Mukurthi National Park

News:Tamil Nadu government are constructing fire lines’ or ‘fire breaks’, in the Mukurthi National Park(MNP) ahead of summer and peak fire season.

Facts:

About Mukurthi National Park:

• Location: It is located in the northwest corner of Tamil Nadu in the Western Ghats mountain range.It is also a part of Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve.
• Type:It is characterised by montane grasslands and shrublands interspersed with sholas in a high altitude area of high rainfall, near-freezing temperatures and high winds.
• Keystone Species:The main reason behind establishing a national park in the place was to protect the Nilgiri Tahr which is a Keystone species.
• The park also has the distinction of being a UNESCO World Heritage Site because it is part of the Western Ghats. 

Additional information:

About Fire Line:

• It is an artificially formed break in foliage or forest cover to control the spread of wildfires by limiting the amount of combustible vegetation available.

About Keystone Species:

• keystone species is a species that plays an essential role in the structure, functioning or productivity of a habitat or ecosystem at a defined level (habitat, soil, seed dispersal, etc).
• Disappearance of such species may lead to significant ecosystem change or dysfunction which may have knock on effects on a broader scale.