Ooty: The Nilgiris Environment and Socio-cultural Trust(NEST), has sought a detail study by experts on the landslips that occurred in recent rains in August in Gudalur and Pandalur belt in Nilgiris western border to ascertain whether dominance of exotic flora there played havoc with the slope and soil stability.
V. Sivadass, managing trustee of NEST, said that there were landslides, landslips as well as mud-slips at more than 100 spots in the Gudalur and Pandalur belts alone that made one genuinely suspect what really went wrong with the ecology there as these areas never witnessed landslips to such a magnitude in the past.
“Though Gudalur belt with its rich flora is considered to be the oxygen-bank in the hills, over the years, quite huge quantities of exotic flora, including many trees such as acacia and silver oak and many exotic shrubs made its way into the thickly wooded slopes of Pandalur and Gudalur belts.
The soil texture in Gudalur-Pandalur belt is very fragile along the slopes there. Moreover, the soil character in the slopes there is suitable only to sustain the native trees and endemic flora. When extra pressure is exerted by the alien species and their root system, that too in huge numbers, then it would naturally play spoil-sport with the soil and slope ecology of the area leading to development of cracks and fissures in the slopes that would ultimately lead to loosening of the soil that further ends up in land-slips" he explained. So, “it is imperative that efforts must be taken by all the concerned departments, including, the forests, horticulture, agri-engineering and geology, to study the impact of exotic flora on the slope stability in the Gudalur-Pandalur belt as that would only pave way to take corrective action to save the soil and slopes during the rains in future,” he pointed out.
