eravikolam and the high range...

he High Range is a part of the Western Ghats, aheterogeneous chain of mountains and hillsthat separate the moist Malabar and KonkanCoasts from the semi-arid interiors of theDekhan plateau. They play a key role in direct-

ing the South Western monsoon and providing water to the plateau and the coastal plains. Starting at thesouthern tip of India at Kanyakumari (Cape Comorin),the mountains rise abruptly from the sea and plains.The Western Ghats continue in a nearly unbroken1,600 km mountainous spine and end at the Tapi Riveron the border between Maharashtra and Gujarat. Bio-logically rich, the Western Ghats are blessed with highrates of endemism. In recent years as a global alarm hassounded on declining biodiversity, the Western Ghatsand Sri Lanka have been designated as one of 25“Global Biodiversity Hotspots” by Conservation Inter-national.

The High Range is part of the southern WesternGhats sub-region and is contiguous with the Palni,Anaimalai and Cardamom hills. Like the other hillsranges of the southern Western Ghats and Sri Lanka,the High Range is composed of very old granite horststhat were uplifted in Pre-Cambrian times. Several loftyplateaus of undulating hills guarded by fearsome cliffsand escarpments characterize the High Range land-scape. Rainfall varies depending on proximity to the

50 Geographische Rundschau International Edition Vol. 4, No 2/2008

Eravikolam and the High Range (Keralda/India)Ecology and Landscape in an Isolated Indian National ParkPhotos: Ian Lockwood

The southern Indian state of Kerala has long been recognizedfor its remarkable human development indicators. It has thecountry’s highest literary rates, lowest infant mortality rates andhighest life expectancy. With 819 people per km2 Kerala is alsoone of the densest populated states in India. It is thus surprisingto find one of the India’s loneliest and least disturbed naturallandscapes in the mountainous region of Kerala known as theHigh Range. Here a small 97 km2 National Park called Eraviku-lam gives a timeless sense of the Western Ghats before thewidespread encroachment of plantation agriculture, hydro-electric schemes, mining and human settlements.

I A N L O C K W O O D

Figure 1: Eravikulam, Idduki District, Kerala) in the Western Ghats

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western coast and averages about 3,000 mm a year(Eravikulam management). In some of the westernareas of the High Range it can be as high as 6,000 mm,making it amongst the wettest locations on the Indiansubcontinent.

Eravikulam National Park is located on the largestof these tablelands (between 10°09’ and 10°20’ Northand 77°01’ and 77°10’ East). A dominant feature of thepark is Anai Mudi Peak (2,695 m, Photo 1), India’shighest peak south of the Himalaya. It lies on the south-ern border of the park and its wind swept summit is

clearly visible from the lower tea estates that surroundthe south-eastern borders of Eravikulam.

Tea and conservationThe High Range is well known for the extensive teaplantations that carpet the valleys and surround thesmall but expanding settlement of Munnar. Tea, in fact,has played a decisive role in the protection of Eraviku-lam and its designation as a National Park. In colonialtimes when British planters and Tamil laborers were

� Photo 1: Anai Mudi“Moonscape”Looking south to Anai Mudi, fromthe central part of EravikulamNational Park’s “core zone.” With2,695 m Anai Mudi is the highestmountain in peninsular India southof the Himalaya. The peak’s nameis derived from the Tamil wordAnai or elephant. The park contin-ues to be crisscrossed by trailsmade by elephants and their drop-ping can be found just below thepeak’s summit.

� Photo 2: Stream in the heart of EravikulamA stream weaves it way through natural grasslands in the upper plateauof Eravikulam National Park. The tree here (not identified) is a sholaspecies that has survived winter frost and seasonal fires. These streamsare an important perennial water source for the far and distant lowerplains in the eastern rain shadow of the Western Ghats. Conservation-ists have effectively used the critical issue of water supply to fend off de-velopment and forest plantation threats to this plateau.


Eravikulam and the High Range (Kerala/India)I A N L O C K W O O D

clearing lower valleys of montaneforest they left the higher plateausalone. The plateaus have relativelypoor soil and experience extremelywet and windy conditions duringthe monsoon, thus making themunsuitable for tea cultivation. In-stead the plateaus were set aside asprivate game reserves where con-trolled hunting was allowed for theprivileged classes. What is now Er-avikulam was the largest and mostsignificant of at least three differentplateaus. Similar plateaus in thePalni and Nilgiri Hills were devel-oped for hill stations and non-native fuel wood plantations, so it isremarkable that part of the HighRange escaped this ecologicallydisastrous fate.

