Shola forests..... A prestigious and unique ecosystem in threat

Shola forests are tropical montane forests that are native to the southern Western Ghats. The term "tropical montane" indicates that these forests are found along a variable elevation range, whose potential upper limits are influenced by cloud condensation or fog, mist, and minimum temperature.

The formation of the shola forest was in the vicinity of Ootacamund, situated in the Nilgiri Mountains, India. They are primarily found in the high-altitude mountains of Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu and are found nowhere else on the planet.

Shola Forest is a unique occurrence of grasslands and forest mosaics.

This type of habitat, being very unique, harbors many endemic species of plants and animals and becomes an important habitat to save from any type of harm done anthropogenically, like land use that is not sustainable the introduction of invasive species, or many other activities that might become a potential threat for these prestige ecosystems.

The unique feature of Shola Forest is the Shola Sky Islands, which are only seen in higher elevations and are usually isolated and separated from each other. The distance of separation can be from a few kilometers to several hundred kilometers, which have different climatic conditions, which is one of the reasons for the high endemism in this area for plants and animals.

The initial condition of the shola forest, which is first said to be dominated by grasslands and not trees, was proven wrong by doing pollen analysis in the area where it originated. Pollen analysis is one of the scientific methods that archaeologists use to combine pollen data with historical research to answer questions about environmental conditions and human actions of the past and the influences each had upon one another. The data from pollen analysis says that the grasses and forest were in a mosaic pattern around 35,000 years ago, but these days the shola forest is not rejuvenating because of anthropogenic activities like deforestation, land use for agriculture, and the introduction of invasive species like eucalyptus and acacia, which are one of the major threats to the grasslands present there.

Why we should conserve the shola forest?

First, we are not considering the numerous benefits that this ecosystem provides; if we do not save them, we will lose many endemic animals and plants that have adapted to this ecosystem and cannot be found anywhere else in the world, such as birds such as Nilgiri sholakili, Nilgiri pipit, laughing thrushes, and many more animals such as Nilgiri tahr, slender loris, gaint squirrels, leopards, bears,

 

2. The shola forest soil has a higher water retention capacity than any other soil. These forests absorb the monsoon rains, which they retain within their soil. The retained water is then slowly released into the watercourse, forming small channels that connect to one of India's major riverine systems, the Cauvery, and other rivers such as the Tamirabani and the Vaigai.

 

3. The Shola Forest is one of the reasons that these major river systems do not dry up, making them perennial rivers.

 

4. Saving forests like shola can also help in carbon sequestration and important processes like nutrient cycling and temperature regulation by acting as a heat dump, and they can also provide many medicinal products to the people and can also be used as a source to provide jobs to the cultural people through ecotourism in these important wildlife areas.

 

Finally, I'd like to point out that learning about these unique ecosystems and natural phenomena is one of the most effective ways to save them from extinction, as is spreading the word about how our daily activities can impact these prestigious ecosystems. Grasslands in general are treated as wastelands and used for many other activities, like cultivation and planting trees so as to get forest products, but we don't see how impactful they can be to the species dependent on them. Spreading awareness about these types of problems is the need of the hour, and ignoring them can actually be harmful for us as well as for other species. Having this type of diversity of species and essential functions is more than enough to actually care about them and save them from anthropogenic extinction.

~Prabhav Benara