“See, it is all shrivelled up but within one spell of rain, it will unfurl and appear like a plant that has been there forever,” says Kobita Das pointing at a small brown plant that is curled up. Atop one of the surviving rock formation on the banks of the Osman Sagar lake, the plant and those similar are too small to be noticed from afar. But they are there.
“They are living museums to enjoy, study and showcase,” says Ms. Kobita, who, as an independent researcher, spent years studying and documenting the flora and fauna on the Deccan Sheet Rocks. But as the destruction of rocks in Hyderabad gathers pace, the flora and fauna are disappearing fast.
“It is important to preserve them as they are unique to the sheet rock, superbly adapted to the conditions they live in and are incredibly beautiful miniature natural gardens. They provide a rich habitat for a variety of fauna, some of which live exclusively on these rocks. These include the Malabar Rock Toad, the Penninsular Rock Agama and the Fan-throated Lizard,” she says.
Home of the brave
The rocks are smooth, but every crack and crevice is filled with life in one form or the other. It is an environment suited for hardy plants that can make do with little. “The microclimate is varied when the expanse of rock is large and is coupled with seasonality. There is barely any soil—more often, it is a thin layer of organic matter—and the conditions range from hot and dry to cool and dry and waterlogged to windy. Temperature in a single day can swing by 20° C,” says Ms. Kobita, sharing the information with an infectious enthusiasm.
“We lost hundreds of plants due to the levelling work being done on one side of the Khajaguda rock formation. The plants that are native to the area disappeared overnight. It appeared as if the forest, which included wild parijatam (Nyctanthes arbor-tristis) trees, never existed,” says Arun Vasireddy, who has made a case for the protection of the Deccan rocks and its flora and fauna. The levelling destroyed the grazing land that was home to many custard apple plants.
“We lost hundreds of plants due to the levelling work being done on one side of the Khajaguda rock formation. The plants that are native to the area disappeared overnight; it appeared as if the forest, which included wild parijatam (Nyctanthes arbor-tristis) trees, never existed.”Arun VasireddyAn activist
Species named after Hyderabad
The uniqueness of the flora and fauna can be gauged from the fact that the granitic sheet rocks have a species named Ledebouria hyderabadensis! “Isolated on these rocks, species can evolve into exclusive ones not found elsewhere (endemic) such as the Hyderabad Squill,” says Ms. Kobita.
The small herb survives the summer by shrivelling up and bursts into glory with pink flowers when it feels moisture in the air. The grey rock is suddenly covered with yellow, white and pink flowers that are endemic to the region.
Apart from the lichens (a separate kingdom), the first colonisers on display are liverworts, mosses, ferns, grasses, cyperus species and flowering plants. Life is short for many but lifestyles are vibrant. Some like it wet while others are desiccation tolerant or hibernate in the form of bulbs/tubers. There are even carnivorous species.
Need for documentation
The geology of Deccan and the weathering of granites, gneisses, schistose and other rock formations have been studied in great detail. The biodiversity on the rocks, however, has not been subjected to a similar systematic study.
Undisturbed sheet rock areas, especially in the suburbs, still have a few good habitats but are degrading rapidly due to biotic pressures. “These areas are poorly studied. They require a minimum of two years of continuous study to document the species since so many of them are ephemeral,” says Ms. Kobita.
