Palni Hills Conservation Council 22nd Annual Report Introduction: The year that has passed has seen growing of 300 000 tree seedlings from the mountains to the coast. Though the start was good for the tree growing activities the rainfall fell short of expectations and there was also prolonged drought in many watersheds. The middle Palnis experienced a spell or 5 months without any appreciable rain. The project works under the Drylands restoration could only achieve below average survival rates as a result. The Climate Change much talked about in the MainStream Media may have caught up with Palni Hills. Though the effects of desication have been upon the middle altitudes for sometime now. The gradual failure of cropping systems based on selected cultivated plants like lime, coffee and pepper at lower altitudes are now obvious signs of the times to come. But on the positive side are the new openings at the coast with mangroves species and many new initiatives. The issues at coast are different from the hills and require long lead times as well as new techniques. Tree growing has been taken up with many new species and in challenging environments as the sea and brackish waters. There is also the new work of monitoring and capacity building for other NGO;s who are new to tree growing at the coast. This has taken the staff to new frontiers and we are now preparing manuals for nursery techniques for over 100 species. There have also been publications through the councils' agency about bees and flora of Central India. At Kodaikanal the work of community participation in preventing pollution of the lake waters is progressing with sanction from official advisory group meetings. But developments that do not favor water quality restoration are taken up side by side by the administration due to political pressures that aim to satisfy criteria other than ecological restoration. The E C of the council that met 12 times during the last year represented by the following members, herewith presents its report on the activities of the council. 1. R. Kannan President 2. Rev. Fr. Britto Vice President 3. Mr. Madhu Ramnath Vice President 4. Mrs. Girija Viraraghavan Secretary 5. Mrs. Pippa Mukherjee Joint Secretary 6. Mr. N. Natarajan Treasurer 7. Mr. M.S. Viraraghavan EC Member 8. Mr. Raja Gopal Durai Raja EC Member 9. Mr. Vijay Kumar Johnson EC Member 10. Mr. J. Nath EC Member 11. Mr. David Thomas EC Member 12. Mrs. Rebecca Chacko EC Member List of Members of PHCC 1. Annual Members 21 2. Life Members 185 3. Institutional members 4 A. Upper Hill Field Activities Ecorestoration of Kodaikanal Lake Public Advisory group meetings Non official stakeholders The livelihood earners who spend the day time at the lake were organized in to three meetings during the past year to make them realise the status of the lake water. These have created some interest among the groups who try to keep the around their shops clean. All voiced concern about the siltation taking place at the periphery and the need for arresting it. But at the time of low water levels during summer months, they are busy catering to tourist needs and can not voluntarily work for cleaning the silt, though a mass initiative may spur the authorities to act in similar manner. Official Project Advisory Group's meet The District Collector called for the Public Advisory Meet with all concerned officials of the state. There have been two such meetings to discuss the efforts to clean the lake waters. The government has made plans for de silting and other works but awaits the clearance of the High Court where a PIL has prevented the location of the effluent treatment plant near the head marsh. The District Collector and Municipality have offered a suitable place near the existing ETP where the waste from dwellings at the lake watershed are to be transported. There was no Detailed Project Report as to how this was to be done from the concerned officials and the Project Advisory Group was told that the report will soon be available. Periphery activities We have employed one full time person to collect and transport all the horse dung that is left over by the ponies. This is periodically removed and after using the dung for manure as trials, now there is good demand for the nutrients. Soon we hope to make the activity self sustaining. Prevention of waste dumping during the peak tourist season of April June we have hired women from the nearest settlement to advice visitors not to leave packaging materials and Poly Ethylene Teraphthalate bottles at the lake side. Leaflets in Tamil and English describing the poor water quality status were also distributed to the visitors to create awareness among them. Community based interventions The vendors and shopkeepers all have kept their respective sites clean as they had agreed on the PAG meets. But recently there has been some hasty shop construction and these have been permanently allotted to all the temporary shop keepers. It remains to be seen how they will now deal with the waste arising out of their permanent shelters. Solid Waste Management and Urine Separating toilets There are about 150 households at the settlement close to the marsh and most have leach pit toilets. The trial with Urine separating composting toilets has been now extended to seven families. The units are being used with minimal effort and we do hope to make all at the settlement realize the consequence of using water closet that is the source of nutrients in to the lake. Household waste segregation All the