Palni Hills Conservation Council 23rd Annual report Introduction: Growing trees in private lands owned by resource constrained farmers had been the strategy of the councils' tree growing centers, but due to appreciating land prices and farm conmodity markets many small growers prefer to grow annual crops or do not take the time and patient wait for trees to grow over a span of 7-10years. Despite these constraints the council has been able to facilitate growing of 230 000. Trees seedlings in lands in the three districts of Madurai, Dindigul and Coimbatore. The better coffee prices have seen many new farmers seeking to grow more shade trees and prefer fast growing trees for their coffee farms. Thus the tree growing efforts are now centered around supplying fast growing trees to market demands that meet a specific produce, for example paper or Plywood industries. As the government has started supplying seedlings free of cost to farmers, to maintain an income base, the tree growing centers had to focus on supply of choice seedlings to urban forestry as well. The human resource crunch has been acute as well with many beekeepers as well as farm hands that used to work at the tree and bee nurseries have left for more paying jobs in cities. Also the demand from industries primarily textiles in the district has led to only middle aged and old folks left over to till the land. Future prospects: The opportunities for tree growing are good as the demand for biofuels is growing day by day. The growing of trees for fixing carbon is on the cards as the UNFCCC have declared that even area as small as 1 ha can be considered for certification. The prospect for restoring degraded forest lands are a priority with forest department providing opportunities for parnerships. The Executive Committee which met 11 times to conduct the affairs of the council herewith submits its annual report for the year 2007-08. The committee was constituted by the following members and office bearers 1. Mr.R.Kannan President 2. Rev.Fr.Britto Vice President 3. Mr.Madhu Ramnath Vice President 4. Mrs.Girija Viraraghavan Secretary 5. Mrs.Pippa Mukherjee Joint Secretary 6. Mr.N.Natarajan Treasurer 7. M.S.Viraraghavan EC Member 8. Mr.Rajagopal Durai Raja EC Member 9. Mr. David Thomas EC Member 10. Mr.Ramachandran EC Member 11. Mrs.Rebecca Chackko EC Member 12. Mr.Vijay Kumar Johnson EC Member The membership stands as follows: 1.Life members 181 2.Annual members 22 3.Institutional members 4 A. Upper Hill Field Activities Eco Restoration of Kodaikanal Lake Lake Periphery Activities Removal of Water Hyacinth and Dung Mounds at Keezhbhoomi- There was a small heap of Water Hyacinth growing by the marsh at the settlement of Keezhbhoomi which was identified and all the plants removed and destroyed by our staff. Some of the households at the settlement have horses and the dung is heaped close to marsh and now these are included in the process of collection by the full time person employed for removing the accumulated material that was leaching in to the lake. Planting Acorus calamus Sweet flag in selected silt traps The streams that drain in to the silt traps are loaded with nutrients, and three of the silt traps are near to public toilets, The growing of Sweet Flag is an efficient remover of Phosphates, and all the three sites have now one year old sweet flag that is growing under partially submerged conditions. Removal of horse dung at the park At the park and the TN Tourism Department Operated boar house there are now more than 50 ponies every day waiting for the joy riders. All the dung from these are now collected on a regular basis with two new carts being given for the workers to do the job with less manual handling. The demand for the manure is high and the activity will sustain itself in the future through sale of the manure to nursery men as well as farmers. The quantity of dung removed through the year amounts to six truck loads each weighing about 3 tons. Priority issue to be tackled: Animal urine washing in to lake waters. There is some misguided apprehension among horse owners about the use of a urine collecting bag, so they refuse to help in collection of the urine. As most of the nutrients from the animal urine still escapes the silt traps and washes in to the lake, it is a priority for installing suitable filters for removal of the nutrients that may be used beneficially for growing crops elsewhere. Construction of shops on permanent basis around the lake The KKL town ship have now constructed 60 permanent shops with metal box enclosures with rolling shutters. These are rented to the previous shop owners who are occupying the same. The amount of garbage generated is small but is cleared on a regular basis by placing collection bins through, the project as well as private initiatives. It