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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