Development-Conservation Dilemma in the Nilgiri Mountains of South India

The Nilgiri Mountains of south India isconsidered unique by anthropologists, geologists,climatologists, botanists as well as tourists. It hasremained a subject of constant study and researchover the last two centuries. Man-nature balance had continued undisturbed in the Nilgiris for thousandsof years until the early 19th century when it became a British colony attracting, in due course, variousdevelopmental activities. Subsequently, the Nilgirisand its popular hill stations emerged as favouriteplaces for the British population in India for rest and recuperation, game and for raising commercial plantations. In the process, the traditional indigenous crops were replaced by 揈nglish?vegetables and the natural forests gave way to commercial plantations of coffee, tea and other exotic species of trees. After Independence in 1947, the government of India accelerated the developmental process on thesame lines as during the colonial period leading to arapid growth of urbanisation and commercialplantations. Increasing pressure on land foragriculture and monoculture plantations displaced an alarmingly high proportion of natural forests andgrasslands leading to an extensive loss of biodiversity and turning the Nilgiris into a biodiversity 揾otspot? as identified by World Wildlife Fund, India (1995).Mindless development since the 1970s further tilted the scale precariously, pushing the hills to the brink of an ecological disaster. Nilgiris entered an anxious era of landslides, which have become more frequent and disastrous in recent decades. The 揜eport on the study of Landslides of November 1993 in Nilgiris District?observed that 搊ccurrence of land-slides in Nilgiris, particularly at the onset and during the north-east monsoons, is a ubiquitous, recurring, annual phenomenon? The colonists simultaneously developed the Nilgiris as a tourist resort for the English population. When independence came, the English were replaced by the Indian princely classes, politicians, capitalists and bureaucrats. After the 1970s, tourism became a mass industry for various reasons. Tourist arrivals increased exponentially to cross a million a year since 2000. However, without a proper plan to promote it on desired lines, the lop-sided and haphazard growth of tourism brought more harm than good to the hills. Alongside, unrelenting commercialization and immigration explosion with no corresponding improvements in infrastructures and amenities have begun to strain the carrying capacity of the hills, leading to water famine, pollution, urban congestion and marginalisation of the indigenous people. The Nilgiris is at the cross roads in the 21st century. Its development appears to have reached its limits with the predominant plantation economy collapsing and its tourism industry stagnating. Any further shifts in land use or cropping pattern appear economically unsound and ecologically catastrophic. Promotion of tourism again may prove counter productive unless there is a radical change in the focus and objectives of the industry in consonance with the overall priorities of the district. The Nilgiris is desperately looking for the best international practices to balance the needs of development and conservation.

Description of the song of the Nilgiri Thrush(Zoothera [aurea] neilgherriensis) and song differentiation across the Zoothera dauma species complex

Background: Taxonomic treatment of the Zoothera dauma species complex is highly variable and has been hampered by the absence of song recordings for the Nilgiri Thrush(Zoothera [aurea] neilgherriensis).Methods: I obtained two recordings of the song of neigherriensis from southern Indian. Here I publish sonograms and analyze song recordings for all but one currently described taxon from the Eurasian portion of the geographic range of this species complex. Principal component analyses were used to investigate song differences between taxa.Results: The song of neigherriensis is a highly complex series of strophes remarkably similar to the song of the insular Zoothera major. Vocal analyses across the complex indicate four key groups of taxa differentiated in their songs:(1) simple flat whistled songs which include the northern aurea, toratugumi and the undescribed Taiwan population;(2) eastern populations of dauma(reported here for the first time) which sing like northern birds but with much broader bandwidth,(3) strongly down-slurred, thin whistles of tropical resident imbricata of Sri Lanka and horsfieldi of Indonesia, and(4) highly complex songs of Himalayan dauma, neilgherriensis and major.Conclusions: Zoothera dauma is unlikely to represent a single species given the simple singing populations from its eastern range and highly complex song from the Himalayan portion of its range. neilgherriensis should either be transferred from Zoothera aurea, where it is currently classified as a subspecies, and be placed as a subspecies within Z. dauma from the Himalayas or it should be recognized as a distinct species. Given the small number of songs available for analyses, I suggest the former course until it can be clearly demonstrated that neilgherriensis and Himalayan dauma are vocally distinct.

Foraging ecology of the globally threatened Nilgiri Wood Pigeon(Columba elphinstonii)in the Western Ghats,India

Foraging ecology of the globally endangered Nilgiri Wood Pigeon(Columba elphinstonii) was investigated in the Western Ghats,India,using faecal sampling and direct observations.The birds fed on fruits of 39 plant species,on seeds of 11 species,flowers and leaf buds of four species and a few ground invertebrates.Direct observations across seasons showed nine plant species were selected more often(47% of observations),with fruits of the members of the family Lauraceae the most preferred.Gleaning accounted for 76% of feeding methods throughout the year.Feeding was mainly from twigs at the edges on the upper and middle canopy(> 6 m).Frequency of feeding on fruits correlated significantly with fruit abundance,which depended on rainfall.The present study indicates that the pigeon requires a wide variety of diets from different forest environments.Conservation of this species depends on preserving all habitat types required to meet their resource needs throughout the year.