is yet too early to assess the amount of liquids that flow in to the lake as waste, but there are no toilets in the vicinity of the shops. Fortunately the shop keepers are aware of the issues facing the lake and were keen cooperate in cleaning the drainage canal in front with some three silt traps in the periphery. Stake Holder initiative The men numbering 50 came on a voluntary basis and from the project PHCC arranged for refreshments and transport for the removed silt to be carried outside the lake periphery. This cleaning of the front at park has come to be seen as an annual activity to be carried out by stakeholders. Algae Control 1. Rearing and releasing Koi Carp Our attempts to rear Koi carp at Pallangi have not been successful with only some 50 numbers reaching the desired size of 10 cm in length. However these were released in to the lake and we now are rearing Koi Carp at the Fr.Matthew Environment Centre where they have reached more than 15 cm in size at the same time interval. In future there will be periodic release of the fishes for algae control in to the lake. 2. Using paddy/wheat straw floating in sacks Control of algae in polluted water bodies has been effectively done through use of letting Barley or wheat straw ret in the waters, as the chemicals formed through natural degradation are algistatic in nature. Two attempts were made to float 50 kg of paddy straw at the lake near most polluted water strectches. The first was a failure as the floats were stolen and the straw sunk in the waters. Now we have some 200 kg of straw slowly degrading in the water close to our office for the past six months. We are monitoring any changes in the turbidity of the waters around the floating gunny bags. 3. Removal of water lilly The Nymphae nouchali removed last year from the wind close to our office has not proliferated again. But a few clusters from other wings have enlarged in size, notably the wing close to the Head Marsh, on whose top a resort is situated, has now almost covered the area of that wing and is spreading further. As the unprecedented rains of March 08 kept the lake waters almost to the brim we could not clean that area of the lake. We propose to remove all the weeds and floating vegetation from that area during the summer of 2009. 4. Water Quality Monitoring The water at six sites of the lake is monitored each month and the data recorded for reference. Due to good rains during March 2008 the water level has been high and the pollution factors are within limits. Thus the Dissolved Oxygen level has been averaging 5.8 to 6,8 mg per litre. The removal of water lilly as well as other measures like horse dung removal have had their impacts, or so it seems !! the visibility at the lake water has improved from 78cm to nearly 120 cms. The depth has not shown any increase as there has been no silt removal from the bottom sediments. The average depth at center points is 6.10 meters. The other parameters like Nitrate nitrogen; Ammonia; Coiliform bacteria and phosphates are within permissible limits. 2. Upper Hills tree nurseries and apiary works The nursery at Kodaikanal has been instrumental in producing 3800 shola plants and distributing them for growing in residential compounds and bungalows in the lake watershed. The nursery has also catered to the needs of the forest department from time to time. The current stock at the nursery is 10 000 plants that are made up off 20 species of shola seedlings. The nursery has suffered repeatedly from grazing at night by wild bison that are now regular visitors to our garden. Pallanagi nursery: The nursery situated beyond Pallangi at Vazhalkattu odai has supplied 8800 plants for nearby farmers and to Households at Kodaikanal during the year. The present stock is 6000. Pallangi Kombai nursery: The nursery located in a farmers field has been the site for demonstrating the possibility to grow good timber as shade for coffee in the area. The trees, through few in number planted in the 1990's like Pterocarpus marsupium and Cedrella toona have now grown impressively at the farm. Though we stocked about 4000 plants during the year, farmers lifted only 1400 plants from the nursery for growing during the season. The current stock is 2500 seedlings. Poondi Nursery: The nursery that maintained 4000 shola plants has been closed down as of now, with all the plants sold to forest department who have used the shola seedlings in their restoration of shola programs. With food prices in the rise farmes at the Poondi area have shown little interest in growing long term crops and are more keen on short term vegetable growing. Melpallam Nursery: The nursery grows coffee; orange and pepper seedlings only for supply to coffee farmers in the area. Last year there was also good demand for avocado seedlings. The nursery distributed 