State’s protected areas get ‘good’ ratings from MoEF

Kochi: Seven of the eight protected areas (PAs) in the state which were evaluated for management effectiveness during 2018-19 have shown performance ratings that range from ‘good’ to ‘very good’. Only Mangalavanam bird sanctuary, within Kochi city has been characterised as ‘fair’ considering its urban surroundings, which makes its existence precarious.
The report said rationalizing boundaries of PAs like Kottiyoor and Aralam WLS is a requirement, so that instead of being two small sanctuaries with separate managements they can become a single, compact and modest-sized landscape under better and unified management regime.
Thattekkad Bird Sanctuary in Ernakulam topped the list with management effective evaluation (MEE) score of 77.5% and was categorized as ‘very good’. Neyyar Wildlife Sanctuary with a score of 72.5%, Peechi Vazhani Wildlife Sanctuary (69.2%), Kottiyoor Wildlife Sanctuary (67.5%), Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary (66.6%), Malabar Wildlife Sanctuary (66%) and Kurinjimala (61.7%) were categorized as ‘good’.
The MEE, jointly carried out by Union ministry of environment and forest and climate change (MoEFCC) and Wildlife Institute of India, noted that all protected areas had significant habitat, floral and faunal values being located in the south of Western Ghats bio-geographic zone.
One of the significant values of the PAs were their contiguity with the larger interstate transboundary habitat landscape, the report noted. These linkages and contiguity provides an opportunity for wildlife migration and gene flow amongst populations in different states.
The report also flagged large human settlements in PAs like Wayanand and the management has to spend most of their time in sorting out the problems. Large human settlements also give rise to associated problems such as fire, grazing, invasive species and monoculture plantations, which the PA management needs to focus on if they are to move from ‘good’ to ‘very good’ category.