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National Mission on Himalayan Studies (NMHS) HIMALAYAN RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP (PRO FORMA FOR THE ANNUAL PROGRESS REPORT) [Reporting Period: from 1st April, 2017 to 31st March, 2018] Kindly fill the NMHS Fellowship Annual Progress Report segregated into the following 7 segments, as applicable to the NMHS Fellowship nature and outcomes. 1. Fellowship Grant Information and Other Details 2. Fellowship Description at Himalayan Research Associates (H-RAs) Level 3. Fellowship Description at Himalayan Junior Research Associates (H-JRFs) Level 4. Fellowship Description at Institutional/ University Level 5. Fellowship Concluding Remarks/ Annual Summary 6. Specific Research Question(s) Addressed with Succinct Answer(s) 7. Any other information Please let us know in case of any query at: [email protected] PRO FORMA NMHS-Fellowship Annual Progress Report (APR) 1. Fellowship Grant Information and Other Details NMHS Fellowship Grant ID: HSF2015-16_I003 Name of the Institution/ University: Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata No. of Himalayan Research/Project Associates: 03 No. of Himalayan Junior Research/Project Fellows: 10 NMHS Fellowship Grant Progress Page 1 of 13 2. Fellowship Description at H-RA Level Himalayan Research Associates (H-RAs) H-RAs Profile Description: Name of the PI and S. No. Name of RA Date of Joining Research Title Qualification Designation 1. Dr. Abesh Kumar 03.06.2016 Lepidoptera Dr. Kailash Chandra, Director Ph.D. Sanyal (Insecta) as Potential Indicator-Taxa for Tracking Climate Change in the Indian Himalayan Landscape 2. Dr. Arockia Lenin* 13.10.2016 Lepidoptera Dr. Kailash Chandra, Director Ph.D. (Insecta) as Potential Indicator-Taxa for Tracking Climate Change in the Indian Himalayan Landscape 3. Dr. John Caleb T. D. 01.03.2017 Lepidoptera Dr. Kailash Chandra, Director Ph.D. (Insecta) as Potential Indicator-Taxa for Tracking Climate Change in the Indian Himalayan Landscape * Resigned in September, 2017 Research/ Research Addressed RA No. Achievements Experimen Objective(s) Deliverables tal Work* 1. • Number of Long- • Identification of • One systematic survey has been carried out in Details Term Ecological/ sites for LTEM. Askot WLS in September-October, 2017. provided Environmental • Habitat-suitability • Altogether, 114 LTEM sites have been in Monitoring mapping of established in 5 study areas (except Sikkim) separate (LTEM) sites threatened across Himalayan Landscape (details provided descriptive establishment. Himalayan in descriptive file). • Status & butterflies. • Identification of collected moths (766 Species file distribution of • Conservation of moths were identified under 400 genera of threatened frameworks 24 families) Apollo and other development for • Compilation of secondary literature revealed Parnassini Himalayan around 4107 validated moth species butterflies. Lepidoptera. distributed over 1726 genera across 53 families, which includes around 356 species recorded from Trans-Himalayan Biogeographic Zone. 2 • Monitoring • Predictive species • Species validation from secondary literature. Details NMHS Fellowship Grant Progress Page 2 of 13 surveys in distribution • Sample preparation for DNA barcoding. provided historical modeling for • Identification of collected Lepidoptera. in collection future climatic separate localities. scenario. descriptive • Climate- • Landscape level file Envelope conservation modeling & approach of Distribution Himalayan mapping for Lepidoptera responses to through Indicator changing taxa and climate. awareness generation. 3. • Molecular • DNA barcode • Curation and alignment of generated Details Phylogenetic database sequences obtained from morphologically provided Work through generation for identified specimens in future molecular DNA Barcoding separate to resolve and phylogenetic • Similarity search of the representative descriptive species research on barcode sequences with data available from complexes Himalayan global database. file Lepidoptera • DNA isolation and PCR reactions were carried out for 720 specimens. 