households have been provided with waste collection bins for source separating degradable and non degradable waste. Thus the haphazard dumping of waste around the head marsh is prevented and all the solid waste generated from this settlement is reaching the municipal dumping yard, The irony is that the municipal truck has no facility for keeping waste separate and mixes it all again. Removal of Water Lilly The spread of macro vegetation in the arm of the lake close to our office has been alarming. This is primarily due to the construction and operation of a commercial residency at the periphery. As the water level was low during the summer months, we could use men to remove some of the lilly with the tubers. This will not grow again for some time but permanent solution lies in reducing nutrients in to the lake. About 5 tons of the water Lilly with underwater tubers from where the roots emerge were removed mechanically. Maintenance of silt traps The nineteen silt traps have been regularly cleaned off silt and maintained for the past two years. But the government machinery keeps working to make pavements and even obstruct flow of water from the road on the surface to the lake. Thus all inlets in to the lake from the road in certain sections of the periphery have been closed leading to water stagnation at the road for many days after a rain. Further the council has taken up growing Acorus calamus around the inlet points with the objective to filter out phosphates in the waters entering the lake. The shola nursery at Kodaikanal has also managed to grow willow from cuttings and these are now being planted around the stream inlets points that discharge in to the silt traps. These vegetative measures will counter the flow of soil and nutrients in the long run in to the lake. Water quality monitoring The work has been now restricted to once a month testing at the seven points of reference. This has been no improvement in the water quality and the siltation has gotten worse with many places the depth showing marked decrease. The turbidity level has increased as well. The poor rainfall has also not diluted the waters during the rainy season. We have also made two studies inviting external monitors who have clearly indicated the presence of E.coli in large numbers around the sites where commercial residencies are operating. Public hearing on Lake A meeting open to all at Kodaikanal to voice their concern about the poor water quality status of the lake was organized at the Boat Club premises on Nov 30th. It attracted a gathering of 150 folks and about 20 among them came to the daise and put forward their views as to how to clean the and keep the lake pristine. Though none of the officials were present for the meet, this probably spurred the official machinery to constitute the official PAG. The use of public hearings as a means to redress issues concerning degradation of common property resources was mooted by PCED and we hope to keen up the momentum generated to halt the deterioration of water quality. Rearing carp for algae control The microscopic algae that inhabits the waters are the reason for the pea soup appearance of the water. Algae eating carp can reduce the load by consuming the same. We have procured and released some 1000 fry stage Goi carp in to the fish ponds above the lake at the marsh. We are also rearing the fry to fingerling stage for release in to the lake at a later date at our nursery in special tanks with feeds. Upper Hills tree nurseries and apiary works Kodaikanal Shola nursery The lake watershed households have availed about 4360 plants from our nursery. There are over 40 species of shola trees growing at the nursery. The nursery has also supplied plant of willow for arresting flow of silt in to the lake. The current stock at the nursery is 13,100. The nursery serves as training centre for students and visitors interested in biodiversity conservation. During the last year two volunteer youth from Netherlands worked at the nursery for a period of one month learning the intricacies of tree growing. The nursery has now started to stock plants with recognized pharmacological property for sale to interested customers. There seems to be good demand for Mapia that is known to procedure anti tumor compounds. Pallangi tree nursery The nursery has grafted seedlings of pear and plum for sale to farmers. The grafting has been done on peach rootstock that was grown from stones last year and the grafting has been with known varieties of peach and plum. The nursery has supplied 4000 plants to farmers in the areas and has a stock of 6200 plants. Pallangi Kombai nursery The nursery has been catering to the needs of the coffee growers in the area for shade tree seedlings. But recently there has been a spurt in commercial residents and plains folks buying land for retreats and resorts. This has led to a decline of farming activity. The off take from the nursery was only 1500 plants and the current stock is only 2100. Poondi nursery The nursery has been promoting shola trees in an other wise agriculturally saturated landscape. The growers there are under bondage to the vegetable vendors of the plains cities. They have no control over their lands and all farming are dictated by the temperate vegetable shop vendors at Madurai. The inputs like seeds; fertilizer; pesticides are given as loan by the vendors with varying rates of interest. They also take the entire crop at market prices fixed by them and leaving the farmers as a perpetual debtor. Thus the scope