Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

THE ECOLOGY OF A RARE HIGH ALTITUDE NATURAL LAKE OF KERALA POOKOT

S.A. Abbasi, Naseema Abbasi, K.K.S. Bhatia, Madhavan Komath and S. Vinithan

Abstract

The state of Kerala (India) has a large number of man-made lakes situated in its mid-land and high-land regions. But there are very few natural lakes in Kerala's high-altitude lands. Pookot is one such lake situated in the midst of the Western Ghats about 35 Km East of Kozhikode city. In recent years Pookot has been under serious threat from encroachments and overexploitation. We took up this study of Pookot lake in order to understand the lake ecology as also to generate a body of information that may serve as a frame of Kozhidode reference for implementing restoration/conservation measures. There was no information whatsoever on the water chemistry, flora, and fauna of the lake before we embarked on this study, of which salient findings are presented here. These findings also happen lobe the first-ever of its kind on any natural freshwater lake of Kerala.