{"id":56257,"date":"2020-02-29T17:03:38","date_gmt":"2020-02-29T11:33:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogadmin.forumias.com\/?page_id=56257"},"modified":"2020-02-29T17:03:38","modified_gmt":"2020-02-29T11:33:38","slug":"answered-discuss-the-importance-of-eastern-ghats-for-indian-biodiversity-suggest-some-measures-to-protect-it","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/answered-discuss-the-importance-of-eastern-ghats-for-indian-biodiversity-suggest-some-measures-to-protect-it\/","title":{"rendered":"[Answered] Discuss the importance of Eastern Ghats for Indian biodiversity. Suggest some measures to protect it."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n Demand of the question<\/strong>\n Introduction.\n <\/strong>Contextual introduction.\n Body.\n <\/strong>Discuss the importance of Eastern Ghats for\n Indian biodiversity. Mention various threats to Eastern Ghats and suggest\n some measures to protect it.\n Conclusion.\n <\/strong>Way forward.\n <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Eastern Ghats are a discontinuous range\nof mountains along India’s eastern coast. Stretching about 1,750 km north to\nsouth, it runs from the northern Odisha through Andhra Pradesh to Tamil Nadu in\nthe south. They are eroded and cut through by four major rivers of peninsular\nIndia viz. Godavari, Mahanadi, Krishna, and Cauvery. It has great importance\nfor Indian biodiversity, as a habitat to many endangered flora and fauna.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Importance\nof Eastern Ghats for Indian biodiversity:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Forests: <\/strong>Eastern Ghats biospheres are rich forests with perennial\nand semi-perennial streams and other natural resources. The forests include dry\nevergreen, semi-evergreen forests, tropical dry deciduous forests, dry savannah\nforests, tropical dry scrub forests, southern tropical thorn forests and subtropical hill forests.<\/li>
  2. Flora: <\/strong>The Eastern Ghats ranges are home to 13% of India\u2019s\nflowering plants. In these mountains exist a reservoir of about 3,000 flowering\nplant species, nearly 100 of them endemic.<\/li>
  3. Fauna: <\/strong>They are also the habitats for wild animals such as\nelephants, panthers, the Indian bison, bears, deer, wild boar, mongoose, jungle\ncat and reptiles such as python, monitor lizard, etc. About 290 bird species\nand nearly 4,000 insects are also found.<\/li>
  4. Irrigation: <\/strong>These hills get an average 1,000 millimetres of rainfall,\nmostly from the north-east monsoon. Rivers like Cheiyaru, Amirthiyaru,\nMriganda, Pennaiyaaru, Cauvery etc. originate from the hills of the Eastern\nGhats. Their water irrigates\nthe foot hills and nearby plains.<\/li>
  5. Tourism: <\/strong>Waterfalls such as the Periyar Falls, Megam Falls, Beeman\nFalls etc. also make the land fertile apart from drawing tourists.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Threat\nto Eastern Ghats:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    1. Deforestation: <\/strong>By making use of the loopholes in the laws and other\ngovernment rules, trees are removed clandestinely. The aromatic and valuable\nsandal trees, once growing abundantly in the hills have been indiscriminately\nfelled and illegally removed. These activities have made the hills of Eastern\nGhats barren, its streams have run dry and the biodiversity is disappearing\ngradually.<\/li>
    2. Mono-cropping: <\/strong>The tribals living in the hills have not received proper\nprice for the food grain they cultivate. They have thus switched over to mono\ncropping tapioca, leading to deterioration of land. Mono-cropping in Kolli\nHills and Pachamalai has devastated entire hills.<\/li>
    3. Plantation: <\/strong>Large-scale plantations of coffee, tea and orchards have\nbeen raised in these hills. Silver oak trees grown in these plantations as\nshade trees are also removed gradually, weakening the fragile ecosystem. Such\nplantations are considered to be the cause for degradation in places like\nYercaud hills, depleting native vegetation.<\/li>
    4. Invasion: <\/strong>Non-native species such as poochedi, vengaya thamarai and\nveli karuvai have become invasive, destroying native species and leading to\necological imbalance.<\/li>
    5. Illegal mining: <\/strong>The removal of enormous quantities of bauxite and magnesite\nore from Kolli Hills and Servarayan Hills, respectively, led to indiscriminate\ndestruction of forests. Consequently, water resources in these regions have\ndried up.<\/li>
    6. Forest fires: <\/strong>The annual forest fires have become a serious cause for the\nloss of biodiversity. The pollution caused by the industries established near\nforest areas also poses a serious threat.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      Measures\nto conserve Eastern Ghats:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      1. Ecotourism: <\/strong>The concept of ecotourism involving local forest stake-holders may be a boon to not\nonly residents but also the biota of the entire region. While the\necotourism programme takes care of the livelihood of\nlocals by making them stake-holders, the forest and its biodiversity are guarded\nby eco-tourism management. <\/li>
      2. Eco-development:<\/strong> Only if an effective strategy for the eco-development of\nthese regions is developed by involving the local people, the flora, fauna and\nother natural resources of Eastern Ghats can be protected. Otherwise the future\nof the Eastern Ghats and its precious biodiversity will be only an illusion.<\/li>
      3. Afforestation: <\/strong>Improving tree cover nationally is important and will\nconfer multiple benefits, including modulation of the monsoon, improved air\nquality and wider spaces for biodiversity to persist.<\/li>
      4. Effective law implementation: <\/strong>Law should be implemented properly in letter and\nspirit. Government must increase the number of forest officials to actively monitor and prevent\nillegal activities in forests.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

        The role of the northern Eastern Ghats in\nharbouring and protecting biodiversity is also being widely recognized in\nrecent years. Several new species discovered in the landscape recently and\nrecords of the presence of a tiger population point to the rich biodiversity\nthriving in these forests. Efforts must be made to restore the forests and\npromote eco-development.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        Demand of the question Introduction. Contextual introduction. Body. Discuss the importance of Eastern Ghats for Indian biodiversity. Mention various threats to Eastern Ghats and suggest some measures to protect it. Conclusion. Way forward. The Eastern Ghats are a discontinuous range of mountains along India’s eastern coast. Stretching about 1,750 km north to south, it runs… Continue reading [Answered] Discuss the importance of Eastern Ghats for Indian biodiversity. Suggest some measures to protect it.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-56257","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/56257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/56257\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}