Palni Hills Conservation Council 18th Annual Report 2002 - 2003 The Executive Committee which met 11 times last year hereby presents its report for the year 2002 - 2003 Executive Committee: 1. Mr. J. Nath President 2. Fr. Rev. K.M. Matthew Vice President 3. Mr. Navroz Mody Vice President 4. Mrs. Girija Viraraghavan Joint Secretary 5. Mr. Nevil Moncher Secretary 6. Mr. R. Kannan Treasurer 7. Mr. M.S. Viraraghavan Executive Committee Member 8. Mr. Madhu Ramnath Executive Committee Member 9. Mr. George Roshan Executive Committee Member 10. Miss. Meenakshi Subramaniam Executive Committee Member 11. Mr. Vijay Kumar Executive Committee Member 12. Mrs. Rebecca Chacko Executive Committee Member 13. Mr. Rajagopal Dorai Raja Executive Committee Member 14. Mrs. Pippa Mukherjee Executive Committee Member Membership: The total number of members of the council as on 31st March 2003 is as follows 1. Life members 164 2. Annual members 21 3. Institutional members 2 ----- Total 187 ----- Introduction: The severe drought conditions prevailing in the entire state of Tamil Nadu has adversely affected the tree growing activity of the council. The lowest rainfall recorded have had a negative effect on the farming economy at the hills and foothills, plains, where the councils' tree growing centres are located. But despite the poor monsoons and sinking water tables we have managed to plant; grow and facilitate planting of 2,00,000 trees during the last year. The poor farm incomes have led many farmers to harvesting the trees planted over the years. There has also been catastrophic failure of the monoculture of coconut plantations at the foot hills due to non availability of ground water, affecting the apiaries of the beekeeping projects. The councils' tree nurseries are now giving a sensible alternative to the edible oil producing coconut economy, that was based on unsustainble (mining) use of ground water. The thrust is to grow more of oil bearing shrubs like Jatropha and oil seed bearing seeds like Bassia; Neem and Pongamia. This year, the council has taken up work with finding alternatives to the use of fossil fuels at the farm level. As global warming and the consequent drought are affecting society at large, it was felt that self sustaining energy supply to the rural sector is one of the priority areas. A plantation of Jatropha curcas has been established at the Genguvarpatti land where two acres are now under energy crops. The future theme of the council will be, to make forestry extension to other districts of Tamil Nadu through formation of woodlot owners association where the Council will transfer the knowledge gained over 17 years on growing of various species to appropriate village level institutions. Further there are possibilities to take up training other NGO's in neighbouring states in the art of tree growing. A visit was made to the Deccan plateau for surveying the area and possible interventions through organsiations working on Natural Resource based issues. Two groups have shown interest and as a first step they are to buy and plant a truck load of Gmelina arborea from our tree nurseries. It is felt that a two pronged strategy of trees and bees can work to mitigate many of the problems of rural India like deforestation; poverty and rural indebtedness in a sustainable manner. The experience gathered over the last 17 years and the human resource available in the form of trained personnel of the council, needs to be transfered to new areas within and outside the state. The lookout for a suitable partner to support this venture is now a priority. 1. Upper Hills Watershed management Project: The project to treat 900 ha of farmer's land has been approved by CAPART but as the project has been placed under the category of training the staff for the implementation for six months and then drawing up the action plan, there has been a delay of a year. The project has now been cleared to the action plan stage and we have trained three persons as per norms of CAPART. The three staff were trained at a CAPART assigned Support Voluntary Organisation at Kerala. The three trained staff conducted a survey at the above villages and submitted a report for participatory watershed treatment. The survey lasted three months and the report preparation took two months. The report presents a complete agroecosystam analysis of the three hill villages of Polur, Poondi and Kilavarai. Further the team has identified suitable areas for intervention to implement water conservation measures and landuse change in the rainfed areas. There was also a subsequent evaluation of the watershed area by the Peermade Development Society, Peermade who have since given the go ahead for the proposal. The project will be implemented at the villages of Poondi; Kilavarai and Polur as the District Rural Development Agency is taking up the watershed projects at Mannavanuur. The requisite No objection Certificate from the District Collector was obtained for the implementation of the watershed treatment at 900 ha covering the three village lands mentioned above. Field trials with Niger seed at 2200 mts above