2500 seedlings to farmers in the area. The current stock is 3500 seedlings. B.Middle palnis nurseries and apiaries 1. SVK Kombai the centre has served as education point for two batches of school students to stay and learn about the Grizzled Giant Squirel. A total of 40 students have visited the enclave and used the facility at the centre. The nursery grows root or parent stock for medicinal plants available in the area. The plantlets are then transferred to other nurseries for growings in polybags for sale to farmers and growers. At present it grows Centella asiatica; Polygala species and Ocimum varieties. The local school run by government has one teacher who rarely comes, so we have employed a lady who can teach till the teacher arrives to the tribal children who attend the school there. There are three water wells that were dug as part of the program in 1998 and serving the drinking water needs of some 40 families. The wells are cleaned on a regular basis by project personnel. The centre serves as seed collection area for many tropical dry evergreen forest species like Strychnos nuxvomica; Mimusops elengi; Diospyros ebenum and Strebulus asper plus Mitragyna parviflora. The centre maintains 10 colonies of Dammer bee, Trigona irridipennis in clay pot hives. 2. Periyur nursery and apiary The nursery at Periyur has grown and distributed 3700 seedlings of coffee and shade trees for growers in surrounding estates. The current stock is 3000 seedlings with coffee forming bulk of the stock. The farmers in the area have now shown much interest in growing Avocado trees and the nursery will produce these for the coming season. The nursery has also stock of Non timber forest produce seedlings like Canarium strictum which are getting over exploited. These will be planted out in suitable forest areas in the coming season. The apiary has 20 colonies of Apis cerana two in different types of hives. It also fabricated 20 Mulderry hives with bamboo that maintain bees for colony multiplication through queen rearing. But due to un seasonal rains in March 08 the flowering of coffee as well as forest species was very scant, leading to poor colony strength that prevented colony multiplication. 3. Semamdioothu nursery The village has a part time beekeeper and had a nursery of 1500 plants. All the plants were distributed to coffee growers in the area during April 2008 and the nursery closed due to poor off take by farmers. The tribal person collects forest tree seeds for the other nuseries and maintains onlu 5 colonies of Apis cerana indica. Many colonies were lost due to Thai Sec Brood Virus. C. Beekeeping projects at Middle altitudes 1. Palkadai: The village has 12 colonies of Apis cerana indica maintained by a part time beekeepers. The land use has changed from Sechium edule to lab Lab beans that is not good for the foraging of bees. As the lab lab bean is grown using large quantities of pesticides that harm bee colonies. Many colonies absconded due to pesticide poisoning. Survey for GGS habitat improvement A joint survery has been undertaken with WWF Pollachi office for conservation of the habitat for the GGS. After two field visits and sighting squirrels the WWF have accepted a concept paper for restoration of the habitat for the GGS as well as starting a food web species nursery at the site. A request has been made to the forest department for growing trees in degraded patches where invasive weeds like lantana and eupatorium are proliferating. As part of the proposed project, there is a beekeeping component for training village youth in to maintaining colonies of Apis cerana indica as well as Trigona irridipennis 3. Oothu and Patlankadu Apiaries There are 12 colonies of honey bee at Oothu and due to un seasonal rains and consequent poor nectar flow we have lost 10 colonies. We propose to start the training program for tribal persons here with trainees recruited by forest department. The Newton as well as Top Bar hives at the apiary are more than 6 years old and will be replaced soon with new wooden top bars Newton hives. Patlankadu The training centre was closed after the Danish beekeepers project ended and the colonies were handed over to trainees. The trainers have been retrenched as well but maintain about 25 colonies in hives given to them as part of the project/With escalating manual labour costs in the coffee growing areas the trainers with beekeeping skills are taking up manual labor works and neglecting bee keeping. 