Students given training to identify invasive species

Students of the Government Arts College here were given training as part of a citizen-science initiative initiated by the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment (ATREE) and the Keystone

Students of the Government Arts College here were given training as part of a citizen-science initiative initiated by the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment (ATREE) and the Keystone Foundation in Kotagiri to map invasive species in the Nilgiris.

Speaking at the event, Milind Bunyan, Project Co-ordinator and academy coordinator, ATREE, who spoke to students via video link, said that early detection and identifying priority species and habitats could help in the long-term preservation and restoration of threatened native ecosystems. As a first step, the project envisages mapping invasive species in the Moyar-Bhavani landscape in the Nilgiris, with plans to scale up the project based on the success of the initiative.

Students were given a crash course in identifying 27 different species of invasive plants, trees, shrubs, herbs and grasses prevalent in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve. Mr. Bunyan charted the spread of different species of invasive flora in the landscape, including Lantana camara and wattle trees in the Western Ghats. “As mapping so far has depended on the Forest Department’s data so far, it is very difficult to chart the spread of invasive species in habitats outside the control of the Forest Department, which makes citizen-science extremely important,” he said.