The rainforest canopy in Wayanad, Kerala, is a world unto itself, brimming with biodiversity. While climate change is threatening these canopies, the Gurukula Botanical Sanctuary in Wayanad (GBS), a success story on conservation of rare and endangered plant species of the Western Ghats, steps in with an ex-situ conservation strategy. The community of horticulturalists, naturalists and educators, led by conservationist Suprabha Seshan, also the managing trustee of GBS, foster myriad rainforest plants at the 70-acre sanctuary. The team nurtures threatened native plants in the sanctuary’s greenhouses, where they deploy a range of methods, from intensive care nurseries for outdoor habitats rich with herbs, tubers, succulents, shrubs, trees creepers, and climbers. “Some of the species are millions of years old . It’s a process of rewilding with the right amount of human intervention. We have revived 2000 species, accounting for nearly 40 percent of the Western Ghats flora,” says Suprabha adding that it is also about training, empowering, and educating the local communities about the diversity of their land.
Gardeners arrive in the morning at the Gurukula Botanical Society in Wayanad
| Photo Credit:
Munnarakkunnu Trust
Similarly, The Forest Way based in Thiruvannamalai, restores the tree cover of the sacred Arunachala hill and the surrounding forests, located on the Eastern Ghats. The forests face degradation due to logging, fires, and overgrazing. Each year, their nursery raises thousands of saplings from over 100 indigenous species that go directly to the greening of the slopes of Arunachala and thereby creating a micro-habitat for endangered and endemic species.
The Habitats Trust (THT) Grants 2022 awards evening at Kiran Nadar Museum of Art Saket in Delhi turned the spotlight on the Gurukula Botanical Sanctuary and The Forest Way and announced them as winners for the ₹One crore grant under the THT Conservation Grant category as the audience cheered on. The THT Action Grant of ₹25 lakhs went to Ashoka Trust for Research and Ecology, Bombay Natural History Society, The ERDS Foundation, and HT Lalremsanga.
The Habitats Trust Grants is an annual initiative by The Habitats Trust, founded by Roshni Nadar Malhotra, chairperson of HCL Tech to honour and support organisations and individuals who share a common goal of conserving India’s natural, indigenous habitats and species, especially those that are lesser-known, and neglected habitats. Congratulating the recipients, Roshni Nadar says, “The world is finally realising that loss of biodiversity not just impacts climate but can also cause grave consequences to human health, wildlife, economy, and food security. We are working with conservationists for their proactive work towards protecting endangered, vulnerable, and lesser-known species and their habitats.”
While the trust received over 80 applications, 16 finalists were chosen after a rigorous selection process involving several rounds of scrutiny including an on-field visit by the team. The jury included Bahar Dutt, author and environmental journalist, Brian Health, founder and CEO of the Mara Triangle Conservation Area, Kenya, Dr M K Ranjiitsinh, wildlife expert and architect of the Wildlife (Protection) Act of 1972 and Roshni Nadar Malhotra.
Indian Skimmer
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
The Grants recognise and support holistic, and innovative conservation projects by organisations and individuals that can be replicated. For example, the Bombay Natural History Society won the grant to take forward the community-driven conservation model of the birds — Indian skimmer, a distinctive bird with a lower bill that is longer than the upper one (this helps it plough the waters to catch fish, its main food) and black-bellied tern, an elegant bird with a long tail and a slender orange bill that are found in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal. “Both birds are in the IUCN Red list,” says Parveen Shaikh, scientist with the BNHS as she gives a background of BNHS’s Guardians of the Skimmer programme in River Chambal that hosts over 90 percent of these species’ breeding population. “We involved locals to safeguard the breeding colonies, rescue injured birds and re-introduce them to protected areas. It helped improve population,” says Parveen, who has been studying skimmers on the Chambal river for several years. They hope to replicate the model in other river nesting areas too. The bird’s existence is threatened by sand mining, the multitude of dams on rivers, overfishing and pollution, and even feral dog.
Awareness drives on the Great Indian Bustard
| Photo Credit:
ERDS Foundation
While alarm bells sounded repeatedly on the fate of the Great Indian Bustard (GIB), with just a handful of breeding females left, the ERDS Foundation based in Rajasthan gives a push to in-situ conservation of this critically endangered bird (there are just 150 adult birds in wild) by working at restoring grasslands, the ideal habitat for the birds to live and breed. They encourage locals to make their farms, a suitable home for the GIB. The bird which was found in 11 States across India is now confined to only five and about 90 percent of its remaining population and the only remaining breeding population is housed in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan.
Other two notable awardees of the THT Action Grant are Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) in Arunachal Pradesh for conservation initiatives of the white-bellied heron, a tall bird at 4.2 feet that is currently reported in four locations including Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bangladesh, and Bhutan. As the solitary herons depend on forest-associated wetlands, rivers and lakes for nesting and foraging, the rapid development of dams in the Northeast puts them at the risk of habitat loss. ATREE plans to survey potential habitats along key river valleys, create awareness among locals on its critical status, and create tourism opportunities around the beautiful bird.
Softshell Turtle
| Photo Credit:
HT Lalremsanga
Thejury acknowledged the understandably challenging work taken up by Professor H T Lalremsanga to revive the population decline of freshwater turtles in the Northeast. “Some of the turtle species like Amyda ornata jongli, Lissemys punctata and Nilssonia nigricans are critically endangered because of habitat loss, climate change and the infamous pet trade where the turtle meat, used in traditional medicines, and also a delicacy, fetches them income,” he says. To combat this, they plan to map the population, learn more about their habitats in Mizoram, as well as rope in local youth, researchers, forest staff, schools, and NGOs to reach out on conservation, starting with awareness on the role of turtles in the ecosystems, beginning at schools.
Says Rushikesh Chavan, Head of The Habitats Trust, “ Each ecosystem, marine, terrestrial, or wetlands faces its own set of unique challenges at a very local level that can have a global impact on biodiversity, climate change or policy. Initiatives like the Habitats Trust Grants, allow us to support people who are working to solve these problems at the ground level. This works in many ways — it increases awareness around biodiversity as well as promotes human well-being.”
