PALNI HILLS CONSERVATION COUNCIL 24TH ANNUAL REPORT Introduction: The year has been one of unprecedented climate change that has affected all natural resource based works. The Palni Hills have had a very patchy 2008 NE monsoon with rains due to a depression during the last 5 days of the year making up for lost gaps in precipitation. However the effects of lengthy dry periods and sudden wet spells have made it difficult to achieve targets in apiary management as well as forestry works. The tree nurseries of the council have facilitated the growing of 200,000 trees and have managed to sow mangrove seeds as well as at Palayar estuary on the Cauvery delta. The global financial downturn has affected the receipts for tree growing activities of the council. Most donors have been forced to cut down grant size and project support periods. The recession in the markets combined with climate change induced dry conditions have further limited the number of seedlings that can be raised by different nurseries. Two nurseries at Middle altitudes were closed for short periods due to scarcity of water. Future focus Climate change human induced or otherwise is affecting all activities is fact now. This has added credibility to greening efforts from all quarters but focus is on growing trees in large numbers to enter record books and media exposure. We hope to capitalize on the current interest and carry forward the work at various tree growing centers in the coming years. Reducing carbon footprints through growing bio-diesel plants and setting up model bio diesel processors to help farming community emulate these models will be priority activity for the current year, A small venture will be made in to switching over to efficient lighting for rural and urban household to conserve energy with the aim of gaining foothold in to the carbon credits market. At the Upper Palni Hills the invasive nature of wattle plantations has led to a situation where the sholas and grasslands are being taken over by wattle thereby reducing the habitat of tahr and bison. A study to explore the feasibility of restoring grasslands has been initiated. A patch of forest death has been observed in Mathiketan shola which is of concern as the high altitude shola is unique to this part of the Western Ghats. Here by the executive committee presents the works at the various centres of the council. The Executive Committee which met 10 times to conduct the affairs of the council herewith submits its annual report for the year 2008-09. The membership stands as follows: 1. Life members - 184 2. Annual members - 22 3. Institutional members - 4 The committee was constituted by the following members and office bearers 1. Mr. 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. M.S.Viraraghavan - EC Member 8. Mr. Rajagopal Durai Raja - EC member 9. Vijay Kumar Johnson - EC member 10. Mr. Ramachandran - EC Member 11. Mrs. Rebecca Chackko - EC Member Co opted members 12. Mr. J.Nath 13. Ms. Yashodhara Padmanabhan 14. Ms. Zarin Babu A. Upper Hill Activities Ecorestoration of Kodai Lake Macrovegetation removal: At the wing of the lake close to the head marsh the water lily covering an area of about 1 ha was cleared of the weed using manual labour. Though this was a stop gap measure considering the nutrient status of the lake, this will help more oxygen to diffuse in the turbid waters. Silt traps: The accumulated silt around the Gymkhana area was cleared with participation from the shopkeepers at the site for the 2nd year in succession. Provisioning dustbins for shop keepers: This was earlier done during 2007 but most of the dustbins have been broken or lost. These were replaced once again with the project support. Horse manure: The collection of horse manure using wheel borrow was reinforced by providing the two extra wheel borrows for the purpose. The horse dung thus collected has been composted and provided to gardens around Kodaikanal town. This has attracted many buyers keeping in view the nutrient status of the manure. Status of water body: The water quality of the lake has been poor during the summer months. This year we observed some freshwater gellyfish, which according to the Fresh Water biology lab of Madura college is a sign of high degree of eutrophication. Unless all the soak pit toilets around the lake numbering more than a 1000 stop leaching nutrients in to the lake, the water has no hope of getting cleaner. Awareness campaign for Tourists: during the peak tourist arrival months of April and May, the project was able to distribute leaflets in Tamil about the poor water quality of the lake and urged the visitors not to throw litter and wastes in to the lake waters. Lake ownership: After the lake has been handed over to the Municipality for maintenance from the Fisheries department there has been a reports of a large project for cleaning and beautifying the lake, perhaps as part of the scheme we now see the digging up all roads in the lake watershed for laying under ground pipelines, that will carry the sewerage away from the lake waters. However these are hard energy pathways and do not fall in line with ecorestoration principles. Water quality monitoring: The water quality monitoring works has been temporarily suspended due to lack of adequate personnel We should resume the same once the governments cleaning works are in place. Nabha Garden: The Nabha foundation which owns a small strip of lake periphery had entrusted PHCC to maintain the garden with co operation from the Municipality. However as enforcing law and order at site was a problem and the work was handed over to the local body again. Fencing and maintaining the garden from free range cows was a difficult task as, the PHCC had no law enforcing mandate. 