Invasive species

Subject: Environment

Section: Biodiversity

Context:

A Vitamin D3-rich weed and a shrub with roots that wild boars love to gorge on are among the 18 invasive plants stifling the Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve, the best-known address of the greater one-horned rhinoceros on the Earth.

Impact of invasive species on Kaziranga national park

Kaziranga has had to deal with encroachment, poaching, and annual ﬂoods for decades. along with the green invaders like ipomoea (Ipomoeacarnea) and mimosa (Mimosa himalaica)
Invasive plants silently taking over the landscape at the cost of indigenous grasses, shrubs and trees.
Invasive plants are fast clogging paths and grasslands.
The herbivores usually avoid the invasive plants which regenerate at an alarming speed and threaten to edge out the indigenous flora.
Some of the invasive plants have a toxic impact on the landscape after remaining underwater, which is often for two months every monsoon.
Some weeds have herbal properties, but their toxicity outweighs their utility.
- For instance, wild boars love to gorge on the succulent rootlets of the Leea macrophylla or ‘kukurathengia’ that are fast clogging the patrolling paths and grasslands.
Another one is the Cestrum diurnum or day-blooming jasmine of West Indies origin “coming up gregariously” on the Brahmaputra sandbars. The plant is otherwise a source of Vitamin D3.

Alien Invasive Species:

An alien species is a species introduced outside its normal distribution.
An alien species become ‘invasive’ when they are introduced deliberately or accidentally outside their natural areas, where they out-compete the native species and upset the ecological balance.
Invasive alien species (IAS) are animals, plants or other organisms that are introduced into places outside their natural range, negatively impacting native biodiversity, ecosystem services or human well-being.

Examples of invasive species in India