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Atree, a remarkable new genus of the subfamily Brachistinae (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) and the first report of the tribe Diospilini from India
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Observations on natural diet and reproductive behaviour of an endemic snail Indrella ampulla (Benson 1850) (Gastropoda: Ariophantidae) from the Western Ghats, India
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A new genus of Braconid wasp, Atree, has been established to accommodate a new species Atree rajathae and two other already known species. The newly described genus was facilitated by ATREE researchers Ranjith A.P. and Priyadarsanan Dharma Rajan, and they have collaborated with Cornelis van Achterberg (Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden, The Netherlands) for comparative studies with other braconids. The species was named after ATREE’s ‘Rajatha Jubilee’ (25th anniversary), which is being celebrated in 2021–22. Read more.... |
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Indrella ampulla (Benson 1850) is a large terrestrial stylommatophoran gastropod belonging to the family Ariophantidae. The genus is endemic to India’s Western Ghats and is monotypic, originally described from Koorda Ghat at Nilgiri Hills in south-western India. In this newly published paper, Surya Narayanan and N.A. Aravind describe the natural diet and reproductive behaviour of this charismatic land snail. Read more....
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PROJECT
Investigating macaque tourism in Japan and Indonesia by Asmita Sengupta, Kanthi Arum Widayati, Yamato Tsuji, Risma Yanti, Muhammad Fadli Rahman, Nagarathna B, Sindhu Radhakrishna.
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BACKGROUND
Primates are popular species in wildlife tourism contexts and provide economic benefits to habitat countries where primate-based tourism is a part of the country’s economy. Primate tourism covers a broad gamut, from safari-like expeditions within remote primate habitats to designated monkey parks and incidental primate tourism. While several studies have assessed the impact of tourism on primates, little is known about people’s motivations behind observing monkeys for recreational purposes. This research examines the factors that motivate people to visit monkey tourism sites.
SOLUTIONS
At the Jigokudani Monkey Park, Japan (a managed site) and the Telaga Warna Nature Recreational Park, Indonesia (an incidental macaque tourism site), we used structured questionnaires to assess people’s motivations behind visiting these sites.
OUTCOMES
In Japan, those who had interacted with macaques before were more likely to visit the park to observe macaques closely. In contrast, respondents in Indonesia were more interested in the recreation opportunities offered by the nature reserve rather than in macaques. However, here too, people who had interacted with macaques earlier were more likely to visit Telaga Warna for the sole purpose of viewing/interacting with macaques. Almost 50% of the Japanese respondents visited the monkey park due to personal inclinations, while less than 14% of people in Indonesia visited the park of their own volition. Also, over 57% of the Japanese respondents said that visiting monkey parks helped them to gain a better understanding of macaque behaviour, whereas only about 26% of the respondents said likewise in Indonesia. Unlike the Japanese respondents, most Indonesian respondents engaged in provisioning macaques.
These findings suggest that cross-cultural differences between the two countries as well as management regimes influence people’s motivations to visit macaque tourism sites.
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PROJECT
Participatory Appraisal of the Regional Distribution of Exotic Species in India (PARDESI). A pilot citizen science project on invasive species mapping by Ankila Hiremath, Milind Bunyan, Reshnu Raj (ATREE); Anita Varghese, Shiny Rahel (Keystone Foundation). Funded by the National Geographic Society.
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BACKGROUND
Species that have been introduced by people to regions outside their natural distribution are known as alien or exotic species. A small proportion of such introduced species can become invasive—growing widespread and dominant—with detrimental effects on native biodiversity, food security, ecosystem services, and human health and well-being. Globally, invasive alien species are a cause for conservation concern. In India, we still lack systematic documentation and mapping of invasive species' distribution that could enable prioritizing species (or habitats) for better management and could create a baseline against which to assess future invasive species spread.