Development in the high moun-tainous areas of what was thenknown as Travancore State wasquite limited before the advent ofBritish colonialism and plantationagriculture in the mid 19th Centu-ry. An early account by the survey-

� Photo 3: Nilgiri Tahr on hillside A large herd of the endemic Nilgiri tahr (Hemi-tragus hylocrius) on a hillside near the touristzone in the southern edge of the park. This agilemountain goat lives on montane grasslands anduses the steep cliff sides to evade predators. Itclosest relative is the Himalayan tahr (Hemitra-gus jemlahicus) found more than 2,000 kilome-ters away. Eravikulam hosts an estimated 50 %of the surviving 2500 wild Nilgiri tahr and pro-vides their most secure home.

� Photo 4: Shola interiorShola forests are montane (above 1,500–1,800m) evergreen tropical forests that are unique tothe high altitude regions of the Western Ghats.Stunted by fierce monsoon winds, sholas con-tain a wealth of plant and animal species. Theshola/grasslands mosaic is the dominant vege-tation type in Eravikulam and the park hosts theleast disturbed surviving example in the entireWestern Ghats. The shola/grasslands ecosystemplays a key role in absorbing monsoon rains andsupplying the thirsty plains with a perennialsource of water. Sholas are most often found inthe protected folds of hills. They can be smallclumps are larger expansive forests that coverseveral square kilometers.

or Douglas Hamilton succinctly captures the sense ofwilderness that the High Ranges presented. In “ARecord of Sport in Southern India” (1892) Hamiltonprovides one of the most evocative descriptions of theundisturbed high altitude plateau areas of the WesternGhats:

“The views from this mountain are the grandest andmost extensive that I have ever beheld; some of the precipices are of stupendous magnitude and thecharming variety of scenery, comprising undulatinggrassy hills, wooded valleys, rocky crags, overhangingprecipices, the green fields in the Valley of Ungeenad(Mayayur Valley), the grand mass of the Pulnies be-yond and the blue ranges (Nilgiris Hills) in the far dis-tance present a view beyond my power to describe andmust be seen to be appreciated; in a word the sceneryin the Annumallays is surpassingly grand and incom-parably beautiful. On our way to the Kartu Mullay (thesecond highest peak in Eravikulam) we disturbedseveral herds of ibex (Nilgiri Tahr), which as theybounded amongst the crags and precipices, addedgreatly to the effects of the grand and wild features ofthe country we were passing though.”

Tea was introduced in the High Range in the late19th Century. It soon became an important cash cropthat drove the economy of the whole region. By thetime of independence large tea estates had carved outmost of the lower montane rainforests to replace themwith sprawling estates. Large tea estates under the Fin-lay and later Tata Tea companies controlled Eraviku-lam until 1971 when it was taken over by the State of

Kerala. It was notified as a wildlife sanctuary in 1975and subsequently became a National Park in 1978.

National Parks, along with Tiger Reserves, areawarded the highest level of protection in India andEravikulam was only the second park to be designatedin the state. Based on personal visits over several yearsit is fair to say that Eravikulam is one of the best-managed parks in all of India (Photo 7; see also thePark’s website www.eravikulam.org). It has naturalborders that prevent encroachment and it is staffed bydedicated forest rangers. The tea estates on its bound-aries are sympathetic to its conservation and protec-tion. Its main challenges are dealing with a significantincrease in tourists who want to see the famous “wildgoats.”

The raison d’être for Eravikulam’s notification as anational park was to protect the endangered NilgiriTahr (Hemitragus hylocrius, Photo 3). Nilgiri Tahrs aremountain goats that are restricted to the rugged high-lands of the southern Western Ghats. They are con-


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� Photo 5: Rhododendron tree on grasslands escarpment (Rhododendronarbroreum nilagiricum)The Western Ghats host a number of endemic species of plants and animals. Several of thesehave distant Himalayan cousins, like this endemic Rhododendron tree. Although it is a distinctspecies, it has close relatives in the Himalayas, as well as Sri Lanka! This suggests a very ancientbio-geographical link between the Himalaya, the Western Ghats and Sri Lanka. Scientists believethat the species once extended all the way from the Himalaya through peninsular India to SriLanka. Changing climate and geological conditions have now isolated these populations in thecooler higher reaches of the Western Ghats and Sri Lanka’s Central Highlands. This species ofRhododendron tree grows on high altitude grassy slopes (above 1,800 m) in the southernWestern Ghats.

