Can Banni grassland revival balance carbon goals, biodiversity needs?
The study's methodology is straightforward yet robust. Soil samples, collected to a 30 cm depth, were analysed for SOC percentage and bulk density, then scaled to landscape-level estimates using 2023 land cover maps. Over a decade, the researchers tracked land changes, noting a troubling increase in Prosopis cover, which signals degradation. Despite this, SOC changes were not statistically significant, likely due to varying sampling depths and the slow pace of carbon stabilisation in young woody patches. This complexity underscores a key challenge: while restoration boosts carbon, unchecked Prosopis invasion threatens long-term SOC stability.Banni's ecological importance extends beyond carbon. It's a cultural and economic lifeline for pastoralists whose livestock depend on its grasses. Recognising this, the Gujarat government has prioritised grassland revival, particularly through Prosopis removal and native grass restoration. Approximately 10,000 hectares have been restored, with vaadas fenced and seeded with native species like Desmostachya bipinnata. These efforts have improved fodder availability, supporting livestock and local livelihoods, while enhancing SOC storage, as the study confirms. However, spread over 232,468 hectares of Banni, over 95 per cent remains unrestored, and Prosopis continues to spread, covering 14,658 hectares by 2023.The Gujarat government's efforts also tie into the ambitious cheetah reintroduction project. Banni was selected as a potential site for reintroducing cheetahs, extinct in India since the 1940s, due to its open grasslands resembling the cheetah's African savanna habitat. Preparations began in 2022, with habitat assessments and prey base evaluations, including chinkara and blackbuck populations.For now, Banni remains a secondary site, with Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh hosting the initial reintroduction of cheetahs from Africa. Challenges such as prey scarcity and habitat degradation from Prosopis have delayed Banni's role, though Gujarat continues to strengthen its conservation infrastructure, including anti-poaching measures and community engagement.advertisementHowever, the manual removal of Prosopis is labour-intensive and costly, deterring large-scale adoption. Some environmentalists question the focus on carbon-centric restoration, arguing it may overshadow biodiversity conservation. Pastoralists, while supportive of vaadas, report insufficient government support for scaling restoration, with only a fraction of Banni's potential realised. The cheetah project faces similar scrutiny, with concerns about prioritising a flagship species over ecosystem-wide restoration.The Bhan et al study suggests that future intervention strategies in Banni, in particular, and arid/semi-arid open natural ecosystems in India, in general, should be based on a more collaborative and integrated approach that takes into account the management strategies employed by local communities. 'Our results can feed into the National Grassland Policy currently under development at the national level in India and can be taken up by policy-makers and land-use managers to guide future management of degraded lands as well as Prosopis invasions, to maximise the abundant soil carbon sequestration potential that exists in India's open natural ecosystems,' the study concludes.Subscribe to India Today Magazine- Ends
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India Today
4 days ago
- India Today
Can Banni grassland revival balance carbon goals, biodiversity needs?
In the arid expanse of the Rann of Kutch in Gujarat, the Banni grasslands stretch across 2,300 sq km, a vibrant ecosystem teeming with biodiversity despite its harsh and saline soil. This landscape, Asia's largest tropical grassland, is a critical carbon sink, holding 27.69 million tonnes of carbon in its soil, reveals a 2025 study in ecological applications by environmental researcher Manan Bhan and his study underscores Banni's role in combating climate change through soil organic carbon (SOC) storage, a process where carbon is locked in the soil, reducing atmospheric greenhouse gases. With an average SOC density of 119.61 tonnes per hectare, Banni rivals other tropical grasslands and seasonally flooded savannas, highlighting its global ecological research simplifies complex carbon dynamics by mapping SOC across different land use/land cover classes using high-resolution satellite imagery and field data from long-term monitoring plots. Restored grasslands, locally called 'vaadas', stand out with the highest SOC density at 142.72 tonnes per areas, managed by pastoralist communities through removal of the invasive tree Prosopis juliflora (gando baval), demonstrate how restoration can recover carbon stocks. Wetlands and saline brushlands also store substantial carbon while areas with mixed Prosopis and native vegetation show the lowest SOC density, indicating that woody encroachment may not enhance carbon storage as previously thought. The study's methodology is straightforward yet robust. Soil samples, collected to a 30 cm depth, were analysed for SOC percentage and bulk density, then scaled to landscape-level estimates using 2023 land cover maps. Over a decade, the researchers tracked land changes, noting a troubling increase in Prosopis cover, which signals degradation. Despite this, SOC changes were not statistically significant, likely due to varying sampling depths and the slow pace of carbon stabilisation in young woody patches. This complexity underscores a key challenge: while restoration boosts carbon, unchecked Prosopis invasion threatens long-term SOC ecological importance extends beyond carbon. It's a cultural and economic lifeline for pastoralists whose livestock depend on its grasses. Recognising this, the Gujarat government has prioritised grassland revival, particularly through Prosopis removal and native grass restoration. Approximately 10,000 hectares have been restored, with vaadas fenced and seeded with native species like Desmostachya bipinnata. These efforts have improved fodder availability, supporting livestock and local livelihoods, while enhancing SOC storage, as the study confirms. However, spread over 232,468 hectares of Banni, over 95 per cent remains unrestored, and Prosopis continues to spread, covering 