sea level has been encouraging with the flowering of the same within a period of two months and good seed set. 2. The Shola Conservation nursery at Kodaikanal: The nursery has managed to raise and distribute 2500 shola seedlings to growers interested in planting shola species at their lands. The species composition was 30 numbers. Nurseries at Vilpatti; Pallangi' Poombarai and Shenbaganur were wound up. These have to a certain extent, satisfied the needs' of the farmers in the respective watersheds for the demand for temperate fruit grafts. The drought at the hills also meant the water for the nurseries was becoming a critical input. It is planned to open new nurseries at different microwater sheds as and when the water situation improves. Melpallam nursery: The nursery has been temporarily shut down for about six months due to water shortage. But with the good rains January 2003 the small apiary and nursery have been opened again with a view to serve the tribals and farmers on the Palar Porandalar watershed. Year of the Mountains Workshop: The Council participated on the 16th August 2002 workshop organised by the Forest Department to commemorate the year of the Mountains at Kodaikanal, where our Vice President Rev. Fr. Matthew presented a paper highlighting the need to preserve the flora of the Palni Hills. The Minister of Environment and Forest, New Delhi, who presided over the proceedings, gave a patient hearing. 3. Mercury Waste disposal: The removal of the contaminated soil and materials from the disused thermometer production facility at Kodaikanal was carried out as envisaged in co-operation with Green Peace. The waste matter weighting 290 tonnes was shipped to the country of origin, the U.S. for safe keeping. Indian Peoples Tribunal: The case of compensating the affected workers was taken up by filing a case with the IPT who held a three day hearing of the case with, mercury affected workers, putting up their individual case before the tribunal. The IPT has given a serious report citing the lapses on the part of the company management that had neglected all safety norms and regulations as regards to workers safety and health. A case study done with co-operation from a Dutch NGO has been put on the internet for anyones' reference. The work of publishing the case in Tamil is in progress. This will be available for stocking and distribution at schools and libraries soon. 4. Habitat protection at the foothills through tree growing a) Manjalar Watershed: The tree nursery is catering to the farmers, visitors and schools in the area with suitable species of seedlings. During the last year the nursery facilitated growing of 34,000 seedlings of 50 species. An important aspect of the nursery has been to raise seedlings that are economical for the growers as well as beneficial to the avifauna. Thus a selection of food web species for the birds and small mammals at the foothill scrub jungle has been the aim of the seed collection work for the tree nursery. As part of seed exchange, the nursery has managed to get seeds from Central India and propagate the same for growing diversity in farmers field. Schleichera Trijuga a non edible oil yeilding tree species has been growing well at the nursery. These will be distributed to farmers in the coming monsoon season. Visit by Folk School students: The students of the Biskops Arnor Folk school who through the Future Earth programme supported in part, the construction of the dormitory visited the environment centre and stayed there for two days. The also visited the SVK Kombai centre of the Council to learn about the Grizzled Giant Squirrel and conservation activities of the council there. Seed Collection at Talayar Watershed: The species selection this year is based on Dry Evergreen species that cover the scrub jungles which are the immediate target of the rural population for their fuel and biomass needs. Growing of Mangifera indica from stones for avenue planting is a priority from this watershed where riparian mango trees of good provenances remain. Jatropha curcas plantation: As part of the sustainable energy initiatives at the Environment Centre, seeds of Jatropha curcas were collected, the plot reserved for dry land model farms has been planted with 4,000 seedlings of Jatropha curcas. Though the plants are rainfed they are surviving the dry conditions at the Environment Centre. Trials with diesel substitute: From the Siruvattukadu Kombai enclave good stands of jatropha has been identified for seed collection. The seeds collected from the Middle Palnis was crushed at a local non edible oil miller, close to our Viruveedu tree growing centre. The oil thus obtained has been used on a trial basis to power the water pumping diesel engine at the Environment Centre. The engine has run trouble free at full power for over 100 hrs on 100% jatropha oil. These are the common engines of the Indirect Injection type used by the farmers for lift irrigation. Propagating more jatropha at farm boundaries and hedges will be part of the future strategy of the council, for sustainable rural energy. At present time the cost of