Kolli Hills losing its sacred forest cover

C Shivakumar
Chennai:

The lush green Kolli Hills ecology is at risk as the hills are losing
out its sacred groves due to encroachment of commercial crops as well
as invasion of alien weeds.



“More than 230 sacred groves in Kolli Hills have degraded and only 30
sacred forest cover still remain,” said principal scientist and site
coordinator of M S Swaminathan Research Foundation E D Israel Oliver
King.



The sacred grove in Thuvarapallam Village in Kolli Hills which has a
small rivulet flowing by the side may be a pleasant sight to watch but
King says that the forest patch is slowly dying. As villagers
highlight the importance of the shrine of local deity Pongal Ayee
Amman, King says that traditional belief and value systems supporting
sustainable management of natural resources and their conservation has
disintegrated.



The encroachment due to commercial agricultural crops like Tapioca,
invasion of alien weeds such as Lantana Camera, parthenium
hysterophorusb which replaces the plants besides natural falling of
old lofty trees and poor regeneration of wild saplings are one of the
reasons for the dwindling of the sacred forest cover.



“Once a 100-year-old tree falls down in the grove, then weeds invade
the grove and it is difficult to re-generate the ecosystem,” says
King.



Known as Sami solai (sacred forest), they are found in the midst of
varying agro ecosystems, forest boundaries on hilltops and slopes
distributed across the geographical area of Kolli Hills.



The grove sizes range from one hectare to five hectare. King says that
sacred groves of Kolli Hills harbour several rare and endangered
species of Eastern Ghats like Myrstica dactyloides, Gaertner, Persea
macrantha (Nees) Kostern, Philicium decipens etc.



These forest patches have been conserved by Malayali tribal community
through community control mechanism by evolving several taboos and
restrictions and serve as source of perennial water for nearby
agriculture systems, he says.



Interestingly, King has a plan to regenerate the scared groves but
says it would require a huge investment from the government. “This
would require replanting of native species and also requires local
participation. The irony is that people don’t see the sacred grove as
commercially viable as such the native species are dying,” says King,
who has nearly 20 year experience in studying the Kolli Hills.



Former MLA and chairman of Senthamnagalam panchayat union
Chandrasekhar said that the planting of non native species like silver
oak is posing a threat to ecology as they consume more water unlike
the native species which hold water and serve as a perennial water
source.



Interestingly, there has been suggestions to develop people
biodiversity register for sacred groves into a database or network of
databases to help various stakeholders including panchayats, schools
and college access information and recognise the stake holders for
conservation effort. But it also requires government effort to
conserve the ancient way of insitu conversation of biological and
genetic diversity.



Factfile:

--- Ancient Tamil epics Silapadikaram and Manimekalairefer to
Kollipavai, the deity in the sacred grove, who is also considered the
guardian of the forests



--- In Ramayana, Kolli hills are called madhuvanam (forest of honey),
the abode of the monkey king Sugreeva



--- In Tamil Sangam literature, Kolli Hills was once ruled by the
benevolent and most valiant King Ori, who lived sometime during 200 AD



--- Conservation of sacred groves is practised by the lower strata of
social order.



-- The deity worshipped by the people is usually represented by a
stone kept under a robust tree or in the open space without any
shelter and unprotected