scholarly journals SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS OF TRIBAL SETTLEMENTS IN THE WESTERN GHATS

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (12) ◽  
pp. 178-191
Author(s):  
Basavarajaiah D.M ◽  
◽  
Narasimhamurthy B. ◽  
Ganesh Prasad T.S ◽  
Jaya Naik ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
Western Ghats ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
World Heritage Site ◽  
Mountain Range ◽  
Western Coast ◽  
Amphibian Species ◽  
Illegal Mining ◽  
Tribal Area ◽  
The Western Ghats

The Western Ghats, also known as Sahyadri is a mountain range that covers an area of 140,000 square km parallel to the Western coast of the Indian Peninsula .It traverses the states of Kerala , Tamilnadu , Karnataka ,Goa ,Maharashtra, and Gujarat. It is a UNESCO world heritage site and is one of the eight hottest hot spots of biological diversity in the world. It covers 5000 species of flowering plants ,139 mammals species ,508 birds species, and 179 amphibian species ,many discovered species live in the Western Ghats . At least 325 globally threatened species occur in this region. The region glitches many anthropogenic intervention like illegal mining, the establishment of human settlement and deforestation etc. From a Historical view, the Western Ghats is the home for tribes > 50 types of tribes are living in the Western Ghats from the anecdotal period. The majority of the tribal are largely dependent on forests for their livelihood. After the implementation of the forest policy , the tribal livelihood status really worsened in the Western Ghats , they are unable to meet the daily requirement of recommended food intake >2500 Kcl. After post-independence (73years ) of India many development programs are implemented in the tribal area for improvement of livelihood status , but as of calendar date they are facing many problems like economic instability , lack of literacy , lower level of quality of life and not politically empowered . In this context , in the interest of policy implication at the tribal area , the present study was undertaken to study the socioeconomic status and spatial distribution of tribal in the Western Ghats. This study practically helps the policymakers , planners of the policy, and researcher scholars to extrapolate the tribal settlement through the geo-spacing tag of tribal , socio-economic level, Knowledge and attitude of Conservation of Western Ghats at the population level .

scholarly journals A Scientific study of Forests of the Western Ghats

2021 ◽  
pp. 52-64
Author(s):  
Geethanjali T.M.
Keyword(s):  
Western Ghats ◽  
Tamil Nadu ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Hot Spot ◽  
Scientific Study ◽  
World Heritage Site ◽  
Mountain Range ◽  
Indian States ◽  
Deccan Plateau ◽  
The Western Ghats

The Western Ghats in India’s Deccan Plateau has been recognized as one of the eight “hottest hot-spots” of biological diversity in the world. UNESCO has identified this region as a World Heritage Site. In Maharashtra, this mountain range is known as ‘Sahyadri’, ‘Dang forests’ in Gujarat, ‘Nilgiris’ in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, and ‘Malnad’ in Karnataka. It stretches across the six Indian states of Gujrat, Maharashtra, Goa, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and two union territories including Daman and Diu and Pondicherry. These hills begin near the border of Gujarat and Maharashtra, south of the Tapti river, and end at Kanyakumari, at the southern tip of India, covering an incredible 1,60,000 sq.km. In the 18th and 19th centuries, most of the people who classified the flora of these regions are hobbyists. Very few British Officers who conduct survey of this landscape release their books. A complete scientific study of this biodiversity hot-spot is yet to be undertaken. Until now, only a handful of scientists have undertaken a study of the Western Ghats. So, this present article expains a brief scientific study of the forests of the Western Ghats.

scholarly journals Freshwater fish fauna of rivers of the southern Western Ghats, India

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 1735-1752 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anbu Aravazhi Arunkumar ◽  
Arunachalam Manimekalan
Keyword(s):  
Species Diversity ◽  
Freshwater Fish ◽  
Western Ghats ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Fish Fauna ◽  
World Heritage Site ◽  
Freshwater Fish Fauna ◽  
Western Ghats Of India ◽  
Southern Western Ghats ◽  
The Western Ghats

Abstract. The Western Ghats of India is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is one of the eight “hotspots” of biological diversity in the world. It is also referred to as the “Great Escarpment of India”. This paper provides information on the diversity of freshwater fish fauna of six river systems of the southern Western Ghats. The study area has been identified geographically using a GPS, and the respective topographic map has been digitized using ArcGIS software. The fish fauna were collected from various streams and rivers using cast nets, dip nets, gill nets and drag nets. Among the 31 georeferenced sites sampled from the rivers of the southern Western Ghats, a total of 64 species, belonging to 6 orders, 14 families and 31 genera, were recorded. Among them, the order Cypriniformes was dominant, with 3 families, 18 genera and 49 species (76.6 %). Principal component analysis and cluster analysis were performed to express the contribution of the variables and their influence on the species diversity. Interestingly, of the 31 sites, Thunakadavu stream, Gulithuraipatti, Athirapally, Naduthotam, Nadathittu, Mullaithodu, Thonanthikla, Noolpuzha and Sinnaru exhibited high variation in species diversity. Nearly 15 species were found to be threatened in the Western Ghats. Garra periyarensis and Cirrhinus cirrhosus are known to be vulnerable and Hemibagrus punctatus is critically endangered because of various anthropogenic activities. The study clearly indicates that certain timely measures have to be taken immediately to protect the fish fauna in the southern Western Ghats (https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.882214).