collection and crushing at existing oil mills is becoming more expensive as Jatropha is still a hedge plant with no selection for high seed or oil yields. This coming season it is proposed to collect seeds of jatropha from the manjalar and Middle Palnis settlements of Poolathur Watershed for testing the oil content and yields. Promoting jatropha with farmers who have been part of the tree growing effort during the last 10 years will be the future priority at the foothills. Ecopark plans: Due to poor rainfall at the Environment Centre (only 680 mm as against the normal 900 mm) the only bore well which is the source for the entire 21 acre property has been strained a little. Also it has been found that when the dormitories are fully occupied the water source is stretched to the limits. Further priority is also given to the tree nursery that stocks seedlings from 70 species of trees and ornamental shrubs. The further development of the plans are to wait a serious appraisal of the water budget as the activities planned demand more water, which unfortunately is not available. The plans can be revived once the monsoons bring the rains and water supply is restored. The Eco shop has been marketing Honey; Bee wax products for those who care to stop at the centre. This year herbal shampoo and coconut sugar were also kept there for marketing to the visitors. The future plans are for improving the product mix to include spices; organic tea; coffee and essential oils from the hills. The Arboretum and Butterfly garden has not been developed further due to paucity of water. We hope to take up the work there in the coming monsoon as and when the water position of the borewell improves. 6. Vaigai Watershed Viruveedu tree growing centre: The rainfall at this centre has been lower than normal at 600mm only. The borewell was unable to supply water to the tree nursery and we had to rely on supply from nearby farmer's well for maintaining the nursery stock. The nursery supported by the IC SDC NGO programme has managed to facilitate planting of 31,000 seedlings at farmers fields. Jatropha oil as diesel substitute was initially tried at this centre, with good measure of success. The 4 acre plot for shelter belt demonstration has now been planted with 4500 plants of jatropha which are growing well. The centre has put the jatropha oil for manufacturing soap and candles with beeswax and other additives. It is proposed to train the Self help Groups that are part of the programme to earn extra income for the villages of Thatapatti; Sandhaiyoor; Valayapatti and Chekkapatti. The six SHG groups are maintaining a seperate bank account and the Co ordinator organises regular meetings where group members discuss and implement plans for development of the Natural Resources of the community in a sustainable manner. Most of the cultivation at the six project villages was based on lift irrigation from the Vaigai river that is running at a distance of two kilometers from the centre. But the water flow in the river course has been completely stopped due to the poor storage position at the Vaigai Dam upstream. Hence most farmers have left the land fallow and are now looking for alternative crops. The proposal of the council to grow hedges of jatropha in farmers fields as a boundary crop to conserve water and prevent wind damage to crops has been approved by the IC programme for the coming two year period. The proposal envisages growing of 20 km of hedges in farm boundaries for income generation through producing Physic nut and processing neem and pongamia seeds from avenue and shelterbelt trees planted over past 10 year period. There will be training for the six groups at our own centre and external centres of excellence in producing household consumables from farm produce, like soap; polishes; candles and inputs for farms like neem and jatropha cake for fertiliser and pest control botanical agents. 6. Kodaganar watershed: Athoor and Kannivadi tree growing centres: Athoor tree nursery: The nursery now gets water from a nearby farmer's field as the water supply position at the Kamaraj sagar is not adequate to supply water to the Dindigul Township. The nursery at the dam site is used as a production centre with 25000 seedlings being produced at the centre over the last year. The tree planting was carried out at the villages near the Kannivadi bee and tree growing centre estabilished last year. The new centre has been supported by the Joe Homan Trust, UK for tree growing in 60 ha of land belonging to small and marginal farmers in the village of Kuttathupatti and Thippampatti in the Kannivadi block. The tree growing effort was through establishing orchards of amla; guava; sapota and mango numbering 1000 with shelterbelts of multipurpose tree species that were grown at our nurseries. The fruit grafts were purchased from commercial nurseries last year. We propose to make our own grafts of amla for supply to farmers in the area at the Kannivadi centre. The initial trials in this direction have been encouraging. At the Athoor tree growing centre some of our trees planted during the 90's have started to produce seeds. Thus, this has how become a seed collection provenance for specie like Enterolobium cyclocarpum, Gmelina arborea; Tectona grandis and Terminalia arjuna. 