Queen’s Road :

Lantana is a common weed seen in almost any wasteland or forest. It bears colourful flowers with tiny pink and yellow florets. The species is invasive and kills other native vegetation by running riot.

Bengaluru scientists have now found a practical way of dealing with Lantana camara, as it is formally called. They have found that people in some rural areas of the Western Ghats make furniture out of it and this is perhaps one of the best ways to deal with the invasive nature of the weed.

Ramesh Kannan from Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE),

Bengaluru, and Rhodes University, South Africa, Prof R Uma Shaanker of ATREE and UAS GKVK, and Charlie M Shackleton from Rhodes University have worked on analysing the effects of the weed on people whose livelihoods depend on the forests.

The paper is published in Environment Development and Sustainability. Prof Uma Shaanker told Express, “The total income derived by the two groups (lantana users vs non-users) was nearly the same, the  income deficit in the user group due to forest resources and trading was made good by the income from Lantana.”

Invasive alien species (IAS) are those species that are not native to a certain habitat or ecosystem. Native species are those that are naturally found in an ecosystem. IAS are serious threats to biodiversity and ecosystems everywhere. This is mainly because once they have spread to a significant level, it is very hard to curb further invasion. The British introduced this plant at the East India Company Botanical Garden in Calcutta as an ornamental in 1807.

The species has spread tremendously since then — enough to be listed as one of the 10 worst weeds in the world. In fact, the species poses a threat to several native plants and species today. It has managed to displace several indigenous plant types, causing serious shifts in the socio-economic situation for people in rural areas, who depended on the native species for their livelihood.

The researchers chose six hamlets in southern India, in areas where lantana is found in abundance in the forests: Hannehola, Kommudikki, Pudhupatti, Anjukullipatti, Vedasandur and Cheelampalle. The people who lived here belonged to one of the following castes/tribes: Korava, Soliga, Madiga, Irula or Pallar. Of these communities, all but the Soligas are engaged in basket making; the Soligas make furniture. With no access to proper irrigation, they practise rain fed agriculture and it is not their primary source of income.

In these areas, some people used lantana for their livelihood while the others didn’t. All these communities used to be dependent on bamboo until a few decades ago, after which they were forced to move on and find alternate resources like lantana. There were two main reasons for the shift. One, a steep decline in the amount of bamboo available, due to commercial activities.

The bamboo forests were exploited, which eventually led the government to declare the areas of Cowdally, Chikkailur, and MM Hills as reserve forests, in order to protect the remaining bamboo. This made it necessary for the communities dependent on bamboo to pay for the resource. Secondly, the sheer abundance of lantana proved to be an alternate resource that people could use almost all year round, except in the summer months when the plants dried up.

The authors compared the differences between groups of people who used Lantana to make baskets, and those who didn’t. Lantana was the main source of income to the group using it. The groups not using lantana had more daily wage labourers and traders. They also found that people over the age of 51 didn’t use lantana as much because older people found it difficult to go out to the forest and get it.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Bengaluru / by Papiya Bhattacharya / April 02nd, 2015