Conservation Services of

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "Conservation Services of"

Maximilian Lester
5 years ago
Views:

1 Conservation Services of Sacred Groves Debal Deb Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies Barrackpore

2 20/12/10 Ancient Sacred Groves: Last Bastions of Biodiversity

3 Destruction of Sacred Groves: Wood Theft & State Forestry Operation

4 Once Upon A Time... There was A Grove in This Sacred Site!

5 Gaps in SG Literature No records of mosses, fungi & lichens. No inventory of fauna. No assessment of conservation status of taxa Consequently, information about regional distribution and abundance of a huge portion of biodiversity is yet unavailable.

6 Inventory of Sacred Groves and Floral Compositions MAYURESWAR-I SONAMUKHI BISHNUPUR SANTURI NETURIA No. of SGs No. of Spp.

7 Area of Groves 120 NETURIA 100 SANTURI BISHNUPUR No. of SGs MAYURESWAR I SONAMUKHI < >8 SG Area (in thousand sq.m.)

8 Species-Area Relationship (Bankura District) 100 S = 1.23 A 0.31 R 2 = No. of Sp pp SG Area (sq.m.)

9 Tree Community Size and No. of SGs 4000 BNP 3000 No o. of Trees 2000 SNM MYR 1000 SNR NTR No. of SG

10 A Fragmented Sacred Grove at Chhandar, Housing a Rare & Endangered Tree

11 Vitex glabrata, a Critically Endangered Tree Discovered from a Fragmented Sacred Grove in Bankura

12 Casearia varica, a Rare Tree from a Sacred Grove in Bengal

13 Ventilago madras-patala, a Rare Liana in a Sacred Grove, Bankura

15 Larger and older SGs are more likely to function as the last habitats of rare taxa, which might have disappeared elsewhere. However, small and derelict SGs may also serve as the last bastions of several Rare and Endangered organisms with limited distribution ranges.

16 A 700-Year Old Sacred Grove in Bankura with > 40 Angiosperms

18 Findings from Research in Fauna of Sacred Groves Reports Location Author New species/ record Philautus sanctisilvaticus Amarkantak SG, Madhya Pradesh Das & Chanda (1997) Leptololax khasiorum Mawphlong, Meghalaya Das et al. (2010) Preferred habitat of fauna 4 resident birds Medinipur district, West Bengal Deb et al. (1997); Spadoni & Deb (2005) Rare fauna Poecilobdella masiliensis Madana than SG, West Bengal Deb & Bersier (in press) 20/12/10

19 Limitations & Constraints Failed to identify many invertebrates (e.g. caddis flies, nematodes, mites) due to the unavailability of taxonomic expertise Enlisting services of taxonomists for identifying specimens of even the common taxa like fungi and nematodes was prohibited by Financial i constraints t Collection of spcies abundance data for birds and butterflies in most of the SGs was incomplete owing to Resource constraint

20 Tasks for Future Concerted SG Research Enlist the Services of Endangered Specialists the Taxonomists. Expand the research focus to encompass Poorly Understood Taxa (e.g. Lichens, Nematodes) Inventory Representative Fauna (e.g. Lepidoptera and Vertebrates) Financial Support for Taxonomic Inventory of SG Inhabitants 20/12/10

21 References Das, I. & S K Chanda Philautus sanctisilvaticus (Anura: Rhacophoridae), a new frog from the sacred grove of Amarkantak, central India. Hamadryad 22: Das, I, R L Tron, D Rangad & R N K Hooroo A new species of Leptololax (Anura: Megophryidae) from the sacred groves of Mawphlong, Meghalaya, north-eastern India. Zootaxa 2339: Deb, D., K Deuti & K C Malhotra Sacred grove relics as bird refugia. Curr. Sci. 73: Deb, D. & L-F. Bersier (in press). Instances of fauna conserved in two sacred habitats of West Bengal. Soc. Nat. Res. Spadoni, M & D. Deb Ethnoecology of sacred grovesin West Bengal, India. In: Himalaya: Environment, Culture and Sustainable Development. Cooperazione Italiana/ Zoological Museum. Rome, pp Lake 2010 DD

State of Nature 2016

State of Nature 2016 State Nature 2016 State Nature 2016 Results look up tables This document presents tables the results referred to in the report in an easy to access format. All data presented here feature in the report