Chennai: A recent eco study on Tiruchy’s biodiversity by Tamil Nadu forest department (Tiruchy division) and Biodiversity Conservation Foundation (BCF) has entered the prestigious Indian Foresters’ Journal for its wide varieties of plants.
Tiruchy is often seen as an agricultural land or just a central transit point among Tamil Nadu motorists ignoring the rich flora it supports, lead biologists of the study told DC.
“Most of the taxa are either unknown to biological world or they are not described. Many plants have become extinct before they are given a name, a research paper by Hubbell and Foster revealed this in 1986 and this situation continues”, opined lead author A. Kumaraguru, conservation scientist, BCF.
The ecosystem of Tiruchirappalli Forest Division (TFD) is one such instance where the base line data on the diversity of plants is lacking. The significance of this landscape lies in its geographic position as the tail end region of the Eastern Ghats with its characteristic feature of discontinuous vegetation patches.
“The diversity of plants actually reflects the carrying capacity of the ecosystem. Hence, we have analysed the vegetation in terms of floral diversity of Tiruchy forest division with a pioneer attempt to create baseline data on the diversity of plants and this research paper comprehensively describes the diversity of floral wealth in the central district which supports 10 per cent of forest cover spread over in four ranges”, coauthor of the study and Tiruchy district forest officer N. Satheesh said in the journal.
A total of 417 plant species comprising 89 families have been recorded in our study and the study started in December 2013 and is going on. Of this, more than 50 species are fruit bearing supporting bird life. Due to lack of funds, the study is not extended to lower species like mammals, birds, algae and fungi, Kumaraguru told DC adding that a long-term study of the dynamics of vegetation has to be evaluated to understand the diversified fauna that depends on Tiruchi vegetation ecosystem.
The interesting revelation in the study about Tiruchi forest division is that the district with a tropical climate, maximum mean annual rainfall of 868 mm coupled with the deficit rainfall for the past two consecutive years is still supporting diversity. In general, there was a considerable variation in the abundance of shrub species across the vegetation types. However, species such as Lantana camera were distributed in all the habitats except a few patches of Pachchamalai forests.
The diversity of species is comparatively high at Thuraiyur when compared to that of Manapparai and Tiruchirappalli forest ranges, which may be attributed to favourable climatic conditions and less biotic pressure coupled with less habitat fragmentation. Moreover, forest fire and other anthropogenic pressure (grazing, fuel wood collection, food and Non Timber Forest Produce) are relatively low in this landscape and thereby the natural decomposition and composting process are highly favouring floral diversity, the journal said.
Study area
The total field area with a geographical area of 440.383 sq.km of revenue district, possesses reserved forests and reserved lands extending to 463.0687 sq.km. The important feature of Tiruchi Forest Division is that it consists of large number of widely scattered forest blocks of varying size and importance. The forests in this division are classified as
- The Southern Pachchamalais - Forms part of Eastern Ghats namely Pachchamalai hills,
- The hills of Manapparai Range - Forms part of Eastern Ghats.
- The scattered highly fragmented bits of plain forests of Tiruchy, Manapparai, Thuvarankurichi and Thuraiyur Ranges.