SOLUTIONS
Scientists working in partnership with naturalists, students, community members and forest managers can achieve the task of mapping invasive species at a scale and within a timeframe that would be meaningful—something that scientists on their own could not do. And over the last decade, the ubiquitousness of smartphones, plus access to the internet, has made it easier for people to record and share observations, leading to a growing number of such researcher-citizen scientist collaborations.
We have used Google’s Open Data Kit and its android application, ODK Collect, to build offline forms that citizen scientists can access on their android mobile phones. We have also conducted a series of training for various groups of people. The forms are being used to collect information on invasive species—their location, spatial pattern and abundance, to create a pilot invasive species atlas for the Moyar-Bahavani landscape in the Nilgiris District of Tamil Nadu, in India’s Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot. This model partnership could then be scaled up to suit larger conservation landscapes across the country, e.g., the Western Ghats and the Himalayan biodiversity hotspots, and the Central Indian landscape.
OUTCOMES
Apart from creating a pilot atlas of invasive species' distribution, we are also using this project to create greater public awareness about invasive alien species and their potential ecological and socioeconomic impacts. The mapping effort will generate an open-source database of invasive species and maps to identify vulnerable habitats and priority invasive species. This information could be of use to forest managers and organizations that work to conserve the unique biodiversity of the Nilgiris.
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PROJECT
Food Futures Initiative – A pilot initiative to link the local, endemic and seasonal food with tourism in Darjeeling and Sikkim Himalaya by Dr. Sarala Khaling, Sanjeeb Pradhan, Poonam Rai and Tenzing Sherpa
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BACKGROUND
Indigenous wild edibles and fermented foods are an inherent part of the local diets in the biodiversity-rich Himalayan region of Darjeeling and Sikkim. Wild edibles still form an integral part of the seasonal diet for communities in both rural and urban areas. However, food and dietary habits have evolved with time and the focus on food crops has shifted to incentivized cash crops. Change in the food system over the years has led to the loss of traditional crops, and thus, the loss of agrobiodiversity in the region and this has impacted the food system. Thus a pilot project to promote local, endemic and seasonal food as part of the rural tourism module was initiated in Rampuria Forest Village in the Senchel Wildlife Sanctuary, Darjeeling.
SOLUTIONS
Food tourism is an unexplored avenue in the region and could be used as a tool to provide economic benefit to communities. A vibrant local food economy would mean economic benefits to the local communities, which, in time, would lead towards restoring traditional crops and agrobiodiversity. Tourism is one of the principal components of economic development and welfare in the Darjeeling and Sikkim Himalayas. There is already a well-established tourism network all across the region and, over the past few years, the government’s emphasis has been on rural tourism to ease out the overcrowded urban destinations. The existing dynamic rural tourism system could prove as the primary catalyst in promoting local food tourism.
OUTCOMES
A knowledge bank of the local food systems was prepared by documenting wild edibles and local cuisines under a creative commons database. A pilot project was initiated at Rampuria to set up a food destination. Capacity-building and training activities focusing on local food were conducted for women entrepreneurs involved in homestay operations, and a network was established with the local entrepreneurs, travel and tourism operators, including Hotels.
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PROJECT
Tracking the migration and movements of harriers using GPS-GSM loggers by Arjun Kannan and Dr. T Ganesh
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BACKGROUND
Open Natural Ecosystems (ONEs) such as grasslands and savannas have become severely degraded in India owing to various anthropogenic pressures. Historically, these ecosystems have been considered as ‘wastelands’ and less than 1% of the habitat is under the protected area network even today. Long-term monitoring of birds that reside in ONEs has shown a consistent decline in their populations over the last 30 years (State of India’s Birds 2020 report). These declines have been pronounced in migratory birds of prey (raptors) such as harriers and eagles, which specialize in ONEs. Our research focuses on two dryland species of harriers, the Montagu’s and Pallid harrier. They are migratory raptors that spend their wintering periods in India and roost on the ground in grasslands and savannas. The monitoring of harrier roosts has revealed a decline in populations within and outside protected areas. The exact causes for their decline are not known due to a lack of detailed studies. It is also a challenge to track the migration and movements of these raptors since they use a number of different sites, often hundreds of kilometres apart, throughout their annual cycle.
