Trekking is not countryside walking. The way it is practised here, it is a mad run from one place to another, often in wilderness areas for the thrill of it. Its practitioners barely find time to observe anything in nature, or better still, take time to enjoy the smell, sound and the tranquillity of it. Yes, with photography becoming popular, it could be, but is not quite there just yet. Last week's death of a youngster in the Ragihalli forest of the Bannerghatta range and the missing trekkers sometime back in Sakleshpura are pointers to a larger malaise that wilderness areas are suffering from, called Ecotourism.
The Government in Karnataka and elsewhere is promoting ecotourism in a big way. The Karnataka government has established its own chain of luxury hotels called Jungle Lodges and Resorts, which has been granted exclusive use of many tracts. In addition, local communities, private businessmen, NGOs, and even researchers, are in the fray. All out to conquer that last frontier called wilderness.
The government and the people, in the sole interest of maximising revenue, are literally stripping the wild animals and plants of their privacy and home. In the big chase for stakeholders' rights, with every human, thinking or otherwise, learned or ignorant, concerned or indifferent, becoming a stakeholder, we have turned all wild animals and plants into tenants in their own territory. All for an intangible thing called revenue. Revenue from every conceivable quarter! Be it material utilization meant for one's own use transformed to material trade to generate monetary gain, or a vehicular parade in the wilderness called eco-tourism, we are doing enormous damage to our ecosystems. An urgent need is to sit up and take note of. We have effectively transformed trustees into traders, and wildlife into tenants. The question is should we? In this a big roulette, it is the fauna and flora that are coming out as the losers.
Like every coin which has faces, and an edge to go with it, there are arguments and viewpoints, many looking in opposite directions. This article pleads for the ecosystem. The other viewpoint is there, everywhere!
Karnataka has 38,284 square kilometres of forest area, which comprises of about 19.96 per cent of its geographical area. It include dense, open and scrub forests. Karnataka is also blessed with 60% of the Western Ghats, which is a world heritage site and a global biological hotspot. Human settlements in and around many of wilderness areas is a common feature. In recent times, these areas are in some sense encircled by resorts and lodges which caters to a large urban crowds to enjoy nature. In addition, there a large number of adventure groups in urban areas which organise trekking in wilderness areas both during the day and night almost throughout the year. The forest department is not far behind in this race, there are official designated routes in many of our wilderness areas. Some of the popular trekking routes include the Kukke Subramanya to Pushpagiri route, Kakkabe to Tadiyandamol, Samse to Kudremukh peak, etc.
Trekking is believed to be an ecologically sound way of experiencing nature and is much advocated. However, it is far from truth. Trekking, the way it is practised in Karnataka has several impacts, most of which is ecologically damaging. The immediate effects are visible - broken liquor bottles, aluminium cans, plastic covers, gutka sachets, paper, etc on the waysides of trails and in our water bodies. These often are not because of the trekkers themselves, but by people who visit these areas made famous by trekkers. These are impacts are less damaging, can be controlled easily by way of ensuring that visitors don't throw these items. The damage can also be rectified by organising a collection drive to clean up the place. But prevention is always better than cure.
The long-term impacts on the habitats have unfortunately not got adequate attention from researchers and authorities. There is hardly any research study done to understand the damage occurring in any of our wilderness areas. The obvious impacts, which have been scientifically proved, elsewhere are discussed further.
Destruction of vegetation to clear thickets to make way for easy movement and trampling of seedlings is the largest form of destruction of the habitat. Usually trekkers carry a machete and a common practice is to clear away thorny vegetation and protruding branches, and also bushes protrude into the trail. The regeneration of plants and trees get affected enormously. Over time, one can notice in most of the trekking routes that the width of these trekking corridors widen progressively. And this is very significant ecologically. In many cases, these trekking routes have slowly got converted into metalled roads. This is also a start of a process called fragmentation of habitats.
The other profound impact is soil compaction. As people walk on trails, there is a progressive compaction of soil. Compaction of the soil and leaf litter can lead to the reduction of air spaces within the soil structure. This change in the soil structure prevents germination of seeds as a good flow of water and air is important for root penetration. Walking repeatedly on vegetation over time can also leads to its death. It can take decades to reverse this compaction process naturally.
Trampling also directly kills smaller organisms like ants, earthworms, millipedes, and bugs which are crucial to maintaining the integrity of the soil structure and quality. It could damage fruiting bodies of fungi (mushrooms and toadstools) which are so crucial for nutrient recycling in a forest. Exposure and drying of the soil can destroy ectomycorrhiza associated with specific plants, existing continuously for millions of years through evolutionary time. These fungi in heavy rainfall zones penetrate fallen leaves and litter, and transport minerals and nutrients directly to the plant/tree roots, before there is a chance of heavy rain washing it off. In drier zones, ectomycorrhiza help in mobilizing phosphorus which is an essential element for both plants and animals, and make it available to plants.
Trekking trails provides an access point for colonising species from outside the wilderness area. For example, the Fire Ant (Solenopsis) gets into these trails because of human presence. Others like this would include the Odour Ant (Tapinoma), and the Crazy Ant (Anaplolepis).
Food wastes draw animals to the trail while a noisy trekking group can disturb birds and animals. Most of the shy bird species such as warblers, babblers, spider hunters and all the mammals such as deer, Sambhar, Tiger, Leopard, Elephant, etc try to avoid the trekking area. Research studies prove that long term effects of noise pollution could lead to birds failing to nest in the area and avoiding the area fully. Forest fires due to cigarettes and campsites are another major threat to our dry deciduous and scrub forests.
While the Karnataka Forest Department is trying to install signboards cautioning the movement of large mammals and warning trekkers to keep away from illegally entering protected areas, more needs to be done. Most of the efforts appear to be geared towards the safety of the trekkers. Being the custodian, there is a greater need to exercise the legal provisions efficiently under the wildlife and forest conservation acts for violations and regulate it in all our wilderness areas. The forest department should with the help of researchers periodically assess damages to habitats and the ecosystem, and close down routes or lessen the foot traffic so that the habitats can recuperate. Trekking should be strongly discouraged when the soils are wet (during monsoon) as it could lead to soil erosion. However blocking access totally would encourage unauthorised entry, so it just needs to be regulated.
To preserve our ecosystems there is a larger need to orient trekking and other activities from being a mere endurance sport to an educative activity. We will need to relearn to appreciate and preserve nature's wonderful gifts. If this is to happen, we all have to play our role in this important task of conservation. It could be so informative to walk on a route where important and noticeable ecological features are flagged, both on a hand out map and on the trail, as watch points (thankfully not as watch towers!). We could then look forward to insightful education, rather than mere entertainment for the citizens of today, and of course, for the citizens of tomorrow.
– SUNIL KUMAR M & KRISHNA MB, 24th July 2012.
For the edited version of the article, published in the 24th July Spectrum supplement of Deccan Herald, click here.
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