The biodiversity pools of rocky outcrops are globally threatened, and more so in India. The lack of data on their biota coupled with near absence of public awareness makes these habitats truly ‘invisible’ to conservation agencies.”
Context
The biodiversity pools of rocky outcrops are globally threatened, and more so in India. The lack of data on their biota coupled with near absence of public awareness makes these habitats truly ‘invisible’ to conservation agencies.”
About Rocky Outcrops
- Geological: Rocky outcrops are geological featuresthat encompass a wide variety of physical environments, including escarpments, overhangs, cliffs, tors, boulder-heaps and insular domes (inselbergs).
- Examples: Other examples of such features include the desert springs, bat caves, vegetation bordering agricultural fields and the large old trees.
- High Diversity: They support high levels of species diversity and endemism, and provide stable micro-climatesfor thousands of years.
- Rocky outcrops are examples of Small Natural Features with an ecological role extending beyond their area.
- Rocky outcrops are having highly variable environmental conditions, which often harbour a unique assemblage of organisms.
- Stable: As they are hard and inorganic, steep and inaccessible, they provide the long-lasting landscape features with stable micro-climates and ecological refuges.
- Rocky outcrops are born due to time and erosion.
- Foundation: They are formed due to the erosion of softer parts of the landscape over millions of years.
- This leaves behind a hard core of parent rock which often protrudes above the surface of the surrounding land.
- While the conventional term uses the word ‘rocky’, but outcrops can be soil-covered plateaus as well.
- It is found on all continents, in most climate zones and vegetation types.
- They act as an archive for an ecosystem’s denizens which store the history of a particular landscape.
- Key stone: Scientists often compare them to keystone species, as they have a larger impact on ecosystems than their size or abundance would suggest.
- Different climate: Rocky outcrops have a different microclimate from the surrounding regions and it is highly dynamic.
- The microenvironment of the rocky plateaus ranges from the extremes, from xeric, or water-deprived, to water-logged.
Outcrops in India
- There is no data available on the total area of the rocky outcrops cover in India.
- Location: The lateritic plateau of Kas, a UNESCO World Heritage site, in the northern Western Ghats is considered as one of the best-known rocky outcrops in the country.
- These habitats in India are significantly different from rock pools that is occurred elsewhere in the world because of their large size and hydroperiod (the amount of time water persists in a pool).
- The clearly marked wet season because of the Indian monsoon contributes to the stability of these habitats in India.
- Despite harbouring high biodiversity, such temporary pools are globally threatened, and more so in India.
- Classified as wastelands: The 2010 Wastelands Atlas of India by the National Remote Sensing Centre and Ministry of Rural Development showed extensive ‘barren rocky/stony waste areas’ in Kolhapur, Pune, Satara, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts, which in reality are rocky plateaus with high biodiversity value.
- Global Protection: Similar temporary habitats in European regions have received legislative protection, including through the Mediterranean Habitats Directive and the European Pond Conservation Network.
- Habitats and species, such as vernal pools and fairy shrimp, in the US are federally protected.
- But lack of comprehensive data on biota of Indian pools makes any such conservation action difficult in the subcontinent.
Kas Plateau Reserved Forest
- The Kas Plateau Reserved Forest, also known as the Kaas Pathar.
- It is a plateau situated 25 kilometres west from Satara city in Maharashtra, India.
- It falls under the Sahyadri Sub Cluster of the Western Ghats.
- Kaas Pathar is a plateau made from volcanic rocks in the Satara district of Maharashtra.
- It became a part of a UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site in 2012.
- Biodiversity: It is a biodiversity hotspot known for various types of seasonal wild flowers bloom and numerous species of endemic butterflies annually in the months of August and September.
- These include orchids, shrubs such as the Karvy, and carnivorous plants such as Drosera Indica.
- The flora of kaas i.e. the entire flowering plants and their related plants are typically restricted to that particular locality only.
- This is because the plateau is largely formed of basalt which is directly exposed to atmosphere. The basalt is almost covered entirely by a thin cover of soil formed due to erosion and has accumulated a layer of not more than an inch or so.
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