7. Sirumalai Watershed Odukkam Tree Nursery and Tree Seed Centre The monsoons have been poor as in all places at Odukkam during the 2002 calendar year but the first four months of 2003 have received good rains. So that the nursery at Oddukkam has managed to distribute 45,350 seedlings to farmers; institutions and industries. The tree nursery today stocks over 35000 seedlings expecting a good monsoon in the coming months. The Tree Seed Centre has been collecting seed from areas other than Palni Hills as the poor rains have meant that the seed set has been adversely affected. Those seeds collected in rainfall deficient areas have shown low germination rates. Thus it was not possible to supply these to the customers. Hence this year seeds have been collected from the Anamalais and Auroville. The Tree Seed Centre has collected and distributed 865 kg of seeds comprising of 60 species of native trees. For the purpose the seed collectors harvested alomost 1450 kg of pods containing seeds and 350 kg fruits (drupes) with seeds. The clearing and sorting of seeds provided employment for 6 women and 4 collectors through the year. Reddiayppatti Tree Nursery: Though estabilished only last year, the nursery managed to distribute 19000 seedlings to farmers in the Sirumalai Natham block. The present nursery stock is 36000 seedlings of 50 species. Since there is good water supply we have some 10,000 plantlets in beds that are transplanted based on requests from customers in to polybags and supplied after one month. The nursery has good water source and the plan is to stock 75000 seedlings at the site which is very visible from the Natham Dindigul Road, for the coming season. The target for the supply this year is the Thavasi Madai areas that are at the foothills of Sirumalai, on the Eastern side and receive good rains during the monsoons. 8. Amaravathi Watershed Khudhirayar Tree Growing centre: The tree growing centre has become a venue for internal workshops and also served as a selection centre for new recruits. The centre hosted two workshops for the bee keeping projects. The tree nursery has supplied 12,000 seedlings to farmers in the area. Seed collection which is a major activity for providing tribals with livelihoods was affected due to the drought conditions prevailing at the centre. Only Embellica officinalis and Terminalia chebula seeds could be collected and supplied to the Odakkam tree seed centre. The centre collected some 850 kg of Amla fruits and procured 12kg of seeds from the same. The future plan is to train tribals in to processing the fruit pulp in to pickles for income generation and livelihood options. Propagating species that yield Non Timber Forest Produce in farmer's fields will be the future goal of the nursery as part of the recently sanctioned proposal from International Union for Conservation of Nature for restroration of diversity in forest fragments and increasing availability of food for the avifauna and small mamamals in the forest fragments. 9. Parappalar Watershed projects The council's work at the SVK enclave is to protect the fragmented habitat of the Grizzled Giant Squirrel and other wild life forms. The Council has recently launched a new project to grow food web species for the wild life forms in forest fragments at the Middle Palnis. Owing to the decline in coffee growing areas and subsequent harvest of exotic Silver Oak trees, we propose to spread the native species that will improve biodiversity at the forest fragments. The nurseries at Palkadai; Melapallam; Semmadioothu and SVK kombai grew and facilitated planting of 3500; 1500; 2000 and 1000 plants respectively. The future task of these tree nurseries will be to propagate food web species in the forest fragments around them. They will also promote the use of Niger seeds for bee forage which has shown encouraging results at the middle altitudes. 10. Andipatti Tree Growers Association Project: The project was started during May 2002 to form a self sustaining tree growers association that will take up the task of tree growing, training farmers in tree product utilisation and marketing tree based produce for higher price. The project is based on the previous work of Council at the Andipatti Kallapuram area where during the years 1994-98 more than 1,00,000 trees were planted in farmer's fields. The project office, with amenities like a small library; computers; vehicles and internet is located at Udumalpet, keeping in view the possibilities for extension of forestry in to the Coimbatore district. The personnel for the project were selected through a transparent system of advertising and interviews by the Council's Programme Coordinator and PC - Danish Forestry Extension Mr. Per Larsson. Some of the chosen candidates were given an orientation to the activities of the council at the Khudhirayar Tree Growing Centre. The three selected candidates were based on probation for a period of six months. The initial task