14,658 hectares by Gujarat government's efforts also tie into the ambitious cheetah reintroduction project. Banni was selected as a potential site for reintroducing cheetahs, extinct in India since the 1940s, due to its open grasslands resembling the cheetah's African savanna habitat. Preparations began in 2022, with habitat assessments and prey base evaluations, including chinkara and blackbuck now, Banni remains a secondary site, with Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh hosting the initial reintroduction of cheetahs from Africa. Challenges such as prey scarcity and habitat degradation from Prosopis have delayed Banni's role, though Gujarat continues to strengthen its conservation infrastructure, including anti-poaching measures and community the manual removal of Prosopis is labour-intensive and costly, deterring large-scale adoption. Some environmentalists question the focus on carbon-centric restoration, arguing it may overshadow biodiversity conservation. Pastoralists, while supportive of vaadas, report insufficient government support for scaling restoration, with only a fraction of Banni's potential realised. The cheetah project faces similar scrutiny, with concerns about prioritising a flagship species over ecosystem-wide Bhan et al study suggests that future intervention strategies in Banni, in particular, and arid/semi-arid open natural ecosystems in India, in general, should be based on a more collaborative and integrated approach that takes into account the management strategies employed by local communities. 'Our results can feed into the National Grassland Policy currently under development at the national level in India and can be taken up by policy-makers and land-use managers to guide future management of degraded lands as well as Prosopis invasions, to maximise the abundant soil carbon sequestration potential that exists in India's open natural ecosystems,' the study to India Today Magazine- Ends
Time of India
07-07-2025
- Time of India
Telangana State Agricultural University creates a gene bank to preserve local wild plant varieties
Hyderabad: By redeveloping the botanical garden on the campus, Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University (PJTSAU) aims to create a gene bank of local varieties of wild fruits and flowers. Officials said they are planting many local varieties, including 'jitregi' (Bombay blackwood), 'bandaru' (hop bush tree), 'somi' ('Prosopis cineraria'), 'kanuka' (Indian beech or pongamia), which are close to extinction or not easily available even in the forests of Telangana. They said the project has been taken up to ensure that all these seeds will be available at one place even after hundreds of years. 'Many of these forest plants are not easily available. Further, it is very difficult to grow these plants in nurseries. So, there is a chance that seeds of these plants, which are already close to extinction, might not be available at all in the future. To make sure that such a situation does not arise, we are creating a gene bank or germplasm bank,' Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA), director (urban forestry) VSNV Prasad told TOI. You Can Also Check: Hyderabad AQI | Weather in Hyderabad | Bank Holidays in Hyderabad | Public Holidays in Hyderabad He said that once a gene bank is created, they would be able to propagate a plant either by using its seed or through tissue culture after 10, 15 or even a 100 years down the line. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like An engineer reveals: One simple trick to get internet without a subscription Techno Mag Learn More Undo On Monday, as part of the inaugural of Vana Mahotsavam at PJTSAU campus, 2,200 trees were planted on five acres at the botanical garden of the agriculture university. While the chief minister, who inaugurated the programme, planted a rudraksha tree, 'marri' (banyan), 'raavi' (peepul or sacred fig), 'juvvi' (white fig tree), and 'pogada' (Spanish cherry tree) among other saplings were planted on the campus. Officials said HMDA would be planting local saplings in 150 acres on the campus. The project would be carried out throughout the year. 'The varsity has already given a contract to cut down eucalyptus and subabul trees on campus, spread over 150 acres of land. As and when they hand over a parcel of land to us, we will be planting saplings. However, we have to start planting from interiors to peripheral land so that saplings are not disturbed by the movement of trucks or other vehicles once they are planted,' Prasad added. PJTSAU vice-chancellor Aldas Janaiah said that efforts were on to give a new lease of life to the botanical garden on the campus, which has been neglected in the last 10 to 15 years.
The Hindu
05-06-2025
- The Hindu
Book on turning Prosopis juliflora to a resource of value
A book exploring viable means to turn the menace of Prosopis juliflora, a rapidly proliferating weed locally known as seemai karuvelam into a resource of some value was recently brought out at the Pondicherry University. P. Prakash Babu, Vice-Chancellor, Pondicherry University, while formally releasing the book, expressed hope that the work would stimulate and catalyse global efforts towards controlling and utilising Prosopis juliflora. The book Prosopis juliflora: Attributes, Impact, Utilization summarises the findings of an exhaustive work by a research team led by S. A. Abbasi, a former professor, on finding economically viable ways of utilising Prosopis juliflora so that its standing biomass can be turned into a resource. The publication (Elsevier and Academic Press) has references to findings of other researchers across the world. According to a press release, Prosopis juliflora has emerged as the world's most domineering and harmful of weeds. India is among the countries that have been very seriously hit by this menace, asit growing uncontrollably in several States, causing great harm. Deleterious impact In the Puducherry-Tamil Nadu region too, the plant is seen growing almost everywhere, rampantly colonising new areas at the expense of diverse vegetation. The invasive plant also possesses negative allelopathy due to which itplant species from its vicinity and monopolise the space. In fact, such has been its deleterious impact that in 2022 writ petitions were filed in the Madras High Court to direct the government to intervene.
