What’s the best way to conserve a forest?
In the opinion of KJ Raju, 75, a retired mathematics professor, referring to the Longwood Shola forest (a 116-hectare reserve forest on the northern edge of Kotagiri in the Nilgiris) that he and a handful of other ecologists have been attempting to protect for the last 27 years, you should simply leave it alone.
Well, don’t completely desert it, Raju clarifies.
A forest, he says, needs two things: protect the native trees and purge the exotic ones. And, to further this goal, Raju, Padma Shri awardee Michel Danino, M Balamurugan (who was at the time headmaster in Kotagiri’s government school), and Michael Ezekiel (at the time a music teacher and a social worker) became a part of the newly formed Longwood Shola Watchdog Committee (LSWC) formed by the Forest Department in 1996.
But, long before the committee was formed, one individual had already gauged the forest’s importance. Michel Danino and his wife moved near the Longwood Shola forest in 1982 when he started work at a nearby research institute.
A former professor of IIT Gandhinagar, Michel says he’d spend hours in the forest, often marvelling at how so many “plant and animal species worked in concert in this unique ecosystem. The trees seemed to communicate and were able to wage a war against intruding exotics.”
(Left) Cobra flower; (Right): Ground orchid
His observations during this time compelled him to raise his voice against what was happening in the forest.
“⁠⁠As illegal cutting and felling was rampant, I started doing four things: physically preventing locals from collecting firewood or felling young trees, putting constant pressure on the local Forest Department staff, though without much success; writing long detailed letters to the higher officials, getting senior journalists to report on the destruction of this important pocket of Shola forest,” he shares.
A couple of years later, Michel took then Assistant Conservator of Forests, Dr N Krishna Kumar (who much later became Principal Chief Conservator of Forests) to the Longwood Shola forest and showed him hundreds of fresh stumps.
“He submitted a strong report to his higher-ups. Years later, it was he who mooted the idea of a group of citizens (or watchdog committee) to assist the Forest Department, leading to the formation of the Longwood Shola Watchdog Committee in 1998.”
Inside one of the Nilgiris’ last Shola forests
The significance of the Longwood Shola forest is splattered across the pages of ecological history.
The word ‘shola’ is an ancient Tamil word found in the oldest Sangam literature. It refers to evergreen montane tropical or subtropical natural rainforests growing at an altitude higher than 1,500 metres above sea level, mostly along the Western Ghats.
The Shola forests of the Nilgiris, in particular, haven’t had an easy life, becoming threatened by man-made plantations (eucalyptus, acacia, cypress, tea) during British rule.
According to a report in Mongabay India, India has lost 30 percent of its forests in the last few decades, with over 50 percent of Shola forests having been lost since 1850. A walk down the lanes of ecological history reveals that, much before the Longwood Shola Watchdog Committee stepped up to protect the Longwood Shola forest, in the 1900s, after pockets of the forest were reserved under the Madras Forest Act of 1882, local people were urged not to convert the natural forests into plantations.
(Left): Grey jungle hen with chicks; (Right): Blue fledgling
In the latter half of the 20th century, afforestation attempts were made by the Forest Department, which planted wattle to meet fuelwood needs. However, it was later realised that wattle severely degrades the forest soil and does not allow any undergrowth; wattle plantations are in effect dead forests. In contrast, Shola forests have a rich biodiversity, countless flora and fauna species, and a capacity to store large amounts of rainwater in their soil, slowly releasing it in drier times.
And what’s really at stake when patches of Shola forest are lost?
According to a report on the significance of the Longwood Shola forest, it’s a perennial water source to fifteen villages and hamlets, meeting the water needs of around 30,000 to 50,000 people — the Nilgiris are dubbed the overhead water tank of South India — while also being host to species such as barking deer, wild cats, porcupines and wild boars, flying squirrels, hares, bonnet macaques, the rare mouse deer and civet; panthers and Indian bisons (gaurs) occasionally pass through the forest.
But a silent threat is brewing.
