Three new balsams add to Nilgiris biodiversity colours

Dentist with passion for plants makes botanical discovery

Tarun Chhabra with the Impatiens balsam plant in this house in Udhagamandalam.

Three new species of plants belonging to the Balsaminaceae family were identified in the Mukurthi National Park in the Nilgiris recently.

The three, named Impatiens kawttyana , Impatienstaihmushkulni and Impatiens nilgirica , found by Tarun Chhabra and Ramneek Singh a few years ago, were formally classified recently. Their discovery was published in the Nordic Journal of Botany in December 2016.

Dr. Chhabra, a practising dentist and cultural anthropologist who has worked closely with the Toda tribes, has published a book titled

The Toda Landscape. Talking to

The Hindu , he said several years have passed since new plant species were discovered in the Nilgiris, and the new species throw light on the continued importance and diversity of the Nilgiris. “There are more than 135 endemic species of plants in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, of which the Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu forms the core, with over 90 endemics,” he said.

Impatiens kawttyana , as described by Chhabra and Ramneek, is identifiable by its large, white flowers, glandular hairs followed by white hairs at the throat, and has been named after a Toda deity hill, ‘Kawtty’.

Similarly, the Impatiens taihmushkulni is named after the Toda deity hill, ‘Taihmushkuln’. Like the halls of Valhalla in Norse mythology, the Todas believe that their god ‘Aihhn’ resides and rules the Toda afterworld from the hill.

Impatiens

nilgirica variant nawttyana, differs slightly from a previously identified species, with the newly found variety having “longer scape (part of a stalk bearing flowers) and petioles (the stalk that joins the leaf to the stem), with white flowers,” among other small variations. This variety was named based on what the Todas call the members of the Balsaminaceae family — ‘Nawtty.’

Dedicated guardians

The naming of the three species after Toda deities isn’t coincidental. Dr. Chhabra says the names reflect the Todas’ crucial role in maintaining pristine ecosystems, especially in the Mukurthi National Park.

“At least 14 of the sacred deity hills of the Todas are located inside the park and they have played a tremendous role in protecting the area,” said Mr. Chhabra.

The three new species were found in isolated pockets of the Mukurthi National Park and Porthimund reserve forests, and while I.taihmushkulni has been tentatively classified by researchers to be ‘endangered’, there was not enough data on the other two species, Dr. Chhabra explained.

The pristine grasslands and forests in the Mukurthi National Park need to protected, he said, and called for the removal of invasive species such as wattle in the park. “Toda elders have in the past seen the balsam plants in Mukurthi and said they used to find the same species in Wenlock Downs and near their villages. Introduced plant and tree species have ruined local habitats where many types of balsam used to grow,” he said.

Plea for grasslands

Mr. Ramneek Singh, a co-author of the paper, said the recent discoveries highlight the need to protect what is left of the Nilgiris and restore areas adjacent to ecologically sensitive areas like the Mukurthi National Park.

“We have spent more than 25 years insisting that grasslands need to be restored. While the Forest Department has been giving importance to reintroduction of Shola tree species, grasslands restoration has largely been ignored until recently,” he said.

Dr. Prabhu Kumar, Senior Scientist, Centre for Medicinal Plant Research, Arya Vaidya Sala, Kottakal, Kerala, who collaborated with Dr. Chhabra and Mr. Singh on the paper, said he expects to find many more unrecorded species of balsam in the Western Ghats, as there have not been studies done to chart new species since the early 1900s.

“From1915 to 2005, there was not a single new species of balsam discovered in the Western Ghats. This is because there are 206 species in India, and trying to ascertain whether the specimens we collect have been previously recorded is a Herculean task,” said Dr. Prabhu.