Bridging the gap: Sharing responsibility for ecological restoration and wildlife conservation on private lands in the Western Ghats

Social Change ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 33 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 129-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. R. Shankar ◽  
Divya Mudappa
Keyword(s):  
Ecological Restoration ◽  
Western Ghats ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Private Lands ◽  
Mutual Cooperation ◽  
Governmental Agencies ◽  
Sharing Responsibility ◽  
The Western Ghats

A major conservation issue, particularly in the tropics, is habitat loss and fragmentation due to developmental activities and increasing human populations. Ecologiste today recognise that much of the once-pristine forests that are now secondary forests, as well as large areas outside existing conservation reserves, harbouring significant levels of biological diversity need to be targeted for long-term conservation. Governmental agencies such as the Forest Department and the conservation community have come to accept that the conventional patrol-and-protect method has its limitations in addressing the increasing threats to such conservation areas. A complementary strategy is to develop conservation plans for protection and improvement by ecological restoration of forests, particularly isolated fragments and degraded areas on private lands. This requires bridging gaps between private landowners, governmental agencies, and nongovernmental conservation organisations and fostering efforts based on mutual cooperation and collaboration as well as developing positive incentives for private landholders involved in conservation of forests and biological diversity. In this paper, we discuss one of the first examples of such an effort of sharing responsibility for long-term conservation in a highly disturbed tropical rainforest region of the Western Ghats.

Spatial distribution of Haemaphysalis species ticks and human Kyasanur Forest Disease cases along the Western Ghats of India, 2017–2018

2019 ◽  
Vol 77 (3) ◽  
pp. 435-447 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Naren Babu ◽  
Anup Jayaram ◽  
H. Hemanth Kumar ◽  
Prashant Pareet ◽  
Sarthak Pattanaik ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
Western Ghats ◽  
Forest Disease ◽  
Western Ghats Of India ◽  
Kyasanur Forest Disease ◽  
The Western Ghats

Environmental susceptibility model for predicting forest fire occurrence in the Western Ghats of India

2012 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 368 ◽  
Author(s):  
Quentin Renard ◽  
Raphaël Pélissier ◽  
B. R. Ramesh ◽  
Narendran Kodandapani
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
Forest Fires ◽  
Western Ghats ◽  
Goodness Of Fit ◽  
Fire Season ◽  
Management Problem ◽  
Environmental Controls ◽  
Western Ghats Of India ◽  
Susceptibility Model ◽  
The Western Ghats

Forest fires are a recurrent management problem in the Western Ghats of India. Although most fires occur during the dry season, information on the spatial distribution of fires is needed to improve fire prevention. We used the MODIS Hotspots database and Maxent algorithm to provide a quantitative understanding of the environmental controls regulating the spatial distribution of forest fires over the period 2003–07 in the entire Western Ghats and in two nested subregions with contrasting characteristics. We used hierarchical partitioning to assess the independent contributions of climate, topography and vegetation to the goodness-of-fit of models and to build the most parsimonious fire susceptibility model in each study area. Results show that although areas predicted as highly prone to forest fires were mainly localised on the eastern slopes of the Ghats, spatial predictions and model accuracies differed significantly between study areas. We suggest accordingly a two-step approach to identify: first, large fire-prone areas by paying special attention to the climatic conditions of the monsoon season before the fire season, which determine the fuels moisture content during the fire season; second, the most vulnerable sites within the fire-prone areas using local models mainly based on the type of vegetation.

scholarly journals The Confessions of a Goat: An Oral History on the Resistances of an Indigenous Community

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Prabhakar Jayaprakash
Keyword(s):  
Oral History ◽  
Tamil Nadu ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Mountain Range ◽  
Western Coast ◽  
Tribal Community ◽  
Anthropological Research ◽  
The Voice ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
The Western Ghats

Betta Kurumba is an indigenous (also known as Adivasi / tribal) community living in the Gudalur block of Nilgiris district, Tamil Nadu, India. This district is part of the Western Ghats mountain range that runs parallel to the Western Coast of India. It is an anthropological research on a hamlet, Koodamoola, located inside a tea and coffee plantation, the Golden Cloud Estate (pseudonym). Few years ago, the owner (under legal contestation) of this plantation attempted to enforce a ban on rearing of livestock arbitrarily. Betta Kurumbas did not agree to this enforcement since they are the ancient inhabitants of this forest (now, plantations) and they resisted. Ethnography, oral history, and in-depth interviews are the methods used to understand their everyday resistances. The field intricacies such as powerlessness, atrocities and litigations forced me to narrate their resistances through the voice of a goat (a metaphor) and I have incorporated both factual and fictional elements. I neither attempting here to exaggerate nor demean the community by this way of narration. In broader context, I have written this story from a postmodern perspective. This paper brings forth multiple facets of their realities, power nexus between capitalists and apparatuses of the State, differences between and within the indigenous communities, and resistances as negotiations.

