Chennai: There is good news for Agasthyamalai Biosphere Reserve (ABR) which serves as a catchment area for Thamirabharani river, the only perennial river that originates and ends in Tamil Nadu.
The ABR, acknowledged as one of the top 20 bio hotspots of the world by Unesco in 2016, will soon receive the coveted certificate signed by the director general. The state forest department, which is flexing its muscle against the private tea estate owners in pristine ABR, has also instructed its field officials to be prepared to acquire back the leased out forests as a few litigations pending before the Madras High Court is are the final stage of arguments, a top forest official told DC.
"Unesco, under its Man and Biosphere programme, has included Agasthyamalai Biosphere Reserve (ABR) in Tirunelveli district for its rich biodiversity featuring rare medicinal plants, the official said.
“The general council meetings held in Peru during the period 2016 -17 accepted the nomination and soon a central team would visit TN to hand over the coveted certificate and at the same time we are planning to acquire back the hectares of lost Shola forests in ABR”, the official said.
“Agasthyamalai has been in the news since last year over its nomination as one of top 20 bio hotspot reserves recognised by Unesco. On June 1, the Union environment ministry had written to the state chief secretary Girija Vaidyanathan urging the state to arrange for a gala ceremony during which a central team from the Union ministry of environment and forests would hand over the certificates signed by the Unesco director general”, the official added.
“About 400 red-listed plants have been recorded in ABR. The need of the hour is the restoration of rainforests so that the drying of rivers can be arrested to some extent. There is no major dip in the annual average rainfall of TN, but our rivers are drying up due to depletion of forest cover”, explains conservation scientist Dr A Kumaraguru of Sathyamangalam Tiger Conservation Foundation.
ABR is a pristine habitat and catchment area for both Tamil Nadu and Kerala and this certification by Unesco has to be celebrated and it's high time to restore the lost forest patches of ABR from tea and estate plantations, he added.
“We are planning to bring the community representatives and the endemic tribes residing within the Agasthyamalai Biosphere. Official communiqué in this regard has reached the camp office of the Kalakad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve where the biosphere is located. The reserve, named after Tamil sage Agasthiyar, is known for its diversity of flora and fauna and is a home to about 2,200 species of indigenous plants”, said an informed forest range official.