for tree growing is minimal and we have managed to plant 700 trees only from this nursery and the current stock is 4000. A large water shed project for which surveys were taken at the area was not taken up for implementation despite availability of funds due to the bonded farmer situation. Melpallam nursery The nursery has had water problems and had to shift to a new location with better watering facilities. The out put of plants is primarily coffee ; avocado and orange seedlings. Last year the nursery supplied farmers with 2300 plants and has a stock of 6300 plants. B. Middle Palnis Nurseries and Apiaries SVK Kombai the nursery suffered a setback as the owner and caretaker of the nursery passed away and it took while to get the work back on stream. The nursery is now maintained by a tribal lady who has managed to produce 1200 seedlings for tribal land owners in the area. We conduct a literacy class for the tribal children that is attended by 15 kids and the teacher also takes care of the centre. As the primary focus of the centre is conservation of the habitat for the Grizzled Giant Squirrel we strive to keen a presence at the site and hope to improve the activities through more visits by school students for experiencing nature as there are a basic facilities at the centre. Periyur Nursery and apiary A new nursery has been opened this year at Periyur in the coffee growing areas and there is an associated apiary as well. The nursery has managed to supply 2500 seedlings to farmers as shade trees for coffee. The beekeepers (three women) attached to the nursery maintain 37 colonies of Apis cerana bees. The current stock is about 3500. Semmadioothu nursery The nursery maintained by a tribal person managed to grow and distribute only 700 seedlings as most of the orange seedlings had fungal attack and perished. Similarly the pepper cuttings were affected by root rot. Hence work at the site was held up for a while to let the soil recuperate and nursery work will start in June 2007 for growing cultivated plants requested by farmers in the area. C. Beekeeping projects There is no project support for the extension and training components but we are maintaining about 250 colonies spread at various apiaries. The Danish Beekeepers federation has entrusted the work of publishing a Field Manual for Apis cerana workers in Tamil Nadu. Five hundred copies of the manual are now available for sale and distribution. Palkadai Though the centre there was closed for want of water, we still maintain 17 hives of bees in Top Bar hives. The beekeeper there also manages the SVK Kombai centre where he maintains colonies of Trigona irridipennis in clay pots numbering 15. Oothu and Patlankadu This is one of the earliest apiaries started by the council and we still maintain 15 colonies of bees at two farms. The area has good potential for queen rearing and we were able to replace most of the aging queens only during the swarming season on March April 2007. The centre has been maintaining 12 colonies of Apis cerana and has only a part time beekeeper attending to the bees. D. Amaravathi Tree Growers Association Project The project funded by the Danish Forestry Extension has now officially started to function independently. from March 2007 onwards. The expenses for the year standing 2006 has been through the project mode. Enlisting of new Members Aliyar watershed has been the major thrust area for the years planting and enlisting new members for the association. The membership now stand at 350. A total of members lands have been planted with trees with varying assistance and contribution from the growers. The total number of trees planted is about 35 000. Nursery stock: The two nurseries at the Udumalpet Coimbatore Highway and the one at Vedapatti had a combined stock of 90 000 plants. There was good sale of Santalum album from our nurseries and income for the project. The EC of ATA planned to make a bore well at the Vedapatti nursery for more water as the water in the older wells was a little low for 90,000 plants. Extension visits and Pruning trees : The project personnel has been working to improve the outreach of the extension services. Many farmers are now availing the services of scientific method of pruning with good equipment to grow high value timber. The project works were supervised by visitors from Danish Forestry Extension for advising on organizing the association and conducting the formalities for the Annual General Body of the Amaravathi Tree Growers Association. Prior Permission from Ministry of Home affairs : The Council and the DFE jointly made an application to the Government of India; Ministry of Home Affairs for transfer of funds during the II nd Phase directly to the Bank account operated by the ATA. The request was granted during Feburary 2007. This also facilitates the transfer of all assets held by the council obtained through DFE funds for the Andipatti Tree growers project to be transferred to the ATA. E. Clean India Project The program for the year concentrated in raising awareness among member of the public by selecting two communities at Palani about conservation of water resources and proper management of solid wastes in their neighborhood. The project has enlisted 12 schools to become part of the Community Led Environment Action Network. These are located at Kodaikanal; Palani and Udumalpet towns. Each school sends 30 students to participate in four different programs 1) Water quality monitoring 2) Bird Watching 3) Tree Planting and 4) Trekking program