorium, Mikania and Senna to create a serious environmental issue. As a result, the consequent shrinking of available habitats of mega herbivores including elephants has led them to seek fodder from farmlands located within and around the forests, thereby aggravating human-wildlife conflicts.
The report emphasises the need to manage micro-habitats including marshy grasslands (vayals in local parlance) that play a major role in maintaining herbivores population by providing lush fodder. Frequent fires in the vayal ecosystem tend to decrease soil moisture levels and ultimately convert them into woodlands. The maintenance of grasslands is also necessary to confine the herbivore population in wildlife sanctuaries.
Permanent system
Forest officials also call for continuously monitoring tigers through camera trap exercises to glean information such as migration, fecundity, population density and mortality rates. The need to conduct such studies once every two years in order to understand movement patterns has also been highlighted.
The document also underscores the need for a permanent system to document, assess and monitor human-elephant conflicts. A long-term study on the behaviour of crop-raiding animals in high-conflict areas has also been mooted to effectively address the issue. With the majority of the existing prevention plans driven by site-specific factors that only offers short-term solutions, mitigation strategies tend to transfer the risk of conflicts from one place to another, the report states.
