Documentation done for biodiversity heritage spot

While a debate is on over the issue of granting world heritage tag to the Western Ghats, biodiversity experts have chosen and documented the state’s first biodiversity heritage spot. It is a tamarind grove, with over 300 trees, at Nallur near Devanahalli in Bangalore.

According to experts in the biodiversity and environment department of the state government, though the tag was given in 2007 they now have documents to prove that the grove is eligible to be a biodiversity heritage hotspot. Hence, now they will make efforts to protect and propagate it further.

The grove was first found 400 years ago during the reign of Cholas. Out of over 300 ancient trees, some still bear fruits. One of the trees was struck by a lightning in 1956 and laterally torn into half. However, even today both the halves produce fresh leaves and branches, said an elder from Nallur village.

According to the experts’ document, available with DNA, the heritage grove is spread over 53 acres. These trees are nearly as old as the site itself and have developed irregular and crooked branched crowns.

“Their trunks are very big and remain more or less intact at most places of the hollowed trunk, except at the mouth,” Dr R Nandini, principal investigator and assistant professor (genetics and plant breeding) of the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore, said in the report.

The trees provide a wondrous sight, with the bulk of them comprising middle and young aged trees along with clones (proxy mother trees), which have over the years accumulated a sizeable intra-population variation of scientific and commercial significance. These unusual combination (geriatricity and heterogeneity of tamarind population) were a unique feature of biodiversity heritage, the report said.

The biodiversity board experts have added that several trees on the site have shown characteristics of considerable variation. At least 10 have showed characteristics specific to central Africa.
The experts have enumerated and labelled 295 plants. One individual tree (No 37) got uprooted some years back, but later sprung back to life and is survived by a clone. Another tree (No 118) was cut at the ground level, but it is now survived by seven clones.