2. Upper Hill tree nurseries and apiaries Kodaikanal Shola nursery: The nursery serves to improve biodiversity of shola species at kodaikanal and teaches student visitors the importance of conserving high altitude shola species. During the last year the nursery has managed to facilitate planting of 7400 shola seedlings and distributed 250 seedlings to schools. Every week a batch of 15 high school students from Kodai International School work as volunteers at the nursery. They Are taught to collect seed from adjacent Bombay shola, prepare beds, sprout and plant saplings in poly bag containers. The learn forest conservation the interactive way which is a rare course offered at school level. Eight students from Forest College of T N A U Periyakulam participated in a short shola conservation nursery technique course. All of them were exposed to Apiary management through different hive models for Indian Hive bee. Melpallam nursery The nursery has not been performing well and the farmers in the area have all benefited for the past decade from the nursery and beekeeping activities. It was closed and all the plants, about 3000 were shifted to a farm at Addukkam as the road leading to Periyakulam is now motorable and farmers at the eastern slopes of Agamalai need supply of timber and fruit seedlings for their mixed coffee farm. Pallangi Nursery: The nusery has grown and supplied 2200 seedlings of fruit and timber seedlings to farmers in the area. As demand for trees is low here due to appreciating in prices of vegetables, this site is used to raise shola tree seedlings for sale at Kodaikanal nursery. The current stock is 3000 seedlings. B. Middle Palni's nurseries and apiaries 1. SVK Kombai The site serves as favorable spotting site for the Grizzled Giant Squirrel. The joint visits by a team from WWF, Pollachi office crystallized in to a project to enrich the forests with food web species for the small mammal, whose numbers have risen considerable over the decade due to constant vigil by the part time school teacher. The nursery was closed due to severe drought conditions prevailing and will be opened once the water in the well improves. Seed collection for native tree species is the primary activity at the centre. The part time beekeeper here maintains six colonies of Apis cerana indica and 12 colonies of Dammar bees. 2. Palkadai GGS forest habitat enrichment planting A project to conserve the habitat of the Grizzled Giant Squirrel was launched with help from WWF, New Delhi. The Project is to enrich the Bethelpuram area forest with food web species of the Squirrel and prevent cattle grazing at the forests through social mobilization. The permission to grow plant trees at the forest enclave as given by Conservator of Forests, Dindigul and the District Forest Officer Dindigul identified a patch of 25 ha of degraded forest patch between the Pachalur Oddanchatram Road close to Parapalar dam water spread area. The plants for forest enrichment planting were brought from all the plains nurseries. A total of 3500 plants were planted during the last rains in Dec 2008. We hope to take up the remaining work during the coming season to complete to planting. The Project maintains 10 colonies of Indian hive bee at various farmers'fields who took part in past training programs of the council. 3. Periyur nursery and apiary: The rains have been below average in the area and the well close to the nursery dried up and the plants numbering 5000 were distributed to coffee farms in the area for increasing biodiversity in the area. These were also N T F P plants like Canarium strictum; Gmelina arborea and coffee cultivars. We hope to revive the nursery when water supply situation at the well improves. C. Apiary projects at Middle altitudes The three middle hill apiaries at Patlankadu; Oothu and Panrimalai are now maintaining only 10-12 colonies of Indian Hive bee each. As there is no project support for the beekeepers to travel, the extension and training components have been suspended. Also due to the change in temperatures as well as rainfall pattern it has become difficult to build colony size for queen breeding as well as division to provide for extra colonies. Though there is good demand for colonies from farmers in the coffee growing areas, we are not able to multiply colonies as performance of existing colonies are below average in size. We are planning to get support for extension work at each of these apiaries through assistance from beekeepers associations in other countries. Support for large projects being difficult to source, we hope to continue the work with Apis cerana indica in the coming season. D. Clean Development Mechanism Proposal The Amaravathi Tree Growers Association and PHCC Presented a project proposal to DANIDA for tree growing with carbon credits as the focal point but the same has not been sanctioned. The approval process to enter the CDM project cycle is rigorous and costly but the project cycle of seven years duration is very favorable for tree planting in farmers fields. As the effects of drought can be compensated for in subsequent years. Hence it is important that we get a project approved for funding through the C D M process of the Kyoto protocol. E. Fr. Matthew Environment centre activities The centre has managed to facilitate growing of 17000 seedlings