SOLUTIONS
Recent advances in tracking technology has enabled us to track individual birds at greater spatial and temporal scales. As part of this project, we fit miniaturised GPS-GSM loggers and numbered leg-rings onto Montagu’s and Pallid harriers to track their movements. Data from these loggers have helped to map the breeding sites of harriers in Central Asia and also previously unknown roosting sites in India. We also look at their diet in detail by analysing regurgitated pellets found at roosts. By analysing this data, we hope to get a better understanding of the various factors that are leading to harrier population declines.
OUTCOMES
Tracking data from harriers over the last three years has shown that they migrate to eastern parts of Kazakhstan for breeding. Within India, tagged harriers have also helped map previously unknown roosting sites in Telangana, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh. Visits to these sites have shown that these are important regions that support harrier populations. Although, many of these sites are under threat due to land conversions to croplands, quarries and green energy infrastructures such as solar and wind farms. In the coming months, we will be analysing the collected tracking data in detail to understand how harriers use such heterogeneous habitats in the Indian wintering regions. Citizen scientists can also contribute information about ringed harrier sightings and new roosting sites of harriers through our website (www.harrierwatch.atree.org).
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PROJECT
Teesta basin sediment budgeting, valley morphology dynamics and reservoir assessments by Nirmalya Chatterjee, Joydeep Bhattacharjee, Alex Fields.
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BACKGROUND
The Teesta basin is a high montane catchment in the Eastern Himalayas. The upper part of the catchment is a section of the Great Himalayas, with the ultra-high (6000+ meters above sea level) Kangchendzonga Himal covering a significant area in the northern parts of the catchment. The southern parts of the catchment consist of the southern frontal Lesser Himalayas of southern Sikkim and Darjeeling Hills. These are dominated by the high slope hills up to 3000 m high, made up of soft sedimentary rocks and unconsolidated sediments. The climate is predominantly monsoonal with very heavy (up to 5000 mm/y) annual rainfall. This combination of factors creates an ideal situation for a highly structurally vulnerable and erosive landscape. The region is also relatively data-sparse, physically inaccessible, and assessments of land degradation vulnerability are lacking.
SOLUTIONS
Smaller tributary catchments of the Teesta basin were assessed for soil parameters, land coverage and disturbance regimes and a particular catchment was selected for on-ground assessments of soil cover, land use/land cover changes over two decades and of various extant soil structure/chemical parameters. The chosen catchment (Papung khola) was then assessed for soil erosion based on an empirical erosion model from remotely sensed and field-gathered data. Recommendations for land use management were made based on the identification of high erosion potential areas.
A downstream 21 km dammed section of the main Teesta River was analyzed for changes in valley bottom morphology to understand baseline sedimentary conditions after damming. Long-term modelling of sediment deposition was done to assess the lifetime of the dam-created reservoirs and the associated power generation facilities.
OUTCOMES
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A map showing erosional hotspots for the Papung khola catchment was prepared to understand areas that would require interventions to reduce soil degradation due to erosion, and to target areas for reversing land use/land cover changes.
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A set of maps of the surveyed valley bottom, showing erosion and deposition created by morphological changes, was prepared for the reservoirs behind the two dams.
- The reservoirs of the dams were analyzed to create depositional lifetime assessment maps of the inundated valleys
- The reservoir shorelines were assessed for mapping out riparian forest loss due to changing reservoir water levels.
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PROJECT
Responsible Farming: An ecosystem approach for sustainable agriculture in Kuttanad, the ‘rice bowl’ of Kerala by Priyadarsanan Dharma Rajan and Reema Anand.