400 full length and good quality sequences were obtained. • The developed sequences were submitted to BOLD database under the project ‘Lepidoptera of Indian Himalayas’ for acquiring unique BOLD-IDs. • Preliminary analyses of the obtained sequences were performed on the BOLD database clustering analysis. Progress Brief (to be filled for each H-RA in separate row): *Experimental work giving full details (in separate sheet, within 300 words) of experimental set up, methods adopted, data collected supported by necessary table, charts, diagrams & photographs. Note: Data, table and figures may be attached as separate source file (.docx, .xls, jpg, .jpeg, .png, .shp, etc. ). NMHS Fellowship Grant Progress Page 3 of 13 3. Fellowship Description at H-JRF Level Himalayan Junior Research Project Fellows (H-JRFs) H-JRFs Profile Description: Date of S. No. Name of JRF Name of the PI Qualification Joining 1. Mohd. Ali 29.09.2016 Dr. Kailash Chandra, Director M.Sc. 2. Kaushik Mallick 06.06.2016 Dr. Kailash Chandra, Director M.Sc. 3. Uttaran Bandyopadhyay 14.06.2016 Dr. Kailash Chandra, Director M.Sc. 4. Moumita Das 08.12.2017 Dr. Kailash Chandra, Director M.Sc. 5. Kamalika Bhattacharyya 14.06.2016 Dr. Kailash Chandra, Director M.Sc. 6. Subrata Gayen 14.06.2016 Dr. Kailash Chandra, Director M.Sc. 7. Gaurab Nandi Das 14.06.2016 Dr. Kailash Chandra, Director M.Sc. 8. Sumantika Chatterjee**/Rushati Dey 03.06.2016** Dr. Kailash Chandra, Director M.Sc. /08.12.2017 9. Rahul Ranjan 24.02.2017 Dr. Kailash Chandra, Director M.Sc. 10. Rohit Kumar Jaiswal^/Angshuman Raha 15.06.2016^/ Dr. Kailash Chandra, Director M.Sc. 03.06.2016 ** Resigned in October, 2017. ^ Resigned in November, 2017. Progress Brief (to be filled for each JRF in separate row): Research/ Research Deliverable Achievements Experimen Objectives tal Work* 1. • To investigate • Generation of •One systematic field survey (June-September, Details the differential scientific evidences 2017) has completed. provided processes in the form of •Completed 67 transects for butterflies and 72 in separate reports on light-Trap for moth at selected sampling zones influencing the descriptive Lepidopteran with elevation range from 2900-5284m of file distribution diversity of HNP. Trans-Himalayan region of Ladakh. pattern of • Robust data sets. •During the survey, 3344 individuals of moth Lepidoptera • Thesis on the subject and 3361 individuals of butterflies with 54 assemblages area. species has been recorded. (moths and •Habitat-abundance pattern of butterflies of butterflies) of Trans-Himalaya was analyzed. •Restricted-range species groups and HNP. conservation-important species were identified. • Generation of •Data for habitat suitability modelling for 2 robust data sets species of Apollos recorded till now. generated •A probable new species of Moth (Family: through Notodontidae) of Genus Phalera (Hubner, ecological 1819) was recorded from Thovina, 75°58’ E 34°21’ N, of Suru valley and the taxonomic monitoring at confirmation to species level are in progress habitat level • Historical data for Apollos (Papilionidae: Parnassini) has been extracted from old literature and entered in MS Excel NMHS Fellowship Grant Progress Page 4 of 13 2. • To investigate • Generation of • One systematic field survey (May-June, Details the differential scientific evidences 2017) has completed. provided processes in the form of • Processing of collected Lepidoptera samples in separate influencing the reports on of 589 specimens from GHNP. descriptive Lepidoptera Lepidopteran • Morpho-taxonomy including genitalia file diversity of diversity of GHNP. dissection of collected Geometrid moths GHNP • Robust data sets. (172 specimens) • Generation of • Thesis on the subject • Altogether 103 species of moths were robust datasets area. identified belonging to 70 genera generated including 37 Geometrid moths through • Altitudinal-abundance pattern and ecological preliminary identification of restricted- monitoring at habitat level range species Generation of • Taxonomic revision of highly cryptic and scientific climatically vulnerable Geometridae evidences genus Psyra with reporting of 4 new species and 2 new records 3. •To investigate • Generation of • Field survey at AWLS (Uttarakhand) in May- Details how diverse are scientific evidences June & September-October, 2017 provided the Lepidopteran in the form of • Processing and curation of total 1148 in separate assemblages in reports on Lepidoptera specimens descriptive AWLS Lepidopteran • Morpho-taxonomy including genitalia file •Generation of diversity of AWLS. dissection and photography of collected robust datasets • Robust data sets. moths (106 specimens) generated through • Thesis on the subject • The collected specimens represented ecological area. 368 morpho-species of which about 53% monitoring at specimens were identified up to species habitat level level (217 species). • High-altitude restricted species assemblage was identified for this landscape • Taxonomic revision of high-altitude specialist Noctuidae genus Phlogophora Treitschke, 1825 was undertaken which revealed 13 species from Indian Himalaya including two new species records from India 4. • To investigate the • Generation of No sampling/collection permission has been Details differential scientific evidences received from Sikkim Forest Department, so provided processes in the form of field sampling couldn’t be initiated in KBR. in separate influencing the reports on Fellow was engaged in morpho and descriptive Lepidoptera Lepidopteran