Sholas of Ootacamund

Akham Bonbirdhwaja Singh *

The British decisively won the battle for the southern part of south India during the seven years war between France and England (1756-1763) close on the heels of their win in the battle of Chandernagore in eastern India.

By early 19th Century after the British had firmly established its supremacy all over India and the world. After the defeat of Tipu Sultan, most part of South India came under British rule and Ooty Hills was a part of the territory ceded by Tipu Sultan to British.

Being a cool pleasant place in a hot surroundings, the place became very popular with the British. Originally, it was a land of Toda tribe, the water buffaloe rearing tribes, the British got some land in the beginning from the Todas, later entire area became a part of British territory.

It was summer capital of Madras Presidency and many of the rulers of the princely States used to visit this place and that was why the mountain railway came up to Ooty (though a small gauge track) from Mettupalayam. Since then Ooty has been the most famous hill station in South India and named the Queen of the hills.

The actual name was Udhagamandalam; British found it hard to pronounce and they called it Ootacamund and shortened to Ooty by the tourists. I have come over here in the past a few times. To me too, it is one of the best places for an outing and it has a number of attractions for a package. I found that one of the main attractions here is the Shola, the famous Shola Forests, known as Sholas of Nilgiris.

Sholas are Pockets of semi-evergreen or evergreen types of forests found in pockets of valleys and protected sites in between large grasslands. These pockets look like tree groves and the name Shola came from Tamil word Solai meaning a grove. The grass-land-Shola combination is famous among the various eco-systems and it is found only in montane eco-systems at higher elevations. In other parts of Nilgiris in lower elevations, such combinations are not found.

These grasslands are considered to be in climatic climax stage due to a peculiar symptom here; very cold temperature due to high altitude (Ooty is 8600 ft above MSL) and prevalence of frost but excessive radiation rays due to proximity to the sun and being near the equator. Another reason for having so much of grassland is due to biotic interference over past a many centuries. At present the grasslands are distinct ecosystems by themselves and occupying a sizeable chunk of Nilgiris mountain system and that of Ooty section too.

A little beyond where the altitude is not this much as that of Ooty, the vegetation is lush and not many grasslands are there. The famous silent valley, one of the most biodiverse places and mega biodiversity hotspot of the world is not far off from Ooty (aerial distance is less than 40 km and by road it is 133 km appx). The Shola trees are somewhat stunted and mostly not up to normal size of the species that its counterparts have in other places of Western Ghats and in Northern India.

The main species are Champa, Bishop wood, Myrtle, Calophylum, Cluster fig, Rhododendron, Olive, Mahonia, Ilex, Litsaea etc. The floor has a lot of mosses and many ferns including the iconic tree ferns. The ground species and grass species are many but they are not being discussed here. It is believed that the bluish flowers of Neelakurinji (Strobilanthus species) gave the name Nilgiris, the blue mountains to this part of Western Ghat.

Now Sholas are very few, they are all surrounded by grasslands or numerous tea gardens in difficult slopes, deep valleys, ravines etc. Good and slightly better slopes are all occupied by Blue Gum Plantations, Black Wattle Plantations, tea plantations or various vegetables that are being grown and exported to the plains. Some good Sholas are visible towards Mukurthi side.

When I came here in 1979 as a young forester, I had a different view. The blue gum plantation of Nilgiris was a showpiece. It was here that many species of Eucalyptus was planted on a large scale. It was the age of exotics and many of the alien species were tried in the country to commercialise the forestry sector. In fact during last 200 years, about 400 exotics entered Nilgiris and many to Ooty section of Nilgiris.

Eucalyptus, Black Wattle [1] and Silver Oak were Australian species introduced in early 1850s; Eucalyptus for pulp, firewood and timber and Black wattle bark for tanning industry and inner wood for rayon factory. The Silver Oak was mainly for the Tea Gardens which were coming up all around Ooty in mid-19th century. There was massive plantation of Eucalyptus and black wattle (Acacia mearnsii) in 1950s and it is said that more than 80000 ha were planted up with Eucalyptus.

Eucalyptus globulous, Eucalyptus hybrid and Eucalyptus teretecornis were the popular species in India in those days (though there are hundreds of species of Eucalyptus). I was fortunate to see the factories down below near mettupalayam and Coimbatore during my trip in 1979. It is not difficult to guess how the original vegetation of Ooty looked like as adjoining Silent Valley and many parts of Western Ghats still have some of the original pristine vegetation.

