IUCN removed Critically Endangered Syzygium Travncoricum from Red List

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in the first week of May 2013 removed the critically endangered Syzygium Travncoricum (locally known as kulavetti or vadhamkolli) tree endemic to Kerala from its red list.

Kerela Forest Research Institute (KFRI) conducted a field study in wake of the IUCN classification and suggested that the tree can now be moved to the endangered list.

The tree entered the critically endangered list of IUCN in 1998 on the basis of the Conservation Assessment Management Plan (CAMP) workshop conducted under the Biodiversity Conservation Prioritisation Project India. IUCN classified the Syzygium Travncoricum under the critically endangered Red List after the camp study discovered that due to habitat destruction (the prime cause) the estimated population of the tree went below 200.

Maximum of the last trees of the Syzygium Travncoricum group were seen in Southern Part of the state raising concerns of the environmentalist about the tree.