Validation and documentation of rare endemic and threatened (RET) plants from Nilgiri, Kanuvai and Madukkarai forests of southern Western Ghats, India

K.M. Prabhu Kumar ¹, V. Sreeraj², Binu Thomas ³, K.M. Manudev ⁴ & A. Rajendran ⁵

^1,2,3,5 Department of Botany, Bharathiar University, Tamil Nadu 641046, India

⁴ Department of Botany, St. Joseph’s College Devagiri, Kozhikode, Kerala 673008, India

Email: ¹ prabhumkrishna@gmail.com, ² sreerajlakkidi@gmail.com,³ binuthomasct@gmail.com (corresponding author), ⁴ manudevkmadhavan@gmail.com,⁵ drarjendra@gmail.com,

Date of publication (online): 26 December 2012

Date of publication (print): 26 December 2012

ISSN 0974-7907 (online) | 0974-7893 (print)

Editor: N.P. Balakrishnan

Manuscript details:

Ms # o3145

Received 31 March 2012

Final received 04 September 2012

Finally accepted 29 October 2012

Citation: Kumar, K.M.P., V. Sreeraj, B. Thomas, K.M. Manudev & A. Rajendran(2012). Validation and documentation of rare endemic and threatened (RET) plants from Nilgiri, Kanuvai and Madukkarai forests of southern Western Ghats, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 4(15): 3436–3442.

Copyright: © K.M. Prabhu Kumar, V. Sreeraj, Binu Thomas, K.M. Manudev & A. Rajendran 2012. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 UnportedLicense. JoTT allows unrestricted use of this article in any medium for non-profit purposes, reproduction and distribution by providing adequate credit to the authors and the source of publication.

Acknowledgements:The authors are grately thankful to Vanya Orr and Siva Kumar, Earth Trust Nilgiris,Nilgiri and Godwin Vasanth Bosco, Organizing Secretary of NLRD Programme,Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, Nilgirifor giving facilities for this work. Thanks are also due to Dr. M. Sabu, Professor, Department of Botany, Calicut University for various helps and Mr. A.J. Robi, Research Scholar, KFRI, Peechi for the identification of Lauraceae species. We are also thankful to Mr. Mahadevan, Ms. Jayanthi, Ms. Sasi and Mr. Aravind, research scholars, Department of Botany, Bharathiar University for assistance during the field visit.

The publication of this article is supported by the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF), a joint initiative of l’Agence Françaisede Développement, Conservation International, the European Commission, the Global Environment Facility, the Government of Japan, the MacArthur Foundation and the World Bank.

For images, table -- click here

According to Nayar (1996) there are 60 endemic genera and 2,015 species of flowering plants endemic to peninsular India. The Western Ghats possessa high percentage of endemic species, about 48% of 4000 species occur in this region (Gopalan & Henry 2000). The Western Ghats areon the brink of endemic plant collapse, about 1500 species have a highly fragmented population and at least 50 endemic species have not be relocated after repeated surveys (Nayar 1998).

The current paper is an attempt to study the conservation assessment of rare, endemic and threatened species (RET) of the southern Western Ghats. As part of the Nilgiri Landscape Restoration Programme conducted by the British Council International Climate Champions in association with the Tamil Nadu Forest Department, (Nilgiris North & South Divisions), British Council India, Earth Trust Nilgiris, EdhkwelynawdBotanical Refuge, Nilgiris; the first author visited and validated the RET plants of Kolikorai, Melcoupe, Ammagal, Mukurthy National Park (MNP) and Doddabettaforests of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve. After that a detailed field survey was carried out by the authors in Kolikorai, Melcoupe, Kil Kothagiri, Longwood Shola and Kothagiri forests of Nilgiris with the help of Earth Trust Nilgiris, and many plants were identified and documented. As a part of this we also studied the status of RET plants in the Madukkarai Hills and Kanuvai Hills of Coimbatore District and recorded the details systematically.

The NilgiriBiosphere Reserve (NBR) is a part of SWG and a place of incredible diversity in landscape and life. It lies between 10⁰45’–12⁰N & 76⁰–77°15’E with a total area of 5520km² spread across the three states of Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Altitude within the NBR varies from 250–2670 m, and the reserve encompasses a diversity of vegetation types, ranging from tropical evergreen to thorny scrub (Chandrasekhara 2005). NBR is one of the hot spots of the world with many rare, endemic and threatened plants (Fyson1932; Nayar 1996).

Madukkarai is located at 10.9⁰N & 76.97⁰E along the hill sides of the southern Western Ghats of Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu and also a part of Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve. The name “Madukkarai” originated from the colloquial use of the words “Mathil” (means great wall in Tamil) + “Karai” (means shore in Tamil). It has one of the oldest cement plants in India. The temperature ranges from 47.5⁰C and 16⁰C respectively (Jayanthi et al. 2011). Kanuvai Hills are located near Maruthamalai forests and the vegetation types are tropical dry deciduous forests and thorn shrub forests.

Result and Discussion: The present study is an enumeration of 51 selected endemic species belonging to 39 genera, 28 families and two subfamilies documented from different forests in Tamil Nadu. Among them Berberis nilghiriensis Ahrendtis one of the Critically Endangered (B1+2c) species and collected by the authors from Ammagal forests of NBR. Many rare species were also collected from the study area including Crotalaria scabra Gamble, Murdannia lanuginosa (Wall. ex Clarke) Brueck. (Nayar & Sastry 1990), Smilaxwightii A. DC., Elaeocarpus recurvatusCorner (Nayar & Sastry1990), Litsea wightiana(Nees) Hook. f. var. tomentosa (Meissner) Gamble and Dalbergia congestaGraham ex Wight (Sasidharan 2006).

Lauraceae and Fabaceaeare the dominant families having eight species each, Acanthaceaeand Apocynaceae with three species, Berberidaceae, Gentianaceae, Myrtaceae and Scrophulariaceaewith two species and all the other remaining families having one species each. The correct botanical identity, common names (if available), family, habit, habitat, locality and endemism of documented species are given in the table with colourphotos (Table 1, Images 1–3).

Conclusion: The NilgiriBiosphere Reserve is one of the most diverse floristic areas of India with a mixture of both exotic and native species. From the present study the authors properly validated and documented many RET plants from NBR, Madukkarai and Kanuvai Hills of Coimbatore District, Tamil Nadu. Some of the threatened factors such as over-exploitation of natural resources and other anthropogenic activities adversely affect the existing ecosystem and it may lead to the rarity of many species in future. There is an urgent need for developing pragmatic conservation strategies for endemic plants in the southern Western Ghats, which may lead to their effective protection.

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