4. Panrimalai Apiary This apiary situated on the Eastern Slopes of Middle Palni hills on the approach road from Dharumathupatti employs a part time beekeeper, who maintains 15 colonies of Apis cerana in Mulderry and Newton hives. This is the only apiary that managed to produce hive honey in the Middle Hills during the past year. We are now making progress with more hives at this site to improve the honey production in future. D. Amaravathi Tree Growers Assocaition Project The project at udumalpet is now independent of the PHCC activities with only technical co-operation in the fields of nursery and tree growing works. The Executive Committee of the ATA overseas the operations and day to day activities, with guidance from Danish Forestry Extension. All the assets of the project, with permission from the Ministry of Home Affairs have been transferred to the ATA. The funds for the ATA are now routed through the PHCC for ultimate bank transfer to the bank account of ATA at Udumalpet. The ATA have applied to the DANIDA for a III rd Phase and have expressed willingness to cooperte with PHCC during the same, if the proposal is sanctioned. A survey was undertaken with a student of Forestry from South Africa participating with ATA staff for studying the Carbon Fixing Potential for trees at various farmers field, which have standing tree crop of differing age category. At one farmers field 15 year old stands of native trees measured some 500 tons of carbon sequestered in the form of wood stock. The proposal covers the tree growing centres of the council for support in extension work for the next three years starting from 2010 if the project is approved by DANIDA. E. Fr.Matthew Environment Centre The centre has managed to produce and sell 30 500 seedlings only during the past year. The dry lands surrounding the centre with approach road to the Ghats have all be purchased by realtors from cities through middlemen from the village of Amsapuram itself. Thus there is less land available for free distribution of seedlings to farmers in the immediate surrounding. Though the rainfall has been satisfactory this season at 700mm, the increase in food prices has contributed to the farmers growing more dryland food crops like Pulses and millets that in a short while fetch good returns. The current nursery stock is 45 000 seedlings of over 60 varieties. The adjoining forest area has been depleted of many valuable Tropical Dry Evergreen species and in future it will be possible to work on a plan for restoration of habitat for the forests as well due to the strategic location of the Centre. The Dr.Reuben Arboretum: This area of five acres has now dense tree cover of over 50 species that are good specimens for visitors to study and learn about native trees. The work of laying pavement blocks for footpath through the area will be put in to place soon so as to facilitate easy walk through for any one interested in trees. Butterfly garden One the Western portion a small plot has been planted with shrubs like Aristolochia indica; Capparis divaricata; Vitex negundo and Atlantia missionis for attracting forest dwelling butterflies to the area for laying eggs as these serve as food plants for many Swallow tail butterflies. There are also native species of shrubs that serve as food plants for the larvae of many beautiful butterflies. A shade net covered pond can easily make for a good butterfly garden in the coming year. Condensed Environment Education Course A total of 130 students from four schools participated in the environment education course organized by the centre. The two schools from Madurai are Sundar Agnu Matricualtion school and TVS Lakshmi Higher Secondary School which took part in the program for two days each from August 26th to 28th and again from September 1st to 3rd 2007. The Genguvarpatti Government High School participated in the training program for two days and also sent 10 students to stay one week at the centre for learning forestry; Bird diversity; Apiculture as well as water pollution. The final year students of B.Sc horticulture students from Tamil Nadu Agricultral University Periyakulam, spent two weeks at the environment centre learning forestry; apiculture and water quality monitoring techniques. Workshop for nursery training: A workshop for six NGO's from the East Asia Pacific Network Parners was organized for two days from October 19 to 20th at the Environment Centre. A nursery manual describing tecniques for establishing a tree nusery, growing primarily indigenous trees, yielding timber and non timber forest produce was released for distribution among forestry workers. The manual was jointly prepared by Keystone Foundation, Kothgiri and PHCC and the publishing was through the NTFP- Network, South Asia Program. F. Community Lead Environment Action Project The program for the year focused on raising awareness with selected members of the public in two communities at Palani about role of medicinal plants in home remedies and proper management of solid wastes in their immediate local area. The project has also enlisted 6 schools to become part of the Community Led Environment Action Network. These