{"id":14378,"date":"2021-03-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-15T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/current_affairs\/uncategorized\/15-03-2021\/bamboo-flowering-as-a-threat\/"},"modified":"2021-03-15T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-03-15T00:00:00","slug":"bamboo-flowering-as-a-threat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/15-03-2021\/bamboo-flowering-as-a-threat","title":{"rendered":"Bamboo Flowering as a Threat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>In News<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The <strong>gregarious flowering of bamboo<\/strong> inside the <strong>Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary<\/strong>,<strong> Kerala<\/strong> poses a <strong>potential threat to wildlife in the Nilgiri biosphere<\/strong>, a major tiger and elephant habitat.<\/p>\n<p><strong>About Bamboo Flowering<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Thorny bamboo<\/strong> (<em>Bamboosa Bambos<\/em>) is a <strong>monocarpic<\/strong> (flowering only once) plant.<\/li>\n<li>It belongs to the <strong><em>Poaceae<\/em><\/strong> family (grass family) and its <strong>flowering cycle varies from 40 to 60 years<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>They grow in <strong>more than 500 hectares of the 344.44 sq.km. of the sanctuary<\/strong> and are the <strong>mainstay of herbivores<\/strong> during summer.<\/li>\n<li>They have <strong>fully bloomed<\/strong>, a phenomenon said to occur <strong>once in the life cycle of bamboo plants<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>With the<strong> advent of the season and shortage of fodder and water<\/strong>, <strong>migration <\/strong>of wild animals starts<strong> from the adjacent sanctuaries in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu<\/strong> to Wayanad.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Impact of Flowering<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>It may<strong> adversely affect migration<\/strong>, especially by elephants, wild gaur, and other lower herbivores <strong>owing to the mass destruction of bamboo groves after the flowering<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Farmers living near the sanctuary fear that the destruction of bamboo groves may <strong>worsen the increasing man-animal conflict<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Threat to wildlife as well as the ecology<\/strong>, it is reported that <strong>over 25% of bamboo groves<\/strong> have <strong>bloomed since 2010<\/strong>, and the phenomenon is <strong>continuing<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Profuse natural regeneration<\/strong> occurs from seeds after gregarious flowering. <strong>Seeds have no dormancy<\/strong>, and it <strong>helps germination under favourable conditions<\/strong> soon after seed fall.\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Protection from forest-fires and grazing is essential <\/strong>for proper establishment of seedlings.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<table border=\"1\" cellspacing=\"0\" style=\"width:624px\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"background-color:#fff2cc; width:468.0pt\">\n<p><strong>Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It was set up in <strong>1973<\/strong> and is <strong>ranked 8th in the list of the World&#8217;s Biodiversity Hotspots<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>The sanctuary is a <strong>component of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve<\/strong> (5,520 km2) and of the <strong>Elephant Reserve No. 7 of South India<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Location<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>It covers the <strong>Wayanad Plateau<\/strong> situated at the <strong>confluence of three biologically distinct and diverse regions<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>the main Western Ghat Mountains.<\/li>\n<li>the Nilgiri Hills.<\/li>\n<li>the Deccan Plateau.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The plateau area is mostly located in <strong>Kerala<\/strong>, with small <strong>parts in <\/strong>the neighbouring states of <strong>Karnataka and Tamil Nadu<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Topography<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The landscape usually <strong>consists of hilly terrains<\/strong> interspersed with<strong> dense valleys<\/strong>, which have helped build its reputation as <strong>one among the most picturesque natural sites in the whole world<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Climate<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The area is known for its <strong>rainfall<\/strong>, with both the <strong>southwest and northeast monsoon contributing<\/strong> to the downpour.<\/li>\n<li>The monthly maximum and minimum <strong>temperatures range from 31.2\u00b0C and 15.0\u00b0C respectively<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Flora<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Its flora is<strong> characteristic of the Western Ghats <\/strong>and<strong> plantation crops<\/strong> flourish in the cooler temperatures here.<\/li>\n<li>The<strong> moist deciduous forest <\/strong>consists of Maruthi, karimaruthi, rosewood, venteak, vengal, chadachi, mazhukanjiram, bamboos etc. while the <strong>semi-evergreen patches<\/strong> comprise of vateria indica and Lagerstroemia.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Fauna<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Of the 45 species of <strong>mammals <\/strong>here, <strong>6 are endemic to the Western Ghats<\/strong>. The avian population (203 species) also boasts of 10 endemic, 6 ranges restricted and 5 globally threatened species. <strong>Thirteen of these are listed in the schedule I of the Indian Wildlife Protection Act, 1972<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>The area is said to be a <strong>favourite of the largest venomous snake in the world<\/strong>, the <strong>King Cobra<\/strong>. Of the 45 reptile species documented here till now, of which 8 are endemic.<\/li>\n<li>It is home to the last of the surviving vultures in the state.\u00a0 Also, the <strong>cinereous vulture<\/strong> (<em>Aegypius monachus<\/em>) or <strong>Eurasian black vulture<\/strong>, can be rarely seen as well.<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>four-horned antelope<\/strong> (<em>Tetracerus quadricornis<\/em>), or <strong>chousingha, <\/strong>known as &#8216;<strong>ullaman<\/strong>&#8216; in Malayalam, has also been sighted here.\n<ul>\n<li>It is included in <strong>Schedule I <\/strong>of <strong>Wildlife Protection Act, 1972<\/strong> and categorized as <strong>Vulnerable <\/strong>by the <strong>IUCN Red List<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Tribes:<\/strong> Kurumar, Paniyar, Kattunayakan, Urali, Kurichiar, Adiyar and Wayanadan Kadar.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"file:\/\/\/C:\/Users\/NEXTIA~1\/AppData\/Local\/Temp\/msohtmlclip1\/01\/clip_image002.gif\" style=\"height:311px; width:282px\" \/><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>(Image Courtesy: <a href=\"https:\/\/indianwildlifeclub.com\/Destinations\/LittleKnownDestinations\/Wayanad.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">IWC<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/kerala\/gregarious-bamboo-flowering-in-wws-a-threat-to-wildlife\/article34063077.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source: TH<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In News The gregarious flowering of bamboo inside the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary, Kerala poses a potential threat to wildlife in the Nilgiri biosphere, a major tiger and elephant habitat. About Bamboo Flowering Thorny bamboo (Bamboosa Bambos) is a monocarpic (flowering only once) plant. It belongs to the Poaceae family (grass family) and its flowering cycle [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14379,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[36,26,42],"class_list":["post-14378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs","tag-conservation","tag-gs-3","tag-literature"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2023\/07\/1381731current-affairs (1).jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}