Knock on wood

Updated on: Monday, January 25, 2010

Raman Kumar, a graduate in geology, was working with a Delhi-based ad agency. Meanwhile, he came across an NGO that focussed issues and took up a part-time job. After a year, he realised that if he intended to do anything meaningful in the field, he should consider a Master’s degree.

Today, affiliated with the Centre for Wildlife Studies, Bangalore, (as a PhD student), Kumar says, “Given our rigid education system, it was tough. Most postgraduate ecology courses required a background in life sciences. Interdisciplinary shifts were a taboo. Apparently, I had burnt my bridges.”

However, things changed when Kumar found out about the Master’s programme in forestry at the Forest Research Institute (FRI) in Dehradun. Since forestry is an applied subject, it spanned the grey area between ecology and pure sciences and he was eligible to apply.

After completing his Master’s, Kumar joined the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun, for a project. The two-year tenure at WII gave him the opportunity to interact with wildlife scientists and researchers and learn more about ecology.

With his training in forestry and interest in birds, Kumar wanted to study the connection between the two. “In India, we have scant knowledge about how birds are affected when forests are modified. Also, studies suggest that among birds, woodpeckers are extremely sensitive to changes that take place in forests. When I looked for literature on woodpeckers in India, I was surprised by how little had been done barring a few exceptions,” he says.

The sal forests of Uttarakhand are rich in woodpeckers. Also, the forests have high economic value and a long history of systematic modification through past management and commercial harvesting. This appealed to Kumar as a research question. “The idea took shape and I decided to look at how forest management in sal forests affects woodpeckers,” he says.

Through his research, Kumar aimed to learn more about the woodpecker community in the sal belt of Uttarakhand and its relationship with the habitat. As to the fieldwork, for his surveys he selected certain trails in the forests — about two kilometres long. Since woodpeckers are wide-ranging and uncommon, he points out that one had to be lucky to spot five to six of them in course of a kilometre’s walk. “Therefore, one had to try each trail over months and years to get a convincing picture of the woodpecker community.”

Kumar informs that recent studies in Asia reveal that all is not well with woodpeckers. The largest woodpeckers in the world are already extinct due to habitat loss. “If woodpeckers disappear, the forest will lose its construction engineers,” Kumar points out. He further explains that woodpeckers are critical to ecosystems because they are one of the very few birds capable of drilling holes into trees. These holes later provide refuge to a variety of other animals like squirrels, snakes, bats, and certain species of birds. With the disappearance of woodpeckers, the existence of these species will also be threatened. Also, since they mainly eat insects, woodpeckers restrict the insect population from exploding and causing largescale damage to forests.

Kumar believes that “we need more information on how the human hand affects the ecological nature of our forests. Indicator species such as woodpeckers are useful in diagnosing the ecological health of our forests.” Moreover, he adds, “In India we know little about the complexities of our ecosystems. So any research in this direction will add to our pool of scientific knowledge.”

— ‘Nature’s Trail’ explores research initiatives that help towards a sustainable world. Send your feedback to [email protected]

Times of india

Knock on wood

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