Distribution pattern, ecology and cytology of a globally threatened South indian endemic fern Elaphoglossum nilgiricum Krajina ex Sledge (Lomariopsidaceae: Pteridophyta)

This article makes an attempt to elucidate the marketing practices of cardamom growers in the Western Ghats of south India. The article is based on a sample study conducted among 300 cardamom planters in three states, namely, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka. The study was conducted so as to understand the marketing practices of cardamom growers in the study area. As such the study has revealed the practices in cardamom marketing such as sales and pricing of small cardamom in Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, under a comparative framework. The article, based on the findings of the study, offers suggestions which have policy implications. The study suggests a strong role of government with regard to regulations of marketing of small cardamom in India.

The variability of soil qualities across the coffee‐growing areas and consequences of conversion of forest to coffee plantations on soil qualities and sustainability in the Western Ghats of South India are evaluated in this study by assessing and studying the six representative pedons selected from Chikmagalur district in Karnataka and Wayanad and Idukki districts of Kerala taking into consideration of the agro‐ecological zones, they belong. Sixty sites were located for monitoring soil quality, of which 46 sites were located in coffee plantations of all agro‐climates and 14 in forests adjacent to coffee plantations in similar setting. Soil quality indicators were selected by carrying out principal component analysis (PCA) on measured soil attributes, which provided 4 PCs in both land uses with eigen values > 1 and explaining at least 5 per cent variance in data set. The indicators for coffee land use were pH, exch. Al and CEC and for forest land use, organic carbon, pH and exch. Al. These indicators were transformed into scores following linear scoring method and soil quality index was determined, on a scale of 0–1, using the weighting factors obtained from PCA. Soil quality index was high (0.836) for natural forest land use, while it was medium (0.634) for coffee land use. Results indicated that organic carbon, pH and exch. Al are the most powerful indicators of soil quality. Proper management of soil acidity in coffee plantations due to liming, pooling back of nutrients, fertilization effect and other anthropogenic interventions in them have helped in maintaining a near equal soil quality to that of natural forest, which can be made sustainable by adopting effective plantation management practices.

Rural people in developing countries including India continue to access a number of types of ‘forests’ to meet specific needs such as fuelwood, fodder, food, non-timber forest produce and timber for both subsistence and income generation. While a plethora of terms exist to describe the types of forests that rural people use—such as farm forests, social forests, community forests and small-scale forests—the expression domestic forest has recently been proposed. Domestic forest is a term aimed at capturing the diversity of forests transformed and managed by rural communities and a way to introduce a new scientific domain that recognises that production and conservation can be reconciled and that local communities can be effective managers. This paper argues in the context of the central Western Ghats of south India that while the domestic forest concept is a useful umbrella term to capture the diversity of forests used by rural people, these domestic forests are often not autonomous local forests but sites of contestation between local actors and the state forest bureaucracy. Hence, a paradigm shift within the forest bureaucracy will only occur if the scientific forestry community questions its own normative views on forest management and sees forest policy as a means to recognise local claims and support existing practices of forest dependent communities.

Arachniodes amabilis (Bl.) Tindale, is a geographically restricted plant species known only from Western Ghats of South India. We examined genetic diversity in seven individuals of the plant species through isozymic analysis. Isozymes are powerful tool for determining genetic variability within and between the populations of plant species. The endangered Arachniodes amabilis was monomorphic for the all twelve loci scored. This study emphasizes the potential use of data on population structure for managing and monitoring rare species.

Background & Objectives: Snakebite is a neglected public health problem in tropical and sub-tropical geographical zones. Management of snakebites require through examination, careful monitoring of vitals and assessment of envenomation. The epidemiological and clinical management data will provide an insight on the critical management issues and varied presentation.
 Methods: A retrospective observation study was conducted at Shripad Hegde Kadave Institute of Medical Sciences, Sirsi, Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka. Patients admitted to the hospital during the period from January 2019 to August 2022 were included for the study.
 Results: The data from a total of 78 participants was included for the analysis. The mean age was 38.56±17.28 years. Of the participants, 50 (64.10%) were male and 43 (52.12%) farmers by occupation. Majority of cases had haematotoxic symptoms (42.2%) followed by myotoxicity (33.3%). Predominant neurotoxicity was seen in only 2 (2.56%) of patients. 57 (73%) of participants had elevated INR ratio. Sixty-seven (85.9%) participants were medically managed and 10 (12.82%) required surgical intervention. Three (18.75%) participants had acute kidney injury. With respect to the final outcome, 71(91%) of participants were discharged after recovery.
 Interpretation and Conclusion: This study provided the vital insight on clinical presentation and management of snakebite in Western Ghats of South India. Snakebite majorly affected male and middle-aged people. Farmers were most affected and bites occurred more during monsoon season. Due to variation in local distribution of species of snakes’ predominantly higher variants of vipers (lower number of krait and cobra) haematotoxic symptoms and signs were the major clinical presentation.