Solid Waste Management by communities The communities were trained to take up compost making using household wastes and earthworm. A training program was organized and visit to a an organic farmers who rears and sells earth worms. The households at the Palni Municipality ward of Madanapuram were given waste collection bins for separating degradable and non degradable waste. The degradable waste from 50 households were used to make beds where earth worms were introduced. After a period of watering the alternate layer of cow dung and bio degradable waste the earth worms are released in to the pile and the whole mass is kept under shade of thatch to prevent drying out. After two three weeks the earth worm casks that appear on top are skimmed and packed for sale to gardens and households. The activity is self sustaining and keeps the neighborhood clean as well. Some of the earth worm casks are also used by the households themselves for growing vegetables in gunny bags, the venture being termed City Farming. Roof Rain Water Harvesting At the settlement of Periyappa Nagar the project has assembled a unit for collecting rainwater from the proof of 12 dwellings. The collected water is filtered through a Slow Sand Filter system which has been functioning well. During normal times the residents use ordinary well water through the Slow Sand filter as the water is polluted with greenish algae. The filteration system removes the algae as well. Tree Growing at Schools The participating schools have been given tree seedlings and have planted 450 seedlings at the plains schools in Palani. The tree seedlings given during the past years to two schools at Palni are now growing well and the students take care in maintaining the same. Bird Watching and Trekking Program The four participating schools at Palani have all visited Khudhirayar where the students have been given books in Tamil on birds with proper names. They are divided in to groups and each group is given binoculars for observing birds at the hills. The program involves trekking to the top of the hill in to the sanctuary area for experiencing forests by the youth. F. Fr. Matthew Environment Centre The year saw very poor rainfall at the land where the Reuben Arboretum and the environment education centre are located. The North East monsoon rain was deficient and the total rainfall measured at the centre was only 585mm. Despite the adverse climate and water regime the centre staff have managed to provide seedlings to interested tree growers and farmers in the area. The total number of seedlings sold ; distributed amounts to 46 000. As part of the drylands planting taken up last year this year too an area of about 30acres was planted with drought tolerant tree seedlings at the village of Genguvarpatti. But due to poor rain after November 15th most of the seedlings perished in the summer months. The total number of seedlings planted under this program was 6500. The training program was also on hold due to the dry climate and desolate look of wilting plants. The two schools who visit the centre for a condensed environment education course for two days each at the centre opted for Kodaikanal this year. The briefly spent time at the centre and later took part in the course based on lake and conducted by our water quality monitoring staff. Eco Shop A new title roofed shed with area measuring 260 sq.ft has been constructed with the help from an individual donor who visited the centre from Netherlands. The shop now stocks our honey ; vegetarian soap and wax candles and cosmetic preparations. Plans are now being made to stock many forest produce from the upper reaches as well as organic coffee and tea. The centre maintains 12 honey bee colonies now at the Manjalar water shed in a farm with plenty of water. A group of 36 students from the Horticulture University Periyakulum visited the apiary and spent a day learning about the Top Bar hives made of clay that are suitable for Apis cerana indica. G. Kudhirayar Tree Growing centre The centre has received average rainfall during the past year and the trees planted as part of the dry lands restoration has shown good results. The area planted is about 20 acres of close spacing tree growing and 10 acres as shelterbelts. Apart from these two acres each of PWD lands and School land at Pappampatti were afforested. The school students took care by watering the seedlings in summer and the survival rate is about 85%. The dam canal banks were also sown with Palmyrah seeds numbering 10 000 as part of the dry lands revegetation program. The centre also sold to farmers at cost 9850 seedlings and a total of 23 000 seedlings were planted during the last year. The current nursery stock is about 25 000 seedlings. The centre maintained 22 colonies of Apis cerana during March 07 but off late has been devasted by the Thai Sac Brood disease and colony numbers are down to 12. The tribal beekeepers there have also managed to hive 35 colonies of Trigona irridipennis in clay pots. The centre has conducted regular education courses through the CLEAN India program for the four schools at Palani. Apart from these there have been two colleges from Udumalpet visited the centre for one day programs on environment education. The adjoining forest area serves as important seed collection area for many useful species such as Melia dubia ; Carissa carandas and Phyllanthus embelica H. Athoor and Kannivadi tree nurseries The centre has received 700 mm of rainfall which is slightly below normal. The nurseries