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The Western Ghats usually are not solely among the many world’s 35 biodiversity hotspots, but additionally among the many eight “hottest” of the hotspots. They’ve additionally gained one other ecological Grammy: the standing of a UNESCO World Heritage Web site.

And the Palani Hills (truly mountains) are one among its stars, a treasure trove like no different. Aside from their wealthy biodiversity, in addition they host wildlife corridors to neighbouring mountain ranges, and two ecosystems distinctive to the south-western reaches of the Ghats. The primary of those, ‘sholas’, are cloud forests that nestle within the valleys. With their excessive endemism, these are biodiversity hubs with knobs on. The second are the montane grasslands, ecologically as vital as sholas: perhaps much more so, as a result of their excessive water retention makes them a serious water supply for downstream and plains communities. This mountain mosaic, which incorporates the Kodaikanal plateau, falls into the evocative class of sky islands — remoted mountains surrounded by dramatically totally different lowland environments. It’s an ethereally lovely place. I went there in ’87 for a brief keep, and stayed on for 18 years. The Palani Hills bug had bitten me, good and correct.

It additionally bit Bob Stewart and Tanya Balcar, two younger British backpackers who had been travelling by way of southern India in 1985. They determined to do a brief Kodai go to, and “absorb” the mountains. Three many years later they had been nonetheless there, an vital a part of the native conservation neighborhood of residents, NGOs, lecturers and authorities officers. Their dedication, work and achievements had been phenomenal, and their deaths — Tanya’s in 2016, and Bob’s in September this yr — have left an enormous vacuum. They died too quickly, too younger, however left a legacy of immense worth: an understanding of the Palanis’ ecosystem which can have a everlasting bearing on its conservation and restoration.

It’s an attention-grabbing story with a quixotic twist; a reminder that Issues Aren’t At all times What They Appear.

In 1852, the British Raj — within the type of portly Main Partridge of the Bombay Military — took the disastrous step of introducing plantations of eucalyptus, pine and Australian wattle within the Palanis. Little doubt a well-meant try to supply gasoline for the “natives”, it was disastrous for the atmosphere. These unique species rapidly and utterly modified the delicate montane ecosystem. With none of their pure checks and controls, unique crops are inclined to go mad, spreading like wildfire and wiping out indigenous landscapes (as we’ve got seen with lantana).

At the moment montane grasslands had been conveniently and erroneously known as wastelands; and by way of revenue from fuelwood and timber, the plantations had been profitable. So increasingly of the “wasteland” was given over to those fast-growing, income-generating species. This observe continued post-Independence. Truckloads of timber and fuelwood hurtled down the mountain tracks to Kodaikanal and cities and cities on the plains. It prompted a severe decimation of the grasslands. As talked about earlier, these are treasured repositories of water. The truth is they’re the supply of many of the huge south Indian rivers. In response to Tanya, the grassland cowl had fallen from 87 to three % for the reason that plantation observe started. The sholas had been shrinking too, due to the simpler human entry and invasion of the plantation species.

This was the grim — and quickly worsening — state of affairs when forest-loving Bob and Tanya arrived in Kodai, and the rationale they by no means left. They set to work. Utilizing their meagre private sources, they   began a shola nursery within the backyard of their rented cottage in Vattakanal: three greenhouses with fruit and gasoline species for distribution, and a whole lot of shola species, many propagated for the primary time ever. Decorative cacti had been additionally cultivated, on the market to accommodations and resorts; the revenue from this helped maintain the nursery.

Thus began a shola restoration challenge that introduced excessive reward and acclaim. Bob and Tanya concerned kids from the area people, and this morphed into the Vattakanal Conservation Belief. 1000’s of seedlings had been distributed free, and path-breaking information collected on the seeding, germination, and care of shola crops. They labored intently with the Tamil Nadu Forest Division and NGOs just like the Palani Hills Conservation Council.

