99% of endangered the songbird’s range lies unprotected, according to the study.
The study, published in Nature Scientific Reports, says recurring forest fires , the proposed Wayanad twin tunnel road, landslides and climate change threaten the species, whose population is estimated at only 1,000-1,500 and whose known range spans just 50-60 sq km in the ‘sky islands’ of the Western Ghats. Using satellite data and field observations, the study mapped 3,020.4 hectares of burnt area in and around the habitat during 2018-25. The worst years were 2019 (1,024.7 ha) and 2020 (1,030.3 ha).
Kozhikode : Banasura laughingthrush or Banasura Chilappan (Montecincla jerdoni), an endangered songbird with one of the smallest distribution ranges among India’s birds, faces an expanding array of threats in the few high-altitude forests in and around Wayanad it calls home, according to the first quantitative study of its distribution, occupancy and abundance. Sujin said the small range made the bird highly extinction-prone, as range size is a strong predictor of extinction in terrestrial species. “It is one of the rarest and least-studied species in the Western Ghats because its habitat is largely inaccessible terrain and shrouded in heavy rains and mist during the monsoon,” he said. Fires destroy shola vegetation, open up the canopy, reduce connectivity between habitat patches and gradually convert forest into grassland, the study says.
A major threat is man-made fires, which sometimes burn hectares of shola forest and montane grassland.
Though the species was recorded from 1,400 metres to above 2,300 metres, occupancy and abundance rose markedly above 1,700 metres. The study was conducted by N S Sujin, N R Anoop, S Babu and R Jayapal of Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, and SMS Foundation Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation, Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment. Elevation, slope, shrub cover and vegetation productivity determined occupancy.