The exotic strangers in the Nilgiris
Across the Nilgiris, there’s often a pretty carpet of orange that can be observed. But looks can be deceptive. This is Cestrum aurantiacum, an aggressive weed native to South America that has been silently invading Sholas, choking native growth.
Able to propagate through roots, shoots, as well as seeds, the weed is tough to eradicate, growing ten to twenty times faster than native Shola species. As with this weed and many other species, manual eradication is the only known solution.
Forest staff worked alongside citizen volunteers, turning conservation into a collaborative effort.
Another intruder is the (in)famous Lantana camara, a thicket-forming shrub native to tropical America which arrived in India as an ornamental plant in the early 1800s, and now, according to a recent study published in Global Ecology and Conservation, occupies 154,000 sq.km forests (more than 40 percent by area) in India’s tiger range. “A saving grace is that it grows mainly in the forests’ fringes and clearings, not in deeply shaded areas,” Michel reasons.
With time, the Nilgiris submitted themselves to the whims of these exotics.
Jayashree Ratnam, Associate Director of Wildlife Biology and Conservation programme at NCBS, Bengaluru, while speaking to Mongabay India, shared, “It is already known that lantana needs to be uprooted, rather than merely cut above-ground, to prevent aggressive regrowth from the root-stocks. Our work has confirmed this,” she said, adding that, even with weeding, the recovery of native grasses is limited. “We, therefore, recommend uprooting, followed by weeding and some seeding of native grasses.
According to an article published in The New Indian Express, out of the 250 acres of forest (116 hectares), there are native tree species only in 90 acres of Longwood Shola; the remaining areas are saturated with invasive species.
This is where the LSWC’s work became significant. It focused not only on regularly patrolling the forest but also on removing the exotics, including the shoots of eucalyptus trees that were grown in 15 acres of area in Shola forest.
The LSWC briefing the villagers about the Longwood Shola forest. In frame: KJ Raju (speaking), Michel Danino (behind KJ Raju) and M Balamurugan (sitting).
This was often done with groups of students. Elaborating on why this is crucial, Raju says that without natural predators, the species thrive and spread, and cutting them down regularly allows native species to grow.
He adds, “Today, scientists are trying to figure out how to remove invasive species across the Nilgiris. We suggested that they sell eucalyptus trees to local timber contractors. The revenue, often from paper pulp, could then be used to maintain the forest.” He adds that regular removal is essential because, if the Forest Department removes lantana just once, it grows back.
But regular removal requires labour. This is where their model, which deployed voluntary efforts of students, had an advantage.
“Around 50 students would work across the forest at a time. With acacia, every student would pull out around 100 saplings. Since they take years to grow, the next group would remove the new growth. We continued this for 15 years, and the place became a healthy forest again,” Raju shares. They followed the plucking with the planting of native species.
And these efforts eventually led to Shola regeneration.
Another of their recommendations to the Forest Department was not to spray fertilisers on saplings raised in its nurseries.
“Barking deer are attracted to the taste created by these fertilisers and eat the planted saplings. Naturally growing saplings do not contain these chemicals, so they survive and grow. Our approach has always been to leave nature alone after clearing the exotics. Once invasive species are removed, nature takes care of the rest. Nature will look after its own business,” Raju emphasises.
More recently, in a significant step towards restoring Tamil Nadu’s native ecosystems, the Madras High Court in March 2026 launched Project ‘Sezhumai Karuvoolam’ (Fertile Repository) to oversee the statewide eradication of the invasive species Prosopis juliflora, locally known as seemai karuvelam. To ensure the project’s effective implementation, the court appointed former High Court judges Justice A Selvam and Justice V Bharathidasan to head a special committee responsible for supervising the eradication efforts.
Making the locals a part of the endeavour
What started out as a handful of people looking after the Longwood Shola forest soon turned into a movement.
As a report (1998-2001) authored by Michel highlights, dozens of woodcutters were intercepted and driven out of the forest, often after seizing ropes and machetes. Persistent and systematic rounds of patrolling resulted in wood collection being reduced by 90 percent within a year. This allowed the forest to thrive.