Nevertheless, there was a lacking piece — a vital one. They needed to get official permission to enter the sholas and begin their replanting and restoration work; not simple, as a result of they had been protected areas.  However these two stalwarts weren’t cop-outs, and didn’t consider in giving up.  The valuable piece of paper got here in 2001. To the Forest Division’s credit score, they had been in a position to look past paperwork and recognise the worth of Bob and Tanya’s work. This began a botanical feat that concerned onerous bodily exercise, meticulous file preserving and managing their rising military of younger greenies.

Spreading the message about grasslands. Photograph courtesy Pippa Mukherjee

Principally, they had been rising forests of their nursery and placing them again within the sholas. To these of us fortunate sufficient to have seen them within the discipline, their information of crops was beautiful. Proficient within the names and peculiarities of shola bushes, they might even rattle off the identify of essentially the most insignificant little grassy tendril or liana on a mossy trunk. They recognized and rescued many uncommon crops, by way of this propagate-and-reintroduce approach. Pambar shola was one among their conservation websites, and so they had been thrilled when seasoned botanists couldn’t differentiate between the unique, “pure” components of the shola and the restored ones. Or when Nilgiri langurs returned to a selected patch that they had restored. This raised hopes that someday the Nilgiri pipit, regionally extinct, can be heard once more within the montane grasslands. There have been common lengthy, steep walks to and from Marion, Blackburn, Picnic, and different shola forests, full with leeches, nettles and “bum journey” on steep, slippery slopes in the course of the rains.

One early morning in Might 2014, the Palanis conservation neighborhood was delighted to see this headline in The Hindu: ‘State Prepares to Get rid of “Aliens” from Rain Forests’. The Court docket had requested the state of Tamil Nadu to make a complete examine of the interaction between the unique and native species, and take away these endangering the forests and grasslands of the Western Ghats. To us, the Kodai neighborhood, it appeared as if there was lastly a glimmer of hope for the shola-grassland mosaic of our magic mountains. A few of us had been viciously uprooting acacia saplings whereas on hikes and picnics, feeling like brave environmental activists. We waited for extra information on this plantation-elimination initiative. The federal government paperwork was gearing as much as eradicate the plantations; the size of the challenge can be unprecedented.

However within the meantime, whereas strolling alongside the sting of Blackburn Shola, Bob and Tanya had made an vital botanical discovery:  they’d spied some orchids rising on an outdated, mangled wattle tree. They had been seeing increasingly of this proof of the shola invasion of plantations. Extra importantly, they had been additionally seeing at first hand, the speedy resurgence of the plantation species, when minimize. Clear felling led to an explosion of weeds, and hundreds extra seedlings of the plantation species. Felling and clearing didn’t carry out the magic of bringing again the sholas and grasslands. These findings had been offered at workshops in Bengaluru and elsewhere, together with the landmark symposium “Forest Plantations and Biodiversity Conservation”, attended by botanists and ecologists from a number of organisations in India and overseas. Bob and Tanya’s findings had been extensively accepted and valued.

One of many greenhouses. Photograph courtesy Beulah Kolhatkar

Their findings modified the course of the Palanis conservation motion, form of turned the tables. These outdated plantations had been truly shola nurseries! In fact, they shouldn’t have been planted within the first place; however their removing at this stage would trigger a severe ecological regression, perhaps even the tip of the remnant grasslands and sholas.

These of us who knew them, and their dedication to the Palanis, are hoping that the Kodaikanal township will create a everlasting memorial to those two excellent botanists who in impact saved the sky islands. Sure, botanists, although neither had any tutorial coaching within the topic, and not one of the “qualifications” we maintain so pricey. Relaxation in peace Bob and Tanya, in your individual, well-earned sky island; hopefully with a Nilgiri pipit trilling within the distance, and surrounded by Strobilanthes kunthianus and some Elaeocarpus blascoi… one of many rarest of the shola species, which you rediscovered in Pambar shola and helped propagate.

(With because of Ian Lockwood for offering essential sources for this text, and studying the draft.)

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Creator and conservationist Zai Whitaker is managing trustee — Madras Crocodile Financial institution Belief/Centre for Herpetology