Centre to study status of India’s grasslands to boost conservation

In a move that will finally throw light on the need to save grasslands and recognise their role in conservation of endangered species, the Standing Committee of the National Board for Wildlife has directed the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and others to prepare an ‘Atlas of Grasslands of India’, including the status and biodiversity associated with such ecosystems.

For years, conservationists have been urging the government to recognise that conserving grasslands was as important as wooded forest areas. Forest authorities in some states had moved to plant trees in open environments, disturbing the unique ecosystems of grasslands. A recent study had shown that such mismanagement of Jayamangali Conservation Reserve in Karnataka had driven blackbucks outside the reserve. 

The move comes following a discussion on a proposal submitted by the Centre of Excellence-Sustainable Land Management (CoE-SLM), Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education. The standing committee was briefed that grasslands and rangelands are defined in different ways across the country depending on revenue land-use classes, land cover reporting and ecological mapping of open natural ecosystems. Further, the presentation noted that the area of grasslands is often under-reported because of misclassification of these areas in the government record as wasteland or scrubs. “Therefore, estimates vary and require harmonisation through improved mapping,” it had said.

Noting the importance of such ecosystems for dry land resilience, experts from ICFRE stressed the need for a robust “vegetation-type and dominant species-based approach” for classification of grasslands. Moreover, grasslands have carbon sequestration potential of about 2.3 to 7.3 billion tonnes of CO2 per year as per global estimates and that these ecosystems hold “nearly one-third” of terrestrial carbon with about 90% of it stored below the ground. Further, they offer the co-benefits of biodiversity conservation, land degradation neutrality and climate resilience.

During the standing committee’s recent meeting, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir underscored the need to save grasslands for wildlife conservation. The states sought amendments to law to recognise grassland restoration under compensatory afforestation mechanisms and the need for acknowledging grasslands as essential ecosystems that have to be protected and restored while balancing grazing requirements and livelihood dependencies.