The Malabar Grey Hornbill is a signature bird of the forest in Goa. It can be easily seen and its unique hysterical call is heard within 15 minutes of entering an undisturbed forest. On January 10 this year, Bird Life International revised the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) status of the Malabar Grey Hornbill from “Least Concern” to “Vulnerable”. The next levels are “Near Threatened” leading to “Extinction”. This is a singular catastrophic moment for the Western Ghats and conservation of this keystone species of the Western Ghats needs foremost attention henceforth.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature is the global authority on the status of the natural world and the measures needed to safeguard it. This revision by them about the present status of Malabar Grey Hornbill birds, is a matter of concern and if immediate action to protect them is not taken, then it will soon land into the “Near Threatened” category.
Savio Fonseca, author of the “Birds of Goa” and Chief Naturalist at Avocet & Peregrine, Birding and Bird Photography tours to Goa, believes that, “conservation efforts start with securing the procreation process of the species and the foremost efforts need to be focused on ensuring the survival of the above species of trees in the parameters where the trees are more than 30 metres, and having a girth of more than two meters”.
It is therefore seen that the hornbill is critically dependent on very mature trees and the tree species preferred are Lagerstroemia microcarpa, Terminaliabellirica and Terminaliacrenulata.
Citing reasons why it is essential, Savio says that the Malabar Grey Hornbill nests in hollows of mature trees (height 36m +/-6m, girth 3m, +/-1m) during January to May every year and the pair mates. The female enters the nest hollow (the bird is incapable of excavating its own hollow and depends on natural hollows) and then sheds all her feathers to line the nest and lay the eggs. The male entombs her by closing the entrance of the nest with mud leaving a small slit to breathe and pass food. When the eggs are hatched and the chicks fledge, the female would have grown its feathers by then and is ready to break out of the nest. The nest is usually located at a height of 17m (+/- 6m) from the ground.
Bikram Grewal who is an ornithologist, birdwatcher, conservationist from Delhi and author of over 35 books on ecology and travel, has written several guides to Indian birds. His father was a senior civil servant in the Indian government. He has been working with governments and private groups to promote eco-tourism in Madhya Pradesh, Arunachal and Nagaland. His 2002 book Birds of India has been a best-seller among Indian bird books. He has also been part of the Inheritance Series brought out by Sanctuary Asia. He believes that basically all hornbills are the gardeners of the forest.
“Malabar Grey Hornbill is the “Maali” (gardener) of the forest as they consume the fruit and put the droppings somewhere else so that the garden can be fully fertilised and spread out. All hornbills need tall trees to breed because of safety reasons. Hornbills are under threat for a long time. In Nagaland, the Great Indian Hornbill has become extinct even though in Nagaland, they have the Hornbill Festival. It is finishing in other areas, not much due to the killing of these birds but because tall trees are disappearing. The taller the tree, the more money it fetches in the illegal market. Hence everyone tries to fell the tallest tree. Goa now has a very fragile ecosystem. So we have to be extremely careful; which we are not. Goa has always been a big contentious problem for all sorts of wildlife,” said Bikram to Herald.
He added that if the hornbills are on top of the chain and that if they go as well, then large tracts of forest will disappear. “Goa has never had a big history of conservation. It is because there is so much pressure on mining, gambling or tourism etc. So Goa is a unique situation,” Bikram added.
Dr Divya Mudappa, a senior Scientist with the Nature Conservation Foundation (NCF) and her colleagues, have been studying hornbill populations and ecology in the Anamalai Hills for over nearly three decades. When contacted by Herald, she felt concerned.
“Analysis of data contributed by citizen scientists and presented in the State of India's Birds 2020 report indicates a range-wide decline in Malabar Grey Hornbill numbers. We have also recorded a similar trend in the Anamalai Hills where we work. We do not have a clear idea as to what could have caused the decline. A probable reason could be degradation of forests, particularly small fragmented patches,” said Divya.
The Malabar Grey Hornbill is frugivorous and feeds on fruits of ficus trees, fishtail palms etc. It has been found that the time that the bird consumes the fruit and ejects it from its digestive system, is about 30 minutes. Furthermore with the bird being one of the major seed dispersal agents in the forest, its seed dispersal footprint is within 30 minutes of flying time from the fruiting tree; and therefore the seed is put back to the similar soil to that found around the original tree, which ensures that the spread of the fruiting tree is also contiguous. The spread and sustenance of the forest depends on this seed disperser, which is elaborated in the following points:
. The importance of ficus trees in the forest is the reason that it is also considered as the Keystone species in a forest.
. The fruits of these ficus trees are the incubation hosts for many insects where, when emerged from the eggs are released when the fruit is first eaten by the frugivorous birds.
. The insects then provide sustenance to insectivorous birds and other species including carnivorous plants in the Western Ghats, besides playing a role in pollination of the flowers of the forest.
. The raw or the overripe fruit drop to the ground to be eaten / processed by wild boar and other scavengers including insects and fungi species.
. Thus, the ficus trees sustain a wide spectrum of forest species and decline of these trees add to the large sale degradation of the forest.
. The birds in the forests of the Western Ghats are essentially frugivorous and insectivorous. Insectivorous birds require water since they cannot extract water from their source of food.
. Meanwhile, frugivorous can sustain themselves without water since their water requirements are addressed by the water content in the fruits they consume.
. This becomes critical when the Western Ghats are rain-fed for part of the year and water sources dry up by January. Many of the species (besides birds) acquire their water sustenance from the fruits they eat and these species are not restricted to birds but include frugivorous mammals like squirrels, monkeys, civets etc.
. Much of the man–animal conflicts observed in fringes of forests of Goa are where mammals are found to prey on farm produce and can be traced to absence of food in the forests.
. Hence, the Malabar Grey Hornbill attains the position of a keystone species that supports seed dispersal that sustains the spread and maintenance of trees of the forest, supports the wild population and mitigates the man-animal conflict to a significant extent.
“Failure to save the Malabar Grey Hornbill will possibly lead to a cataclysmic collapse of the forest and wildlife system and spill over adversely to affect human activity through animal conflict, climate change, natural disasters through depleted forest cover such as erosion, floods, water scarcity and extreme temperatures,” Savio points out.
He also believes that the importance of the Western Ghats to the climate security scenario for Goa for the next 100 years and beyond exponentially outweighs any real economic benefits. Unfortunately, the economic benefits accrued have not been articulated in any substantive form either in 10 years or 100 years projections or analysis and endorsed by any independent economic authority of repute.