Global warming poses threat to pipits of Nilgiris

The Asian Age , Monday, September 22, 2014
Correspondent :
The penguins of Antarctic are not the only victims of climate change. The pipits of Nilgiris in the Western Ghats in India are also suffering the ill effects of global warming and the consequent deleterious effects on climate. Researchers in the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) in Bengaluru have found that the pipit, sighted as early as 1840s, is under threat as its habitat is severely damaged by the “large-scale landscape modification in the Western Ghats”. They suggested that the bird be declared as endangered so as to trigger efforts, however belated they may be, to save it from extinction.

Researchers V.V. Robin, C.K. Vishnudas and Uma Ramarkrishnan spent more than two years to study the habitats of the Nilgiri pipit. The medium-sized pipit with prominent broad, dark brown streaks on the head, back and breast, upper belly and flanks, is found in the higher altitudes of the Western Ghats. The researchers covered most parts of the grassy ghats in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, including the southernmost parts in Agasthiyar hills, while recording the bird’s sightings.

“Apart from climate change, the rapid shrinking of its habitat through conversion of grasslands into monoculture timber plantations such as pine and eucalyptus, commercial tea plantations, has led to the Nilgiri pipit going rare,” said NCBS researcher Robin. The increase in tourism and infrastructure activities has also done their damage, he said. Researchers said Nilgiri pipits have now been confined to the higher elevation grasslands of Nilgiris, Anaimalai Palani hills. “Ecological restoration of the grasslands needs to be undertaken to protect the habitat of this beautiful bird,” said Uma Ramakrishnan.

Before publishing their study report in the Current Science journal, the researchers did extensive study of the literature on Nilgiri pipit preserved in the American Museum of Natural History, the British Museum of Natural History and the Bombay Natural History Society.

 
SOURCE : http://www.asianage.com/india/global-warming-poses-threat-pipits-nilgiris-048
 


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