Brief
Note
Endemic
species are prone to extinction much faster than other species due to
various
factors that influence the process of extinction. According to International Union for
Conservation of Nature (IUCN), a total of 318
species have been
declared extinct in the world of which 19 are from India. From the
state of
Tamil Nadu there are 4 species recorded as extinct namely Claoxylon wightii
Hook.f.
var. angustatum Susila & Balakrishnan, Derris brevipes
Baker var. travencorensis Thoth., Lasianthus
obovatus
Bedd., and Marsdenia
tirunelvelica
A.N. Henry & Subram. Endemic species are
restricted to a
geographical location or region. Loss and fragmentation of habitats has
remained
a severe threat for the survival of all the endemic species. Absence or
paucity
of pollinators and seed dispersal agents in the fast changing habitat
has made
the endemic species genetically vulnerable. As a result several
conservation
organizations are focusing their efforts in saving the endemic and
endangered
species.
One
of the programmes that look into the conservation of endemic and
endangered
plants, especially trees, is the Species Recovery programme launched
across the
globe. This programme is designed to propagate the endemic and
endangered
plants in an exsitu condition and
putting the saplings or plantlets back into their habitats as part of insitu conservation. A number of species
in India have been taken up in India for recovery. The idea of this
recovery
programme is to slowly move out the endemic and endangered species from
the red
list category. A successful example of the species recovery programme
is the
rediscovery and subsequent multiplication of Hubbardia heptaneuron, a
grass
that was supposedly extinct. The multiplied grasslets and grasslings
have been
in introduced successfully in its type locality as well as in other
habitats
similar to type locality. The grasslings and grasslets have shown a
remarkable
establishment. Department of Biotechnology (DBT), New Delhi is funding
such
species recovery programmes for the past five years and encouraging
institutions in India to participate in a collaborative manner towards
the
mission of saving the endemic trees.
Madras
Christian College in collaboration with Tropical
Botanic
Garden and Research Institute, Thiruvananthapuram and the American
College,
Madurai has taken
up two critically endangered Syzygium
species from the southern Western Ghats for multiplication
and reintroduction. S. gambleanum
is
restricted to Southern Western Ghats of Tamil Nadu. It
is
popularly called as neervanji by Kani tribe and is
represented by a
total of 110 trees in the entire world. These 110 trees are distributed
in
fragmented populations restricted to about 0.03km2.
This species has
flowered only once in the last 10 years and has a very poor fruit
setting. This
tree has high ornamental potential as well as a fine clove-like aroma.
Multiplication by micropropagation and by cutting and layering is the
only
solution to save this tree. Similarly the other Syzygium
called S.
rama-varmae, named after the popular Travancore King
Ramavarma, is also
represented by a critically low population of 115 trees in the entire
world
restricted to about 0.05km2. This tree is
popularly called by the
Kani tribe as manikilluki.
This project aims at producing 1000 saplings of
each of these species
both by vegetative and micropropagation methods for insitu
and exsitu
conservation, mapping them using global positioning systems, carry out
genetic
study to understand variations and to bioprospect. The
base
data for these two species originates from an earlier UGC project on
‘Endemic
and Threatened Trees of Western Ghats of Kanyakumari
District: Biology, Population and Mapping‘. In this project
seven endemic
species have been studied in detail. The population of these species
were mapped;
total stems were counted along with studies on their anatomy and
histochemistry. The background information generated in the UGC project
will
help a great way in identification of localities for reintroduction.
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