A study was carried out to investigate the potential of monoculture plantations of Acacia auriculiformis, Casuarina equisetifolia and Anacardium occidentale to foster the regeneration of native woody species with respect to proximity to human settlements and natural forest (NF) as the major factors in Kudremukh National Park of South India. A total of 80 plots were laid down in three monoculture plantations in nearby NF and abandoned pasture. A total of 32 naturally regenerated woody species were recorded beneath all plantation stands with a density ranging from 4600 to 17,100/ha. The plantation of C. equisetifolia supports more number of species and diversity with more canopy cover (71–87.5%) and also more litter depth (10.8–11.67 cm). Sorenson's index of similarity (IS) values indicated that C. equisetifolia and A. auriculiformis stands exhibited the highest similarity and the C. equisetifolia showed high degree of similarity with NF. The soils of all plantations are acidic in nature with higher nutrients observed in C. equisetifolia plantation. This study highlighted the concept of using plantations to foster the regeneration of native woody species, thereby promoting regional biodiversity and also improve the ecosystem services of the region by improving soil nutrients and microclimate.

A new species of carpenter moth Xyleutes ramamurthyi Yakovlev Sankararaman, sp. nov. (Lepidoptera, Cossidae, Zeuzerinae) is described as new to science from the Western Ghats of south India. The identification key and species catalog of the genus is provided. In this study, we illustrated with images of all the species of the genus and morphological structures of the new species. The photos of biotopes and the map of new species distribution are provided.

Are polyploids really evolutionary dead-ends (again)? A critical reappraisal of Mayrose etal. ().

Based on larvae collected from the Western Ghats in South India, a new species of Labiobaetis Novikova and Kluge, 1987 is described. Labiobaetis gattolliati sp. n. belongs to the L. sumigarensis group of species and is compared to other members of the group as well as to other Labiobaetis species from India. Labiobaetis freitagi Kaltenbach, Garces, and Gattolliat, 2020 is recorded for the first time from India. With this discovery, the species number of the L. sumigarensis group in India has increased to four.http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:99937EEC-19E8-415B-9848-C243D9C91466

Kyasanur forest disease virus (KFDV) is a rapidly expanding tick-borne zoonotic virus with natural foci in the forested region of the Western Ghats of South India. The Western Ghats is one of the world's most important biodiversity hotspots and, like many such areas of high biodiversity, is under significant pressure from anthropogenic landscape change. The current study sought to quantify mammalian species richness using ensemble models of the distributions of a sample of species extant in the Western Ghats and to explore its association with KFDV outbreaks, as well as the modifying effects of deforestation on this association. Species richness was quantified as a composite of individual species' distributions, as derived from ensembles of boosted regression tree, random forest, and generalised additive models. Species richness was further adjusted for the potential biotic constraints of sympatric species. Both species richness and forest loss demonstrated strong positive associations with KFDV outbreaks, however forest loss substantially modified the association between species richness and outbreaks. High species richness was associated with increased KFDV risk but only in areas of low forest loss. In contrast, lower species richness was associated with increased KFDV risk in areas of greater forest loss. This relationship persisted when species richness was adjusted for biotic constraints at the taluk-level. In addition, the taluk-level species abundances of three monkey species (Macaca radiata, Semnopithecus hypoleucus, and Semnopithecus priam) were also associated with outbreaks. These results suggest that increased monitoring of wildlife in areas of significant habitat fragmentation may add considerably to critical knowledge gaps in KFDV epidemiology and infection ecology and should be incorporated into novel One Health surveillance development for the region. In addition, the inclusion of some primate species as sentinels of KFDV circulation into general wildlife surveillance architecture may add further value.