Even near Dodabetta, the highest peak (8680 ft) in Nilgiris and meeting point of Eastern Ghats and Western Ghats, some of the Shola vegetations are visible but in most parts it is gone. Only the Eucalyptus Plantations are everywhere, and black wattle plantations too. Sometimes other exotics like Cupressus, Thuja and Tropical Pines are also sporadically seen. The blue gum of blue hills, the eucalyptus was so synonymous with Ooty and Nilgiris.

Eucalyptus leaves are bluish green, but that of E. globulous is really blue making it symbolic of the Blue Mountains (Nilgiris) and Ooty. I still remember the blue leaves of E. globulous strewn all around everywhere with its distinct smell in many of its plantations. Over the last almost two centuries, the oil of leaves of E. globulous came to be known as Nilgiris Oil or Ooty Oil (oil is extracted from roots too from other species).

But alas! thousands and thousands of Eucalyptus trees are drying up in the last few years everywhere in and around Ooty City except in one or two small pockets; in the Provident College for Women campus where I could see about two hundred mature unaffected trees. It has been quite severe in the ridges and exposed sites. The trees are not dead outright, but in many localities the trees are exhibiting witches' broom [2] syndrome and gradually drying up.

There have been newspaper reports of Black Wattle trees drying up, but I could not go to the wattle plantations as my tour itinerary did not cover that and this time my trip was a packaged family tour through tour operators, not official or study tour like my earlier trips. Now the question is why the phenomenon is confined to these two exotics only ? Why not the other exotics particularly the coniferous exotics ?

The tropical pines (Pinuscaribea and others), Thuja species, Cupressus species seem to have been not affected. The Eucalyptus trees on the ridges, mountain tops were almost entirely affected, but even the trees near the Ooty Lake (Boat House Lake) were also affected. The local people were of the opinion that the Eucalyptus trees have greatly affected the water regime and it is a result of that.

But then the trees near and around Lakes and water sources where there is no water stress on the trees are also drying up. The official version coming out in the net (not confirmed) is that it is due to rise in the pollution level, but a little away from Ooty towards Gudalur (about 10 km before Gudalur) where there is nota stark difference in pollution level with that of Ooty, there are about 40-50 ha of Eucalyptus plantations of mid-age trees which are not affected by the recent syndrome.

A doubt arises whether the species were really suitable for the locality, I do not think that protocol like provenance trials existed in 1850s when large number of exotics were brought to Nilgiris or even when large scale plantations were raised in 1950s. Even at this late stage, whether the intense radiation due to high altitude and proximity to the equator also have caused genetic changes or contributed to the present massive drying up need to be looked into.

Many things have been said about Eucalyptus in the last three decades and nothing much is left to be added. There might have been good exotics but there has been mass outcry against the exotics in the recent past. So, the current trend is towards the indigenous species everywhere.

The Nilgiris, like Manipur and North East is a haven of biodiversity having a number of unique and endemic species (it was declared a biospehere reserve uncer MAB programme of UN in the past). Here in case of Ooty and Nilgiris, during the present drying of trees, the Sholas are least affected by the factors whatever that affected the Eucalyptus and Black Wattle.

A good news is that the area under Eucalyptus in Ooty have been drastically brought down in the last few decades. Still, it could be a big challenge for the authority to replace all the dead trees with new plantations now. The Sholas and Todas had similar fate, the onslaught of colonial empire and commercial expansion has almost wiped out these two indigenous entities of Ooty.

The Todas are I think have become near extinct, the tribes which solely lived in these hills and valleys for almost two milleniums (since 3 centuries BC) are disappearing from here. Only thing visible now is the replicas of their beautiful huts which Tourism Department have constructed near Toda Valley for the purpose of tourists.

A few huts are near old Ooty and near Botanical Garden. There is also a move to reconstruct the Toda huts and their settlements, but there are too few Todas left, many have gone outside their community too. Toda huts are very popular with tourists and they would love to take a few selfies in front of such huts. But I do not think that they would ever come back. The Sholas too are not coming back.

But this time when they are replanting the blank areas due to dying of Eucalyptus, I am sure that more of Shola species would be used; may not be for restoring the Sholas but for reclamation of affected areas which would certainly add to the beauty of the queen of hills.

[1] Black Wattle was introduced in Manipur too and remnants are still found in Duncan Park in Ukhrul District. The Tadubi Maram Reserved Forest was constituted with the primary aim of raising black wattle plantation with the State Darbar approving tanning of animal hides for production of leather in Manipur. However, there is no record of significant progress in this regards.

[2] Witches Broom Syndrome is the phenomenon in a plant; when the leading shoot or apical bud is killed and plant is drying up, the survival instinct of the plant gives up multiple branches just below the point of attack giving a broomlike appearance hence the name. It is caused by many factors; pests, diseases, genetic alterations and adverse environmental conditions.