Michel, who spent years documenting the Shola system as a whole, says the forest has always amazed him. “I took a broad interest in the flora of the Shola, the richness, the incredibly diverse ecosystem, the perennial source of water, some of the gigantic trees, but also many challenges threatening the Shola owing to human interference.”
The committee’s larger goal was to make the locals understand that they needed the forest as much as it needed them.
And so, making them a part of the project was crucial.
Michel Danino (centre left); Michael Ezekiel (centre right) along with a group of volunteer students.
In November 1998, the committee printed and distributed in all surrounding villages and settlements a public appeal (4,000 copies in both Tamil and English) inviting people’s collaboration in saving this forest.
These awareness camps weren’t only to convince the villagers of the importance of this forest, but also to assess their real needs, including water and firewood.
Notices warning against poaching were also distributed to about 50 non-vegetarian tea stalls, messes, and hotels throughout Kotagiri. Through an eco-centre, seminars, field visits and school programmes, it educated over 1,500 students and hundreds of teachers about Shola ecosystems. Volunteers helped remove invasive species, restore habitats and maintain the forest.
The other dependence the locals have on the forest is for water.
Elaborating on how a Shola forest is different from others, Raju explains, it’s formed at the convergence of two grasslands. The trees are stunted, and the kind that are designed by nature to conserve water, as mentioned in The Nilgiris (1908) authored by W Francis who, reiterating that, “The Sholas of the plateau are not of any great importance from a commercial point of view, as the trees are slow-growing varieties which produce timber of little or no value and probably take at least a century to mature”, emphasises that “they are of immense use in protecting source of water supply.”
This is backed by the LSWC’s observation that one hectare of Shola forest creates 750 litres of water per second. Explaining the math, Raju reasons, “Shola trees absorb 75 percent of rainwater and preserve it in their root system, which acts as a sponge.”
According to reports, Longwood Shola generates three main perennial streams (with several smaller perennial tributaries, and a few seasonal ones), which supply many cubic metres of water downstream every day to the villages of Kairbetta, Hosatty, Aravenu and Jackanarai.
Sholas attract the rain by sending a considerable amount of transpiration back into the air through their dense foliage.
As Raju explains, in the Shola system, “Rainwater falls drop by drop onto the forest floor, where the sponge-like ecosystem absorbs it. During summer, this stored water feeds several springs, ensuring a year-round supply. The grasslands absorb water during the rains, which is one of the unique features of the Shola ecosystem. The water collects in swamps, with three to four swamps forming naturally. A single swamp can provide drinking water to around 5,000 people in nearby villages. The Shola forest exists primarily as a water catchment ecosystem.”
In 2022, the Longwood Shola was granted the Queen’s Commonwealth Canopy (QCC) accreditation, a forest conservation programme across the Commonwealth countries to conserve unique indigenous forest patches.
Even beyond water needs, the Shola forest is beneficial to the communities.
Poofsed, a member of the Toda community, while speaking to Newsminute, shared, “These forests used to provide us all our medicines and we did not need to go to a hospital. If somebody had a headache, we knew what plant to look out for. We knew what to use after childbirth. Today many of those plants are not available. Also, our medical needs are more complicated, requiring us to go to a hospital.” The Toda life is intimately related to their Shola forests. After all, these forests are lifelines for so many.
While Raju shares that the moral heart of their work lay in creating more Shola forests across the Nilgiris — “we used to call them pocket Sholas”, this plan was intercepted by the Forest Department.
“But I always wanted to prove that a Shola system could be created anywhere and so, in the school where I was teaching (Cordite Factory Higher Secondary School), I created a mini jungle with 500 plants of 35 species from the Longwood Shola forest. It flourished. That’s how we proved that Sholas can be created,” he reasons.
In 2022, the Longwood Shola was granted the Queen’s Commonwealth Canopy (QCC) accreditation, a forest conservation programme across the Commonwealth countries to conserve unique indigenous forest patches.
While the group had to discontinue their efforts a few years ago because it conflicted with the Forest Department’s ideas, the Longwood Shola forest stands as a shining example of what sustained community-led conservation can achieve, with the ecological gains of their efforts still visible today.
