RE-DISCOVERED TREE ON IUCN RED LIST

RE-DISCOVERED TREE

ON IUCN RED LIST

A rare tree rediscovered from Kerala 14 years ago is still categorised as Extinct on the Red List of International Union for Conservation of Nature. The latest version of the list released early this week has described Cynometra beddomeii , “a large tree, which has only ever been recorded from Tambacherry Ghat” as regionally extinct in Kerala. It had also stated that the plant has “not been found since 1870, despite intensive explorations.”Incidentally, a team of scientists of the Kerala Forest Research Institute (KFRI), Thrissur, have rediscovered the tree from a few locations in Kerala, including Thiruvananthapuram and Wayanad in 1998. According to N. Sasidharan, programme coordinator, Forest Ecology and Biodiversity Conservation of the institute, who rediscovered the tree, a few trees of the species were identified at Thamarassery Ghat and Agasthyamala of Thiruvananthapuram.The species was rediscovered during the studies on the Flora of Kerala forests. However, no enumeration or further studies were carried out on the species. It needs to be reclassified as Critically Endangered or Endangered following its rediscovery. However, that had not happened in this case, he said.

Dr. Sasidharan had also published a paper on the rediscovery of this medium-sized plant in a scientific publication Higher Plants of Indian sub-continent in 1998. He had also reported that the flowering period of the plant was from February to March and fruiting from July to August According to the publication, the “distribution of this species is discontinuous with fragmented population in South Kerala and South Karnataka. The mature trees in the area of present collections is estimated to be under 150 and confined to an area less than 5 sq.km. Therefore the species comes under the critically endangered category,” it said.Early studies on the species were carried out by J.S. Gamble, renowned British botanist who extensively worked in India and prepared the ‘Flora of Presidency of Madras.’ His studies were based on the specimens collected by T.S. Bourdillon who had served as a conservator of Forest in the erstwhile princely State of Travancore from South Kanara, Karnataka, in 1870 and from Parappar in South Kerala, according to scientists.

The trees were photographed from Peruvannamuzhi forest, Thamarassery Ghat and Kakkayam in 2006, said P. Sujanapal, scientist of the Silviculture Department of the of KFRI.The documentation was carried out as part of a research project ‘Tree flora of Kerala.’ The population of the trees was estimated from the accessible terrain as below 50, said Dr. Sujanapal who photographed the trees.The Red List has described the location of the plant as “along streams in the evergreen forests between 500 and 800 metre.” It is “endemic to the Western Ghats; occasional in western part of Agasthyamalai Region in South Sahyadri and rare in Waynad and Coorg Regions in Central Sahyadri,” according to the data.

Prof. John Kurakar