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BACKGROUND
Kuttanad, the ‘rice bowl of Kerala', located at the heart of Vembanad wetlands, is a highly productive rice paddy ecosystem, famous for the below mean sea level farming. The indiscriminate use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides over the last few decades has resulted in multifarious ecological and health problems in this Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS). Due to the damages to the environmental health and disappearance of indigenous agronomy, agriculture can hardly be perceived as sustainable here. This issue needs urgent attention as it directly affects the lives and livelihoods of millions of people who depend on these water resources.
SOLUTIONS
ATREE-CERC adopted a holistic approach, built upon innovative systemic solutions of eco-friendly farming practices, to reduce the indiscriminate use of hazardous agrochemicals that pollute the agroecosystem. A technology package was developed, which included different adaptive measures to minimize the use of critical inputs like seed, fertilizer, and hazardous chemicals. Biocontrol agents and natural antagonists were used for controlling pests and diseases. In addition to this, the preparation and usage of Vrikshayurveda and other organic formulations were demonstrated to minimize the use of agrochemicals. Capacity building through a series of farm schools played a key role in creating awareness and spreading eco-friendly practices among the farmers. A few were selected as master farmers and trained to extend the program to more areas in Kuttanad.
OUTCOMES
The soil test-based lime application helped maintain the pH at 5, thereby reducing the custom fertilizers to 30%. The adoption of biocontrol methods for pest and disease management achieved a 100% reduction in chemical pesticides and fungicides. The overall practices helped in achieving a good yield, marked by a net profit with minimal and wise use of inputs, which shows the success of the demonstration package.
IMPACT
Through this intervention, we transformed Kuttanad farmers and achieved a considerable reduction in the use of inputs in paddy cultivation. The demonstration plots also have reflected the yield and net income. Attitude change was noted among the farmers in handling the existing resources and their wise use, with proper knowledge of the paddy and wetland ecosystem services as a whole. The intervention was upscaled into more padasekharams (farm collective) involving more farmers.
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"If we do not know the names of things, the knowledge of them is lost too"- Carl Linnaeus.
With four of the 36 global hotspots of biodiversity, India has unique and rich biodiversity that remains to be fully documented. Dr. B.R Kailsh, a researcher at the Bangalore-based Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) is the coauthor of newly released inventory of India’s orchids, ‘A Checklist of the Orchidaceae of India.’ The book was published by the Missouri Botanical Garden.
"The comprehensive book on the orchids provides detailed taxonomic status and distribution of 1234 species of one of the largest groups of beautiful flowering plants. This book opens up a large unexplored diversity of orchids in India and is a treasure for not just taxonomists but for all interested in orchids." said G.Ravikanth, Acting Director, ATREE.
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Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet announces Simon Harford as CEO and Ravi Venkatesan (ATREE Trustee) as Board Chair.
"I am excited to have the opportunity to work on the defining challenge of our time," said Ravi Venkatesan, UNICEF's Special Representative for Young People and Innovation. "The Alliance will show that a coalition of committed partners and a lot of innovation can make a meaningful reduction in carbon emissions and a big leap in energy access." Read more...
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Book Review: Trails of Tamiraparani
Featured in Mint lounge
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The Galaxy Frog is an endangered species found in the southern part of Western Ghats or the Kurinji (mountain) landscape of Tirunelveli district in Tamil Nadu. This ground-dwelling frog with distinct colours features in Trails of Tamiraparani. Published by ATREE's Agasthyamalai Community Conservation Centre team, the book documents the flora and fauna found across the five landscapes through which the Tamiraparani River flows. It's based on the description from Sangam literature. Read more...
Donate and get the coffee table book “Trails of Tamiraparani” at your doorstep. Your donation will support our conservation education initiatives in the Tamiraparani Landscape.
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You could create a huge impact, we look forward to your contribution
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ATREE, Royal Enclave, Sriramapura, Jakkur Post, Bangalore 560 064
Phone: +91-80-23635555 | www.atree.org | info@atree.org
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