While the COVID-19 scare has changed the daily routine in human habitations, the forests in former composite Adilabad district are responding to changes in weather taking place since the last few months by altering the timing of seasons. The tribal people who have co-existed with the local vegetation for centuries are surprised over many species experiencing delayed spring attributing the factor to the unusually long continued spells of rainfall.
The flowering season in ippa or mahua species (Madhuca indica) one of the most important species of the dry deciduous here, which usually occurs between mid-March and mid-April has been delayed by 15 to 30 days. The most significant change according to the Adivasis, however, is the shedding of flowers by an ippa tree strangely around noon though it invariably takes place before dawn.
The tree is located in the remote Netnur village of Sirpur (U) mandal in Kumram Bheem Asifabad district and is the only tree among the hundreds scattered within an area with a wide radius. The yield is also less than the usual from the tree which is estimated to be at least a century old.
“We have neither seen such changes in weather nor the tree deviating from its routine of shedding flowers before dawn,” asserted Khati tribe elder Madavi Bapu Rao who owns the tree. “It is perhaps not getting the required warmth in the small hours of the day,” he hazarded a guess.
“Yes, the ippa tree needs sufficient warmth in the night to shed its flowers. But only one tree experiencing the phenomenon is certainly an unusual occurrence,” observed associate professor at the Department of Botany in Satavahana University, Karimnagar.
“The phenomenon seems to be vernalisation, which is speeding up the process of flowering in a plant by exposing it to prolonged cold of winter, or artificially by introducing the vernalin hormone. Nevertheless, there is need for deep study into it to arrive at a conclusion,” he added.
“We are not worried about the change in the aspect of flowering in this tree. We are more worried if there is something more severe that can happen to the changes in weather,” wondered Jugnak Tarabai, another Khati tribal living close to the mahua tree in question.