at farmers fields. Most of the trees are taken by farmers from far away places like Cumbum valley and Coffee growing regions at Kumuli. There is also considerable demand for timber and fruit trees from Pannaikadu at higher altitude. Unfortunately moist of the drylands bordering the foothills scrub jungle has been bought over by city dwellers and real estate promoters. It remains to be seen if they will build houses and farm villas or go for cropping. But due to poor rains there has been no activity in these lands around the Environment Centre. The rainfall for the year is only 760mm. The tree nursery has managed to facilitate growing of 17,000 tree seedlings in farmers fields. The nursery has a stock of 35000 seedlings. The nursery is growing 3500 seedlings each of Pongamia glabra; Azadirachta indica and Jatropha curcas for planting in farm boundaries; avenues and common lands as part of promoting non edible oil plants for bio fuel production. It is also proposed to buy and process non edible oil seeds and set up a pilot extraction unit and bio-diesel processor for demonstration purposes in the coming season, The centre has hosted two school environmental teach in programs during the year. The students numbering 70 per batch were given basic training in bird watching; trekking in forest areas around the Talayar falls and identification of butterflies. F. CLEAN project at Palani The Community Led Environment Action Network supported a self help group of women at Palani set up a small medicinal plant nursery with seedlings from Kudhirayar. The group used earth worm casks for manure at the nursery and the seedlings are growing well. The women's group is to train a set of farmers in making worm beds that will turn all biological waste in to compost for applying to the lands that grow various crops. The availability of dung is a problem as most housewives who are members of the S H G do not have cows. Thus far the project provided the dung for feeding the earth worms. The sustainability of the works depends upon successful sale of manure and investing back in cow or horse dung. G. Kudhirayar tree nursery and apiary The nursery has facilitated the growing of 7500 seedlings at farmers fields. Most of the farmers who cultivate lands at the watershed were growing irrigated maize and sugarcane thus demand for trees was less this season compared to earlier years. This centre will be part of the non edible oil seeds promotion campaign for growing Neem; Pongamia and Jatropha seedlings. The planting stock for these three species is about 11000 seedlings and these will be planted in farm boundaries; hedges and as avenues in common lands. The objective is not to affect food production from farm lands. As growing fuel instead of food can be a negative aspect of bio-fuels that can aggravate the already short food supply situation. The apiary has 10 colonies of Apis cerana indica bees and 25 colonies of Trigona irridipennis in mud pots. As there has been no full time beekeeper the colonies could not be multiplied for supply to farmers, though there is good demand for bees from garden and orchard growers for honey and pollination purposes. The old thatch shed has outlived its time and usefulness and has been replaced with a corrugated tin roof structure with permission from the Public works department, Palani. This will house a model oil extraction unit and a bio-diesel processor in the coming season, H. Kannivadi and Athoor tree nurseries The nursery at Athoor has become difficult access by farmers due to non availability of transport facilities. Also there is no community to support activities other than seedlings raising there, Hence all the plants will be shifted to Kannivadi and the centre will be closed. But there are good standing trees that are all around 18 years and carrying some 100 cft of timber in them as well as 10 truck loads of firewood. If we leave the site the Dindigul Municipality will have no control over the same as such most of the avenue trees planted there on the road have been removed by vandals and passerby for utility purposes. However the centre las year facilitated the growing of 12000 tree seedlings and has a stock of 30000 seedlings. I. Oddukkam tree nursery The nursery at Reddiapatti has facilitated the growing of 110000 seedlings of 90 species in the year 2008. The old nursery at Oddukkam was closed down and all the plants there were brought to Reddiapatti. The farmers who came from far away places to take seedlings from the nursery also purchased the Tree Nursery Manual. Tree seed centre: After the tree nursery at Oddukkam was closed down the seed centre was functioning at the site for six months, I, e till Sept 2008 but as all efforts to secure an agreement with Dindigul Municipality failed we vacated the site. The seed centre has not yet found suitable infrastructure to store and sell seeds as before but we carry on from a one room tenement at the village of Oddukkam itself. The centre collected about 1300kg of seeds belonging to 50 species of trees and sold them to various customers. The seed centre also supplies seeds to most of the nurseries of the council. Seed collection from single trees or a handful of tress has become the norm due to high cost of manual labor, specially those who can climb tall trees for harvesting seeds are becoming rare. Most of the Africal mahogany grown in nurseries in all of Tamil Nadu comes from a few trees at the Botanical garden at Bangalore and Pondicherry a very narrow genetic base indeed. The need of the hour is