Alien plants growing together threatening tiger habitats: Study

Subject : Environment

Section : Biodiversity

Context:

Several alien invasive plants growing together can have a detrimental effect on the biodiversities in tiger habitats
The study is conducted by the Wildlife Institute of India.

Alien species as a threat to the Indian biodiversity:

The plants can put pressure on native forage plants and drive away wild herbivores — the food source for the big cats.
India’s biodiverse ecosystems are threatened by a variety of alien plants like Lantana Camara, Parthenium hysterophorous, Prosopis juliflora, etc, introduced during British colonisation.
Lantana alone has pervasively invaded 44 per cent of India’s forests.
Co-occurring invasive plants like Lantana, Ageratum conyzoides, Pogostemon benghalensis, etc, have a magnified cumulative impact than their individual impacts, causing ecological homogenisation in invaded regions.
Affects the soil nutrients.
Native wild herbivores like chital and sambhar did not prefer the commonly found plants in invaded areas.

What does the study suggest?

Reduced forage availability for herbivores like sambar and chital, which are major prey for tiger, leopard, and dhole in this landscape, threaten the sustenance of these carnivores in invaded regions.
It is indicative of an ‘invasion-centric forest ecosystem’.
It is necessary to prioritise restoration investments in the least invaded regions to retain native biodiversity and slowly upscale such restored habitats
The study highlighted the importance of investments in scientific restoration in India to mitigate the impacts of biological invasions.