Invasive tree spreading in Mudumalai Tiger Reserve

#GS-03 Biodiversity

About Mudumalai Tiger Reserve:

Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary was established in 1942 in the Mudumalai forest area in Tamil Nadu.
Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary was designated as Mudumalai National Park in 1990.
Mudumalai was designated as a tiger reserve by the Tamil Nadu state government in April 2007.
The place is home to over 100 tigers and over 260 species of birds. About 8% of all species of birds found in India are seen here.
Rare birds like Malabar Gray Hornbill and Malabar Laughing Thrush are some of them.
Mudumalai Tiger Reserve is also home to elephants, spotted deer, wild boar, porcupine, panthers, and so on. One can also find rare species of plants such as giant bamboo and valuable timber trees, such as rosewood, teak, etc.
Moyar River acts as a separation between the forest of Bandipur National Park and the Mudumalai sanctuary to the south which also separates the states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

Senna spectabilis is a plant species of the legume family (Fabaceae) in the subfamily Caesalpinioideae native to South and Central America.
The plant has become an invasive alien species in parts of Africa such as Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania and Uganda, and also in South-India.
The thick foliage of the tree arrests the growth of other indigenous tree and grass species.
Thus, it causes food shortage for the wildlife population, especially herbivores.

Lantana camara is a highly variable ornamental shrub, native of the neotropics.
It has been introduced to most of the tropics and subtropics as a hedge plant and has since been reported as extremely weedy and invasive in many countries including India.
It competes with native plants for space and resources, and also alters the nutrient cycle in the soil.
This invasion has resulted in the scarcity of native forage plants for wild herbivores.