of the team which has, two experienced Council staff to manage the affairs and train the new personnel, was to conduct a survey to identify the existing tree stands at the Andipatti Kallapuram area. This will form the core area from where the future tree growers association will expand and spread out towards Udumalpet. The survey was done through participatory methods with one more Council staff trained to conduct P R A taking part in the work. A complete report with details of landuse and unemployment prevailing at the Andipatti village was presented by the team at the end of the six month period. The report has further identified the land use pattern at the village to determine suitable areas for intevention with species of trees matching the needs of the villagers. A tree seedling nursery has been established at Andipatti to provide seedling for the farmer's requirements for the coming season and has a stock of 25,000 seedlings. The survey report has identified soci economic problems at the village of Andipatti and has presented the agro eco system analysis to prepare an action plan for the next three years. The survey among farmers identified the species preference of the villagers for shleterbelt tree growing at their lands. There was a training programme for the new staff and our personnel by Mr. Thorsten Hansen of DFE for two weeks, on working with tree growers and foresty extension practices for the new areas. They were given orientation to the work of the DFE in Denmark through slides and exercises. Currently the team is identifying fields for establishing trial plots for demonstration of suitability of timber species for the soils and agro climatic conditions. The formation of a project steering Committee with representation from the village is now in progress. The DFE PC visits the project, quarterly and with PC PHCC guides the project team for formation of the self sustaining organisation to proceed with forestry extension in future. The Council has also appraised the DFO. Forest Department, Dindigul about the project. As one member of the Project Steering Committee will be from the Forest Department. 10. Condensed Environment Education Course: The Condensed Environment Education Course was completed and the participants were all awarded certificates for their contribution to preserve the environment. A two day workshop was held at Kodaikanal, where the best participants received prizes for the enthusiasm shown towards conservation of fauna and flora of the Palni Hills. The project received participants from three schools each from three different zones of the Palni Hills. The Upper Hills Zone was for schools from Poomaprai; Kodaikanal and Pannaikadu. The middle zone was for schools from the villages of Thandikudi; Perumparai and Patlankadu. The third zone was on the northern slopes and schools from Palani; Pappampatti and Khudhirayar were the participants. The total number of participants in the programme is 125. A handbook on Tamil was prepared and presented to all the students who took part in the programme. CEE who funded the project also received half the number of copies of the Tamil Handbook for distribution to schools elsewhere. 11. Clean Kodaikanal Programme: The clean Kodai project has been launched in September 2002 for educating students from six schools to make them, student monitors for protecting the environment. The programme trains the selected students to take part in various activities like 1) Water and Air quality monitoring 2) Waste management 3) Composting and Vermicompost making 4) Making recycled Paper and 5) Tree Growing. The programme was initiated with 8 students each participating from the six selected schools and one teacher from each school on 4th February at Kodaikanal. As part of the programme students conduct interviews with selected members of the public to learn about their health aspects associated with environment conditions. The traffic policeman at Seven Road Junction were a unhappy lot, with over 500 vehicles spewing Sulphur Dioxide and Nitrogen Dioxide in to their lungs every hour!!! The participants are provided with maps of their areas to pin point sources of pollution and discuss ways to counter the same. At the end of the one year programme the selected team leaders from the student community will address the civic bodies responsible for air and water quality and seek remedial action. 12. Water quality Monitoring at the Lake: The limiting factors that aid the growth of algae at the lake waters have remained constant over the year and we now witness a massive growth of submerged hydrilla at the lake. There is a canal being formed at the periphery in some places for taking out the seepage of nutrients. This is a step in the right direction and we hope will bear fruit in the coming months. Where as, the proposed location of the sewerage treatment plant leaves lot to be desired. 