Although 62 endemic freshwater species occur inside the PA network, they are rarely subject to species- specific management or monitoring plans, it observes. Multiple threatsThe paper notes that native freshwater biodiversity inside protected areas was exposed to multiple threats like invasive alien species, damming of rivers and infectious diseases. Odonates and freshwater shrimps had the fewest endemic species represented inside the protected areas of the State. More than half of the 130 species were not represented in the Protected Area (PA) network of the State. “Protected areas in the Kerala region of the Western Ghats also need to be managed exclusively for freshwater biodiversity to prevent extinction of species,” said Rajeev Raghavan of KUFOS, the lead author of the paper.

Source: The Hindu July 06, 2016 00:33 UTC