at both the centre have managed to supply farmers with 34 250 seedlings that includes about 4500 amla grafts. The nurseries also supplied the coastal area project with 4000 seedlings of littoral species like Calophyllum and Calamus for growing at the estuaries. There is no project support for the two nurseries and the expenses are met through sale and funds from Council. The total sales is 46, 670 seedlings for the past year. The current stock is 92 000 seedlings and the centre has good stocks of Santalum album for which there is good demand. I. Oddukkam tree nursery and Tree Seed Centre The two tree seedlings nurseries at Oddukkam and Rediapatti have produced and sold 85,000 seedlings during the year. The current stock is over 1,00,000 seedlings comprising more than 75 species of trees. Our first nursery truly is an inspiration for all other centers and still ranks among the best in terms of specie diversity. The rainfall at the centre was a meager 625mm that is the lowest recorded in its nineteen years of existence. The tree seed centre has managed to replace the thatch shed with a new tiled roof measuring some 450 sq.ft. The seed centre last year collected and sold seeds amounting to 1775 kilos. The number of species is about 41. The seed stock is now 1450 kg and comprising 52 species. J. Viruveedu tree growing centre The centre has received only 612 mm of rainfall which is normal for the area is in the rain shadow of Nagamalai hills. The nursery has supplied about 7250 seedlings for the dry lands tree growing effort. The sale to farmers in the area is 19,000 seedlings and the free distribution to schools is about 1200 numbers. Thus a total of 26,250 seedlings were produced for the tree growing effort. The nursery has a stock of 32,000 seedlings. The centre has produced ; processed and sold 1117 kg of honey from Honey Hunters. A total of 3 tons of honey was procured and about 40 kg of beeswax has been sold. The centre has maintained 33 colonies of Apis cerana inidca at the farms neighboring garden lands adjoining the Vaigai river. The beekeepers at the centre also maintain some 10 hives of Apis cerana indica at Maruthanadhi river course as the area has good forage and better rainfall. K. Coastal resources conservation project The project at Nagapattinam district aims to green the coastal plains in the Tharangambadi block and the project works are at six hamlets including an estuary where the Cauvery is entering the sea. The nursery located at Kattucherry has facilitated growing 4500 timber and avenue trees at the garden lands located on the highlands at the flood plains. The nursery grew 12000 mangrove plantlets and 2000 mangrove associates. These were planted in the estuary at Thazhampettai after the North East Monsoon rains. The project has managed to hive 18 colonies of Apis cerana indica at the garden lands and has trained the farmers and women in handling bees. It hopes to produce hybrid queens at the area soon for aiming at honey production. A team of students were employed to document the marine resources over a period of one year and we now have a database on seasonal availability of fishery resources around the Tranquebar area. An environmental awareness program with monitoring water quality as major component has been started with four schools participating in the program. All the works have been taken up initially with a resource person from the mountain centers of the council. We have now trained local personnel and have a full time staff of six persons and a manager to implement the program. A workshop for 14 NGO's working at the coast was held for two days from August 14th and 15th 2006. This helped bring together many resource persons working on mangroves and similar green coast initiatives. We hope to form a network of NGO's at the coast to implement green coast projects for restoration of mangroves, which are one of the most destroyed forests in the world. L. Field Biology Course: Two students from St. Olaf College spent a month with our projects for their field biology course. Their respective fields of work were organic farming in coffee growing areas; effect of pollination on crop yields and water quality at the lake. This year we are expecting two students who will work for a month with our projects at the hills. Conclusion: The council's nurseries have managed to facilitate growing of more than 300 000 seedlings despite a below normal rainfall. We are now preparing for increasing the numbers and expanding the target area to include South West Monsoon areas in South Districts too. We are also trying to revive the bee project works and replicate the expertise in other districts with favorable forage for bees. The project implementation has been possible with sincere and hard work of our staff, whose commitment to saving the environment plays an important role in achieving targets. The various project works have been supported by our donors without whose help we could not have accomplished the results in different parts of Tamil Nadu including the coast. Our sincere thanks to the following donors. 1. Both Ends, Netherlands 2. Danish Forestry Extension, Denmark 3. Denmark Beekeepers Federation, Denmark 4. Development Alternatives, New Delhi 5. IUCN, Netherlands 6. People's Commission on Environment and Development, New Delhi 7. Wetlands International, New Delhi 8. St. Olaf College, USA 9. Forgotten Children, USA Individual donors 1. Mr. Peter Cormack, USA 2. Mr. Jan, Netherlands Kodaikanal 2nd August 2007 R. Kannan President