13. Apiculture Projects: Beekeeping training programme The imparting of 60 days training to selected rural populace with a view to encourage keeping of Apis cerana indica as part of the mixed farming activity has been carried out at six of the council's training centres. These are located at Genguvarpatti; Khudhirayar; Patlankadu; Palkadai; Kannivadi; and Viruveedu. During the last eight months 110 persons have been exposed to the basics of bee management; hive design; colony multiplication; honey production and disease management. Skill Improvement for the trainers: The twelve trainers have been honing their skills for selecting colonies against the attack of Thai Sac Brood Virus. The sharing of experiences from different agro eco climatic regimes has been made possible through conducting two workshops for them at Khudhirayar. Processing Honey: Collection of honey from Apis dorsata indica is in progress at the Viruveedu and Patlankadu centres of the Council. The tribal honey hunters are educated on bringing un squeezed combs from which the honey is drained through straining. The honey whose moisture has been reduced suitably is packed in glass jars of 500 gm each for marketing at the GVP Eco Shop; Viruveedu and Patlankadu centres. The quantity thus collected over the last year amounts to 890 kgs. We plan to start honey collection from tribals at Khudhirayar and Palkadai too in the coming season. Value addition for Beeswax: Trials with beewax cream and ointment have been satisfactory. Simple skin conditioners using beeswax and vegetable oils are formulated and tested for shelf life over the past one year. The trails will now be transformed in to commercial operations with good packaging and marketing arrangements. Trainers Workshop: The beekeeping training project was evaluated from March 14th to 20th by Ms.Lise Hansted and Mr.Mogens Jensen of the Danish Beekeepers Federation. Though the colony numbers are below the stipulated target as per programme, it was explained to them that, this was primarily due to the extreme drought conditions prevailing at the Palni Hills. Accordingly an extension was saught from DANIDA for taking the project completion period from December 2003 to 2004. We learnt that the extension has been agreed upon by DANIDA at the time of writing this report. Thus the workshop with external participation will be held toward the end of the project period in 2004. The Tamil Handbook on beekeeping will be updated and a second version published at that time. Supply of hives and colonies to tribals: The Dindigul Forest Division and THADCO, Dindigul have, this year allotted the work of fabricating hives and training tribals in to beekeeping at Patlankadu; Pachhalur and Khudhirayar, to the council's trainers and respective beekeeping centres. 14. Conclusion: The drought and water crisis are affecting the work in the sphere of Natural resource management adversely. Much attention has been given to harvesting rainwater in recent times. But little thought has gone to protection of our watersheds. The role of mountain forests in harvesting rain from the clouds are hardly discussed. The need for protecting the existing forests and creating new ones in suitable places is the priority, which the council's tree growing projects have taken up seriously. Using trees as carbon sinks to mitigate the effects of climate change is another priority area of work for the future. Unfortunately the declaration of the proposed protected area network at the Palni Hills is yet to materialise. We hope that the status of protected area is accorded to our hills at the earliest keeping in view the importance of the hills, both to the Vaigai and Cauvery basins. The adverse effects of climate change are upon us and the plants and bees that the council's projects work with, are biomonitors that reflect the changes. The future strategy of the council is to address the issue of sustainable rural energy, through renewable supplies that are based on biomass and non edible oil seeds. The work of the council is realised with active support of the donors and staff who fully co-operate in our endeavour to protect the forests and grow more trees. Our sincere thanks to them and the following agencies for their support to our cause. The following donors have supported the various projects: 1. Both Ends - Amsterdam 2. CAPART - New Delhi 3. Centre for Environment Education - Ahemedabad 4. Danish Beekeepers Federation - Denmark 5. Danish Forestry Extension - Denmark 6. Development Alternatives - New Delhi 7. Forgotton Children - USA 8. Joe Homan Trust - UK 9. International Union for Conservation of Nature - Netherlands 10. Inter cooperation, SDC - Bangalore 11. St. Olaf College - Minnesota, USA The Executive Committee expresses it sincere thanks to the Forest Department, Dindigul and Kodaikanal for co operation in the work at the various centres. Our sincere thanks for the Dindigul Municipal Council and Public Works Department. Khudhirayar for providing space for our Athoor, Dindigul and Khudhirayar tree growing centres. The role of Boat Club, Kodaikanal is acknowledged in providing boats for water quality monitoring. The EC expresses its sincere thanks to our Auditors M/s.Elango and Madhavan who have efficiently audited the accounts of the projects. Kodaikanal Mr.J. Nath Dt. 30.7.2003 President