to establish seed orchards in forest or plantation areas for collection of seed as forestry with a narrow genetic base is not sustainable with view of disease; tree characters and production orientation towards timbers. We are now preparing a new project for possible donors to establish a new seed centre. J. Viruveedu tree nursery and bee keeping centre The centre has been affected by two years of deficient rainfall, it has received only 520mm of rain in the past year. This has curtailed the number of seedlings that could be raised. During the past year the centre has facilitated the growing of 20050 seedlings. The nursery has a current stock of 35,000 seedlings for supply to tree growers. The centre also focuses on growing non edible oil seed trees like Neem; Pongamia and Bassia longifolia. It currently stocks about 12000 seedlings of these three species together. It proposed to distribute these to farmers for growing as hedges and avenue trees. The centre has collected seeds of Jatropha and neem for extraction of the oil and conversion in to bio-diesel. The centre also procures honey from hunter gatherers for processing and sale. Last season it obtained 2000kg of honey only as the drought has limited the flowering of Moringa pterigosperma which is the primary nectar producing plant in the area. The beekeepers there have processed and sold 100kg of pure beeswax as well. K. Coastal resource conservation project The coastal resources conservation project has been now running for about 4 year. Earlier is was a response to disaster like tsunami but now the focus is on sustainable fishery resources and mangrove restoration at estuaries and creeks of the Cauvery. Last year the project facilitated the growing of 5600 mangrove seedlings at Palayar estuary in an area of about 2 ha. The area close to the sea was also treated with direct sowing of Avicennia officinalis seeds that showed 85% germination and establishment. The direct sowing of 8000 seeds has brought out about 6500 seedlings thriving at the creek that was once a village named Kottaimedu but now uninhabited due to probably rising sea levels. Nusery at Kattucherri has managed to sell 9000 seedlings of multipurpose seedlings to farmers in the delta during the last three years. The current stock is 12000 seedlings. The momentum of farmers visiting nursery has picked up and choice timber species like Gmelina arborea; Dalbergia sissoo and Calophyllum inophyllum are now in demand. The project maintains twelve colonies of Indian bees in farmers fields. The colonies are stable for the past two years and hope to start multiplying the same soon with queen breeding. Research activities: The project personnel has undertaken the following research activities and produced reports on the matters 1. Database of Commercially caught fish species had been completed 2. Poster of Marine life Rays Series I printed & released for sales 3. Documentation of Butterfly diversity at bank of River Kollidam Further surveys have been done with a view to compile a sustainable coastal resource atlas 1. Survey on Olive ridley Turtle Egg laying places & fatalities along Eastern Coastline of Nagapattinam district(2008). 2. Survey on State of Forest Ecosystem, Tribal Livelihood in Sirumalai Hills Eastern Ghats of TamilNadu 3. Survey on Fishermen livelihood at ThirumulaiVasal (Sirkali Block) Workshops participated 1. Attended Field Course On Interdisciplinary Approaches & Tools For Ecological Monitoring Of Natural Resources & Livelihoods Organized By-Keystone Foundation, Nilgiris, India+People & Plants International, New York, Us; Supported By IDRC, Canada 2. Attended Save Western Ghats meet in Kodaikanal 3. Attended Save Eastern Ghats meet in Anandhagiri of Andhra Pradesh 4. Attended Exposure of CDM Projects in India by GTZ Experts Fellowships PHCC Coastal Project Manager Mr. Karthik Raja has been selected as a fellow of the Joke-Waller Initiative administered by Both Ends. L Field biology studies Three students from St. Olaf college Minnesota stayed at Kodaikanal and did their field studies covering beekeeping; organic agriculture and water resources of Palni Hills. A volunteer from U K spent two months working in various project centres and learning tree growing techniques. M. Save Western Ghats Workshop A two day workshop to discuss the threats to Western Ghats, in particular to Palni Hills was organized in co operation with APPIKKO of SIRSI, Karnataka on 19th and 20th of August 2008. Further a follow up meeting was organized at Goa for three days which the PHCC participated as well. Conclusion The combination of climate change and economic recession that is coupled with energy supplies are crippling all activity, This will mean less and less donor funds for projects for some time at least. This is perhaps an opportunity to change course and increase local; regional and national level fund raising venues and achieve sustainability. We thank our personnel and staff for their co operation in taking up work under trying conditions during the last year. Our sincere thanks for the Forest Departments of Dindigul and Kodaikanal for their support to the Councils'tree growing efforts. We thank the following donors for their unstinted assistance in these difficult times, 1. Both Ends, Netherlands 2. Danish Forestry Extension, Denmark 3. Wetlands International, New Delhi 4. St. Olaf College, USA 5. Forgotten Children, USA 6. NTFP Network, 7. PCED, New Delhi 8. Development Alternatives, New Delhi 9. WWF, New Delhi Kodaikanal R. Kannan 22-12-2009 President