Dubbed as Maharashtra's Valley of Flowers, it's changing with each passing year, but for the worse, says researcher Prerna Agarwal
What looks picture perfect and sits pretty on your desktop as wallpaper is actually nature’s wonder. However, there’s more to Kaas plateau than just beauty. Case in point, fragility and vulnerability to tourism. When dna visited the plateau this year, there was a visible decline in the number and volume of flowers.
When we delved deeper, we found that it is not the climate change, but human interference that is to be blamed. We spoke to Rufford Grant researcher, Prerna Agarwal, who is studying the plateau and its biodiversity as part of her research.
Footfall equals downfall
Thanks to the word of mouth and facebook publicity of the plateau, it has now become a picnic hotspot. Which might not mean people spreading sheets and eating parathas or sandwiches on the flowerbeds, but it does translate to them trampling over the flowers, or imagining themselves to be Raj/Simran straight from the DDLJ sarson-ka-khet setting, running about in the fields.
Agarwal fears that tourism, especially the present kind, could badly affect the habitat of the place. Drawing parallels with the present condition of Panchgani table land, which has lost all its beauty because of tourism, Agarwal stated that if this was to continue, it wouldn’t be long before Kaas Pathar turns into another Panchgani.
“Tourism on Kaas is mainly due to its aesthetic beauty, but the present kind of tourism is not permissible. Tourists come, trample the flora, pluck flowers, litter the areas and not once think about the repercussions it could have on the ecosystem of the place. There are so many endangered species in the region, but if they get destroyed, where will we find them?,” asks Agarwal, adding that every tourist must be sensitised before they visit the plateau.
Kaas then and now
When she first visited the Kaas plateau in 2005, Agarwal was taken aback with the pristine beauty of the place that was filled with beautiful endangered flora and devoid of any pollution or crowd.
“Back then I was too young to really understand the concept of endangered species, but I remember returning home with a strong protective feeling for the place. I did not want anything to happen to it. But before I could complete the thought in my mind, my father told me that there was a proposal to make it into a mini-Mahabaleshwar, which turned all my fears into reality,” says Agarwal.
She revisited the plateau in 2008 as a Post Graduate student of Biodiversity, only to find that there were invasive species. This is not originally found in a given habitat, but is introduced to it by various means – either by tyres of the tourist vehicles, shoes, or by throwing food and other wastes.
“The problem with invasive species is that from the moment it comes to a habitat it starts interfering with the indigenous environment of the ecosystem. So there is a looming fear that the diversity that we find now can gradually reduce because this (invasive) species will eventually take over the habitat,” says Agarwal, who is currently pursuing her research on the topic of Assessing the Ecological Impact of Tourism and Developing Ecotourism through Stakeholder Participation for Conservation of Kaas Plateau.
Taking Ownership and protecting the plateau
Apart from sensitising the tourists, what Agarwal is pinning her hopes on to protect the plateau, are the locals. In an effort to manage the plateau jointly, the forest department has formed a Joint Forest Management Committee, with all four villages in and around the plateau – Kaas village, Kaasani, Ekiv, and Atali.
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