ANNOUNCEMENTS
The Banni Grassland in Kachchh district of Gujarat is a natural unique and complex ecosystem. Apart from being one of the biggest grasslands in the Asian region spanning an area of 2497 sq km, it is also a high bio diversity area with amazing landscape with a dual ecosystem. It is a source of sustenance not only to the people in the 48 villages inside Banni, but also serves as an important livelihood support system to the inhabitants of the drought prone Kachchh District.
Though Banni acquired the legal status of a Protected Forest in 1955, the area has still not been handed over to the local forest department and continues to be under the control of the revenue department. Prescriptions for scientific management in the working plan of Banni exists. However, there are several constraints, most important of which includes the resistance from the locals which has resulted in the forest department till date not been able to bring about much interventions regarding scientific management of the area. The previous working plan expired in 2019-2020 and several studies needs to be done on priority basis for preparing the next working plan.
Over years, the landscape of Banni has shown drastic changes. The deterioration of this unique grassland are many, which inter alia includes, heavy uncontrolled grazing, wide spread ingress of Prosopis juliflora, dams constructed on rivers flowing towards Banni, periodical occurrence of droughts, continuous increase in soil salinity, haphazard cutting of P. juliflora for preparing charcoal etc.
The arid landscape of Kachchh region has a huge livestock population of around 20.85 Lakh and there exists a huge gap in demand and supply of fodder, making the livelihood of locals very difficult especially in droughts, which are a frequent occurrence in the area. To aid in filling this visible supply demand gap of fodder, huge purchase of fodder from outside of Kachchh and its distribution among locals has been a regular work of the Kachchh district administration. In view of this, rejuvenating the existing Kachchh grasslands, including Banni, is of prime importance.
Scientific study for understanding of the fast changing landscape of Banni with grasslands being converted into woodlands, recent study of rapid changes in salinity in the region, the grass species variety and distribution etc. are some of the important studies urgently needed to be done before starting any focussed efforts for management in Banni. The present study has focussed on understanding the grass species distribution and diversity in the Banni landscape through field survey and analysis, which will aid in envisaging future grassland management prescriptions and for rejuvenating the grassland by the implementers.