are located at Kodaikanal; Palani and Udumalpet towns. Each school sends 40 Students to participate in four different programs 1) Water quality monitoring 2) Bird Watching 3) Tree Planting and 4)Trekking Program Solid Waste Management by communities The communities were able to market the earth worm compost to interested farmers A training program similar to last year, was organized and visit to a an organic farmers who rears and sells earth worms. The households at the Palni Municipality ward of Madanapuram were given training in nursery rearing for selected tree species as well as medicinal plants with a view to use them for household remedies for common ailments. The earth worm compost made by them using the household wastes were used for bag filling material thus making the activity self sustaining. Roof Rain Water Harvesting At the settlement of periyappa Nagar the project had assembled a unit for collecting rain water from the roof of 12 houses using High Density poluethylene tanks for storing the collected water. The slow Sand Filter requires replacement as the polycarbonate material tends to wear out fast on the outer surface giving a Dull appearance where one can not distinguish the scratched plastic from clean water. Tree Growing at Schools The participating schools have been given tree seedlings and have planted 450 seedlings at the plains schools in Palani. The tree seedlings given during the past years to two schools at Palni are now growning well and the students take care in maintaining the same. G. Kudhirayar Tree Nursery and Apiary The centre has received good rain during the year and the trees planted as part of the dry lands restoration has shown good results. The centre has managed to distribute only 6500 seedlings to farmers during the year. The centre maintained 16 colonies of Apis cerana and have provided colonies to farmers numbering 10. The tribal beekeepers there have also managed to hive 35 colonies of Trigona irridipennis in clay pots. Some 20 colonies of the Damamr bee were supplied to farmers for pollination purpose. The centre hosted all the environment awareness programs of the CLEAN India program for the two schools at Palani. Apart from these there have been two colleges from Coimbatore who visited the centre for one day programs on environment education. The adjoining forest area serves as important seed collection area for many useful species such as Strebulus asper; Vitex altissima and Phyllanthus embelica H. Athoor and Kannivadi tree nurseries The centre has received 7500 mm of rainfall which is average for the area. The nurseries at both the centre have managed to supply farmers with 29 550 seedlings that includes about 3500 Amla grafts. There is no project support for the two nurseries and the expenses are met through sale and funds from Council. The total sales is 32 670 seedlings for the past year. The current stock is 62 000 seedlings and the centre has good stocks of Gooseberry stock for which there is reasonable demand, due to good yields after three years of grafted seedlings supplied to one of the nearby farms, which serves as model farm. I. Oddukkam tree nursery and Tree Seed Centre After 20 year of service to forestry the nursery has moved to a farmers field abandoning the site provided by the local body due to water shortage. The nursery now functions from the rented premises at Reddiyappati from July 2008 onwards. The nursery still managed to sell 94500 seedlings to all concerned with tree growing. It has a stock of 90 000 seedlings wiht a record numbers of 100 species. The tree seeds centre has to find a new place as there is no infrastructure for processing and storing seeds at the nursery. The seed centre last year collected and sold seeds amounting to 1250 kilos. The number of species is about 41. The seed stock is now 350 kg and comprising 23 species. J. Viruveedu tree growing centre The centre has received 650 mm of rainfall which is normal for the area. The nursery has supplied to farmers in the area is 29 000 seedlings and the free distribution to schools is about 500 numbers. Thus a total of 29 500 seedlings were produced for the tree growing effort. The nursery has a stock of 35 000 seedlings. The centre has procured; Processed and sold 600 kg of honey form Honey Hunters. A total of 1200 kg of honey was procured and about 80 kg of beeswax has been sold. The centre has only 10 colonies of Apis cerana indica at the farms neighboring garden lands adjoining the Vaigai river. The decline in bee colonies is due to sudden land use change at the area, where once some 1000 acres were under Dryland farming of Drumstick, due to pest and wind reducing yields and damaging the crop repeatedly the farmers have removed almost 90% of the trees and now cultivate Lab Lab bean instead. This entails use of