scholarly journals Planning and Managing Hill Stations in the Northern Western Ghats

2014 ◽  
Vol 26-27 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Manasi Karandikar
Keyword(s):  
Western Ghats ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Economic Value ◽  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Limiting Factors ◽  
Mountain Range ◽  
Irreversible Damage ◽  
Tropical Country ◽  
The Hill ◽  
The Western Ghats

In a tropical country like India, where the climate is predominantly hot and dry, Hill Stations haveserved as great retreats for summer vacations. The hill stations are mainly service centers, providingcomfortable stay and travel for tourists. Being tourism destinations, the thrust is always given onincreasing the number of tourists. In recent past, tourist traffic at hill stations has increased significantlyand support infrastructure is being developed for the tourists.The limiting factors that should have natural control over such development are overlooked. This hascaused irreversible damage to the local natural resources, ecology and support systems. Unless a limit onthe total number of visitors is enforced at every destination and followed meticulously, it would not bepossible to maintain aesthetics, atmosphere, sound infrastructure and ecology for these destinations.Importantly, desires and aspirations of local people with their skill set should be integrated in the overallplan.In Maharashtra, majority of existing and upcoming hill stations are in the Western Ghats. Consideringthe ecological fragility of Western Ghats and various life supporting services given by this mountain range,ideally it is not recommended to have any large scale developmental projects. For projects that have alreadybeen approved, interventions to reduce current degradation & restore the near original ecosystem in the areaare now urgently necessary. It is important and possible to cater to the needs of local communities andecosystems and create models with economic benefits in a different way than promoting large scale areadevelopment projects. All future progress should be purely in the interest of maintaining ecologicalintegrity and not short-term economic value. This will need more detailed studies and change in policies.This article uses case studies of two such hill stations, which are also notified ESZ (Ecologically SensitiveZone) in Maharashtra to illustrate the above considerations. The article also evolves a ‘Planning andManagement Strategy’ that could be useful as foundation for upcoming destinations to integrate theecological perspective in the process of planning and development.

scholarly journals Artisanal and Small Gold Mining and Petroleum Production as Potential Sources of Heavy Metal Contamination in Ecuador: A Call to Action

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (6) ◽  
pp. 2794
Author(s):  
José Luis Rivera-Parra ◽  
Bernardo Beate ◽  
Ximena Diaz ◽  
María Belén Ochoa
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
Environmental Degradation ◽  
Gold Mining ◽  
Amazon Basin ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Heavy Metal Contamination ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Petroleum Production ◽  
Call To Action ◽  
Illegal Mining

Mining and petroleum production are the source of many elements and base materials fundamental for our modern way of life. The flip side of these keystone industries is the environmental degradation they can cause if not properly managed. Metallic mining and petroleum production can contaminate the local ecosystem with sediments, chemicals used in the industrial processes and heavy metals, part of the metallic ore or oil reservoir. The objective of this project was to analyze the spatial distribution of the presence of different potentially hazardous elements that make up the metallic deposits and oil reservoirs in Ecuador, focused mainly on artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) districts. Additionally, we were interested in analyzing this information under the local political and administrative contexts which are key to determining how likely it is that mismanagement of the local mineral deposits and petroleum exploitation projects will end up causing environmental degradation. An extensive and intensive literature search was conducted for information on the presence and concentration of 19 potentially harmful elements. We analyzed data on 11 metallic deposits throughout Ecuador and a major oilfield in the Ecuadorian Amazon basin. We used geographic information systems to analyze the spatial distribution of these reservoirs and their mineral compositions. The results indicated a widespread distribution and high concentration of elements potentially harmful for human health, such as mercury, cadmium and arsenic, throughout the metallic deposits in Ecuador. This is particularly true for long-exploited ASGM districts, such as Ponce-Enríquez, Portovelo-Zaruma and Nambija. This study highlights the importance of understanding geological diversity and its potential risks to better protect the biological diversity and public health of its inhabitants. Furthermore, we consider our work not as a call to stop ASGM mining nor petroleum production, but on the contrary as a strong call to plan every mining and petroleum production project considering these risks. Moreover, our work is a call to action by the local government and authorities to stop corruption and fulfill their duties overseeing the activities of mining and petroleum companies, stopping illegal mining, helping ASGM communities to improve their environmental standards, finding alternative income sources and protecting the local environment.

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