nected to a genus of mountain goats that once stretchedfrom the Arabian Peninsula to the Himalaya and southinto the Western Ghats. Changes in climate and physi-cal features have left only three species in the genus, theArabian (H. jayakari), Himalayan (H. jemlahicus) andNilgiri Tahr. A formidable distance separates NilgiriTahr from their nearest neighbors, the Himalayan Tahr.The Nilgiri Tahr are agile ungulates that feed exclusive-ly on the native high altitude grasses of the southernWestern Ghats. They use the precipitous granite cliffsthat are a feature of the hills as protection against pre-dation from leopards, dhole (Indian wild dog) andtigers.

In the 20th century tahr populations drastically fellas a result of habitat loss and out of control hunting and poaching. The entire population of Nilgiri Tahr is thought to be no more than 2,000 individuals in the wild with approximately 700–800 of these are inEravikulam (Eravikulam Management).

Ecology of the shola/grasslandsFrom an ecological point of view Eravikulam is highlysignificant as it hosts the best-preserved and largestundisturbed shola/grasslands habitat left in the West-

ern Ghats (Photo 4). The shola/grasslands system isfound above 1,700 meters in the highest reaches of theWestern Ghats (sometimes a figure of 1,800 meters isused and this varies depending on latitude and localtopographical and climatic conditions). Significantshola/grasslands systems are located in the Nilgiri,Palni, Anaimalai Hills and the High Range. There arenoteworthy patches that appear in a similar mannerlocated at slightly lower attitudes. Sri Lanka has nearidentical habitat in the patanas and cloud forests ofHorton Plains in its Central Highlands.

The shola/grasslands mosaic is typically found onhigh plateaus composed of gentle, undulating hills orsteep cliffs with shallow soil structure. The grasslandsoccupy a larger proportion of the area (80 %) of theupper plateaus than sholas. Sholas are tropical mon-tane forests that are found in the valleys and folds ofmountains above 1,700 meters in the southern WesternGhats (Photo 2 and 6). The word “shola” is taken fromthe Tamil word “sholai” meaning any evergreen forestor thicket and the word has often been used to namelower forests areas. It is now more correctly associatedwith the native forests of the lofty plateaus of thesouthern Western Ghats. Like other montane forests intropical areas sholas usually experience high rainfall

during seasonal rains. Cloud forestsare able to derive moisture from wetmist when it is not actually rainingand this may apply to some of thesholas in the Western Ghats. Theirlocation in valleys provides betterprotection from monsoon windsand offers better soil conditionswith higher moisture and nutrientcontent. Wind is an important fac-tor and the canopy height of sholasis rarely above 15 meters (withsome notable individual trees grow-ing as high as 40–60 m).

Higher altitudes mean coldertemperatures and in many of theranges it is common to have freez-ing temperatures during the wintermonths. Frost is a common featurein grasslands from December toFebruary in these areas. The sholas,with their canopy of evergreen veg-etation, are able to maintain moreconstant temperatures throughoutthe year. While grasslands can havesevere frost, it is unlikely to find anyin a neighboring shola. This is im-


Eravikulam and the High Range (Kerala/India)I A N L O C K W O O D

� Photo 6: Shola/Grasslands in theCore Zone Winter view looking west over the weathered un-dulations of the central “Core Zone” of EravikulamNational Park. The dark clumps in the folds of thegrassy hills are shola forests.

portant for regeneration since shola saplings cannotsurvive winter frost. Grasses, on the other hand, will dieoff above the surface level while their root structure isable to survive the frost, not to mention grazing andfire. One of the few tree species to be found in grass-lands is the fire tolerant rhododendron (Rhododendronnilagiricum, Photo 5).

Ecological value and threatsEcologists recognize several important traits in undis-turbed shola/grassland systems. Firstly they are nowrecognized as a unique system with fascinating linkagesto similar montane systems in Sri Lanka and othertropical mountainous areas. Secondly they have signif-icant biodiversity that is not found elsewhere. Lastlyand most importantly to humans who have never seenthem, shola/grasslands provide water security for mil-lions of people living in the shadow of the hills. Theshola/grasslands act much like a giant sponge, absorb-ing monsoon rains and releasing them slowly throughthe year.

