Rewilding former plantations and degraded forest lands (including swampy valley fields, riparian vegetation and hill slope habitat) through different strategies

Since the private reserve at Gurukula Botanical Sanctuary was grown slowly, through purchase of many 1-7 acre parcels over 50 years, we will refer to them as lands or pieces or fragments.

The various contiguous lands (currently under the custodianship of Gurukula) were previously under tea, coffee, lemongrass or ginger plantations. Except for 7 out of the 73 acres of the private lands, the whole area had been clear-felled  50-60 years ago followed by grazing, home gardens or plantations and annual monocultures in the swampy fields which would have been widened by settler practices. Exotic species have run feral in many fragments. Firewood collection at the onset of the monsoon, from harvesting fallen trees or branches or lopping near buildings. There was a fire on one of the hill slopes. The stream was polluted, depleted of fish and full of trash and the banks were grazed or cultivated in many places.

Rewilding, rehabilitation and ecological nurturance are better terms for describing the practices at GBS. The main idea is to protect existing old growth habitat, encourage native diversity in degraded areas, and in a limited portion, to rehabilitate 2000 species comprising a rich array of lifeforms from the Western Ghats that we believe need targeted intervention in the form of ecosystem or rainforest gardening.  Within all this is a 2 acre botanical garden, planted with native and exotic tropical species focusing on aroids, orchids, gingers, acanths, pteridophytes, pterophytes, begonias, bromeliads, carnivorous plants and impatiens. This area is open to the public and serves as a locus for discussion and learning on plant diversity, ecology, classification (scientific and vernacular), form (tuber, epiphyte, climber, tree) and function (what is this plant doing?), biogeography and horticulture. The exotics can be used as nurse cover for native relatives in the same family or even genus, the latter requiring various microclimatic conditions made more easily possible with dense interplanting. Any form of gardening requires repeated removal of quick growing exotic plants ranging from tiny urticacines and alga to Clidemia, Eupatorium and Lantana.  Fungal damage, or parasitic and other imbalance,  or insect and animal proliferation become management issues where plants are cultivated.

The oldest fragment has medium-tall forest, within which we have planted understorey herbaceous, tuberous and woody plants, as well as climbers, tree ferns and epiphytes. Some of this is land is left alone. Over the years, exotic species have run feral in many fragments, but native herbaceous, epiphytic and woody species are establishing themselves too. In one of these fragments, the tea was removed by us 20 years ago. In three smaller fragments of 1-2 acres, tea has been allowed to grow into a dense stand through which we have cut tunnels for easy access and to plant some deep forest species like Cullenia.  In two fragments, the tea was removed fully, and the area was planted with rehabilitated grassland species from various higher elevations of the Western Ghats. In another fragment, the tea has suckered up despite removal but is acting as a nurse tree for native evergreen species. Coffee was grown as an understory plantation crop in some areas, when it became too expensive to maintain, was left to itself. Coffee sapling removal has begun along a walking trail that traverses the whole land. Fragments previously under lemongrass and ginger plantations have largely been left alone, young forest has grown by itself, no planting was done. Some grazing takes place in areas. Fallen trees are occasionally removed for fuelwood for the community kitchen. Upstream chemical effluents, overfishing, overgrazing and sandmining, annual cultivations were degrading  the Kallampuzha stream near Gurukula and have been largely slowed or halted, and recovery of dense vegetation, and species of fish, increase in otter populations are perhaps signs of ecological recovery.

Specific actions:

1. 1. Tea removal on 6 acres, then left alone.
   2. Tea left alone on 3 acres to growth into dense thicket, monitored for succession with some planting.
   3. Tea left alone on 2 acres and monitored, no planting
   4. Rehabilitation through ex-situ means and out-planting of Western Ghat grassland species on 4 acres of approximately 300 species
   5. Rehabilitation through ex-situ means and outplanting of Western Ghat evergreen forest species including higher montane shola species in 5 acres of selectively felled forest, ranging from epiphytes and climbers to tuberous and understorey perennials of over 1000 species.
   6. Coffee largely left alone in 5 acres, some seedling removal, some harvesting of uprights, some outright removal.
   7. Ginger and lemongrass left alone in 15 acres, recovering to secondary forest, some planting along tracks.
   8. Selectively felled forest left alone.
   9.  Riparian poromboke vegetation protected from annual monocultures, felling, sandmining and bamboo overharvesting. Occasional planting of Pandanus. Tree species monitored on a yearly basis since 2017