The present study provides data to decide on the most appropriate method for sampling of ground-dwelling arthropods measured in a moist-deciduous forest in the Western Ghats in South India. The abundance of ground-dwelling arthropods was compared among large numbers of samples obtained using pitfall trapping, Berlese and Winkler extraction methods. Highest abundance and frequency of most of the represented taxa indicated pitfall trapping as the ideal method for sampling of ground-dwelling arthropods. However, with possible bias towards surface-active taxa, pitfall-trapping data is inappropriate for quantitative studies, and Berlese extraction is the better alternative. Berlese extraction is the better method for quantitative measurements than the other two methods, whereas pitfall trapping would be appropriate for qualitative measurements. A comparison of the Berlese and Winkler extraction data shows that in a quantitative multigroup approach, Winkler extraction was inferior to Berlese extraction because the total number of arthropods caught was the lowest; and many of the taxa that were caught from an identical sample via Berlese extraction method were not caught. Significantly a greater frequency and higher abundance of arthropods belonging to Orthoptera, Blattaria, and Diptera occurred in pitfall-trapped samples and Psocoptera and Acariformes in Berlese-extracted samples than that were obtained in the other two methods, indicating that both methods are useful, one complementing the other, eliminating a chance for possible under-representation of taxa in quantitative studies.

Soil organic carbon stock is an important universal land degradation indicator. Owing to the depletion in soil nutrients, the pace of land degradation has increased in the Western Ghats of South India. To understand the changes in surface and subsurface soil organic carbon stocks and vulnerability to land degradation upon land use change, a study was carried out along the natural forest and coffee plantation ecosystems of Western Ghats in South India. The study sites were located in Chikmagaluru of Karnataka and Wayanad and Idukki districts of Kerala. Soil organic carbon stocks (SOC) at the surface (0–30 cm) were higher, 9.10 t C ha −1 and 7.49 k t C ha −1 in forest soils of Chikmagaluru and Idukki, respectively, and the subsurface (30–100 cm) SOC stocks were higher in the coffee plantation ecosystems, 9.11, 9.87, and 8.41 t C ha −1 , respectively, in Chikmagaluru, Wayanad, and Idukki. Vulnerability analysis revealed that Chikmagaluru forest (0.57) and coffee (0.51), Wayanad forest (0.58) and coffee (0.55) land uses were low, and both the land uses in Idukki were medium in the status of land degradation with scores of 0.65 and 0.60, respectively, in forest and coffee ecosystems. The difference in the status of land degradation was mainly because of changes in soil reaction, surface, and subsurface SOC stock. An increase in soil pH, CEC, and available nutrients upon conversion to coffee plantation along with increased subsurface carbon storage have confirmed the restorative properties of coffee land use even after conversion from natural forests.

The objective of this study is to present a methodological approach to assess the inherent vulnerability of forests and apply it to a case study. Addressing inherent vulnerability, resulting from current stresses, is a necessary step for building resilience to long-term climate change. The proposed approach includes use of analytical framework that enables selection of vulnerability criteria and indicators systematically, application of pairwise comparison method (PCM) for assigning weights, and synthesis of a composite vulnerability index. This methodological approach has been applied at local scale to Aduvalli Protected Forest in Western Ghats in South India, where a vulnerability index value of 0.248 is estimated. Results of the case study indicate that `preponderance of invasive species' and forest dependence of community are the major sources of vulnerability at present for Aduvalli Protected Forest. Adoption of this methodology can assist in development of forest management plans to enhance adaptability of Aduvalli PF to current as well as future stresses, including climate change. This methodological approach can be applied across forest-types after appropriate changes to criteria and indicators and their weights, to estimate the inherent vulnerability to enable development of adaptation strategy.

We examined species turnover in stream amphibians in rainforest in two hill ranges (Ashambu and Anamalai Hills) in the Western Ghats in south India. In each hill range, six stream segments (100 m in length) belonging to three drainage or rivers were surveyed three to four times in three seasons over 1 year. Species turnover (using 1-Sorenson's index) was estimated between all possible pairs of sites at three spatial scales – within drainage, between drainage and between hill ranges. Similar matrices were also developed for altitudinal difference and geographic distance between sites. A total of 30 species in four families were recorded from 3681 individuals. The hill ranges differed significantly in the composition of the stream community at both the species and family levels. Within the hill range, species turnover was correlated with altitudinal difference and not with geographic distance. Anamalai Hills had a greater species turnover than Ashambu Hills, both within and between drainage. There was also a high turnover between these two hill ranges, with only two shared species. This turnover explains the fact that only 30–40 species have been reported from different hill ranges, although regional diversity is high with about 130 species. The turnover also predicts that several undetected species should occur in hill ranges and drainage that have not been surveyed. The conservation model for mammals and birds, consisting of a few large protected areas, may not adequately address the conservation requirements of amphibians. Protection of rainforest frogs may require many protected areas in different drainages.

Digital soil mapping of soil organic carbon stocks in Western Ghats, South India