One of the most significant threats to grasslands hasbeen their widespread conversion into monocultureplantations of non-native timber. Fast growing speciessuch as Eucalyptus globus, Pinus patula and Acaciamearnsii were intensively planted in almost all of theupper areas of the Western Ghats since colonial times.In recent decades, with aforestation gaining popularityin official circles, it was thought that the timber provid-ed by these programs would be worth any ecologicalcosts. Biodiversity at this point was not recognized as asignificant value in the un-notified areas of the upperWestern Ghats.

The conversions of grassland into plantations start-ed during colonial times after many of the upper rangeswere “discovered” and developed into hill-stations andtea estates. Tree plantation expansion continued afterindependence and several important hill areas wereseverely damaged by hydroelectric schemes. In the1960s and 1970s industrial demand on the plains (suchas for tannin by the leather industry) helped encourageplantation expansion in many hill ranges. By the 1980svery few of the elevated plateaus of the southernWestern Ghats were untouched. A significant issuewith several species (wattle and lantana) is that theyself-seed and unintentionally spread into undisturbedareas.

Eravikulam remains a relatively secure and well-managed National Park in South India at the onset ofthe 21st Century. With other similar landscapes havingbeen converted to plantations and settlements it is acritical example of a habitat that was once morewidespread. It will remain an important site for its pro-tection of the Nilgiri Tahr and undisturbed shola/grass-lands systems. ■

ReferencesCensus of India 2001: Census Data Summary. www.censusindia.gov.in;

accessed on 22 October 2007Champion, H.G. and S.K. Seth 1968: A revised survey of the forest types

in India. NasikChandran, Subash M.D.1997: On the ecological history of the Western

Ghats. Current Science 73 (2) Conservation International. Western Ghats & Sri Lanka. www.biodiversity-

hotpots.orgDepartment of Forests and Wildlife, Government of Kerala. Eravikulam

National Park. www.eravikulam.orgHamilton, D. 1892: A Record of Sport in Southern India. Islam, M. Zafar-ul and A. R. Ramani 2004: Important Bird Areas in India.

Bombay Natural History Society, MumbaiMeher-Homji, V.M. 1967: Phytogeography of the South Indian Hill Sta-

tions. Torrey Botanical Club 64 (4), pp. 230-242Nair, K.K.N. (ed.) 2001: Shola Forest of Kerala Environment & Biodiversity.

Kerala Forest Department, Thiruvanthapuram Nair, S.C. 1994: The High Ranges: Problems and potential of a hill region

in the Southern Western Ghats. New DelhiNair, S.C. 1991: The Southern Western Ghats: A Biodiversity Conservation

Plan. New DelhiNoble, W.A. 2004: The aftermath of the Pleistocene in the upper Nilgiris

of Southern India. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 101(1). Jan.-Apr.

Population Reference Bureau: The Future Population of India.www.prb.org/pdf07/FuturePopulationofIndia.pdf; (August 2007);accessed on 29 October 2007

Population Reference Bureau: Kerala: An example from India.www.prb.org/Educators/TeachersGuides/HumanPopulation/Women.aspx; accessed on 29 October 2007

Ramesh, B.R. Vegetation types in the WesternGhats. French Institute of Pondicherry

Sankaran, P. 2004: Rainforest Revivial. Sanctu-ary Asia (April), pp. 38-41

Shankar, K. 2002: Nilgiris Floral Paradise. Sanc-tuary Asia (October), pp. 30-35

Shankar, K. 1996: Shola and Grasslands. Sanc-tuary Asia (March) Vol. XVI, No. 2

UNDP, United Nations Development Pro-gramme: Kerala Human Development Report2005

Werner, W. 2001: Sri Lanka’s MagnificentCloud Forests. Colombo


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Ian LockwoodHigh Range Photography, Shelton Cottage,Lower Shola Road, Kodaikanal - 624 101,Tamil Nadu / INDIA26, Valley Road, Milton, MA 02186 / [email protected]://highrangephotography.com

Authors

� Photo 7: Counting TahrA Mudhuvan tribal, working for the Kerala Forest Department, scansa grassy hill for the elusive Nilgiri Tahr (Hemitragus hylocrius). He isparticipating in an annual wildlife census within Eravikulam NationalPark. Mudhuvans have traditionally lived on the edge of what is nowEravikulam National Park. They have an unsurpassed knowledge ofthe hills and have long been employed by the large tea estates thatsurround the 90 km2 protected area.

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