heavy pesticides and consequently bee colonies abscond to safer sites. We are now looking for alternative area for developing the bee project from this centre, which still has two part time beekeepers working to maintain colonies and fabricate bamboo hives. K. Coastal Resource Conservation Project 1. Capacity Building for women nursery workers The nursery at Kattuchery near Tanquebar has trained 15 women from two villages in growing seedlings of some 40 species. Out of these 15 species belong to mangroves and mangrove associates. This capacity building makes it possible to introduce bio diversity in the coastal plains farmlands in otherwise delta that is poor in diversity of trees. The growing of mangroves in bags and beds with supply of salt and fresh water is a new technique adopted to condition the mangroves prior to setting out in the inter tidal environment. The nursery has a stock of 18000 seedlings (mangroves & timber trees belonging to 30 different species. These will be planted during the North East Monsoon season of 2008. About 2000 seedlings have been distributed free of cost to schools and avenue planting. Among the rate secondary littoral species 2000 seedlings each of the fresh Water Mangrove Barringtonia acutangula and the Screw Pine Pandanus Odoratissimus were produced through seeds. 2. Apiary and beekeeping training The project maintains 15 Colonies of Apis cerana in farmers fields and 10 farmers have been trained in Minimum Management Techniques for keeping colonies for honey and bees wax production, which is a new development at the delta plains. Queen rearing was done successfully to produce two new colonies. 3. Environment Awareness Programs A program for creating awareness regarding environmental issues at the coast has been designed and about 10 teachers and 150 students have been exposed to the course during the last academic year. The subjects covered include mangrove conservation, disaster risk mitigation, water quality monitoring, marine biodiversity conservation, Solid waste management and tree growing. 4. Marine Biodiversity Documentation A database has been developed for commercially important fishes at Tharangambadi block in Nagapattinam district. After studying fishlanding at 6 fishermen villages selected for study; namely Chinnagudi, Thalapettai, Pudupettai, Tharangambadi, Chandrapadi & Kodiyakarai (Pointcalimere). About 126 specie of fish identified and documented belonging to 39 family. iv)A poster containing species of rays in Bay of Bengal has been published. The team of researchers were also involved in Water bird census at Pointcalimere with Bombay Natural History Society & State Forest Department. Conditions and threats for the habitat of Olive-Ridley turtles at Nagapattinam district has been done after the monsoon season. L. Field Biology Studies Two students from St.Olaf College visited Kodaikanal for four weeks and carried out their field biology assignment with the PHCC activities. There were also two students from Mother Theresa University who did their field study on use of plants for home remedies by tribal persons in three villages. Conclusion: The year has seen many changes in the personnel running various projects. We are in the process of replacing aging field work force with fresh graduate, who have taken up the work of introducing trees in farmers fields. The changing scenario at the farm sector with cereal crops fetching good prices has led to more farmers opting for short term crops instead of tree cropping with long gestation period. But the results from our work in the field over the past 20 years has shown that ultimately a balance between trees and food crops is possible. Further some of the hardwood timbers that were known for slow growth have shown exceptional performance in farm conditions. Thus proving that, it is possible that high value timber can be grown at farmland. Using these results we plan to introduce more trees in all the three districts we work as well as the coastal areas in farm; public and institutional lands. The project implementation has been possible with sincere and hard work of our staff, whose commitment to saving the environment plays an important role in achieving targets. The various project works have been supported by our donors without whose help we could not have accomplished the results in different parts of Tamil Nadu including the coast. Our sincere thanks to the following donors. 1. Both Ends, Netherlands 2. Danish Forestry Extension, Denmark 3. Denmark Beekeepers Federation, Denmark 4. IUCN, Netherlands 5. Wetlands International, New Delhi 6. St.Olaf College, USA 7. Forgotten Children, USA 8. NTFP Network 9. PCED, New Delhi 10. Development Alternatives, New Delhi Individual donors 1. Mr.Joachim 2. Mr.Jan Stevens Kodaikanal R.Kannan Novermber 2008 President