Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society
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JOURNAL OF THE BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY DECEMBER 2009 VOL. 106 (3) IV^pvl O CONSERVING II IL/lClNAlURE SINCE 1 883 . JOURNAL OF THE BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY Hornbill House, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Marg, Mumbai 400 001 Executive Edttor Asad R. Rahmani, Ph. D. Bombay Natural History Society, Mumbai Copy and Production Eduor Vibhuti Dedhia, M. Sc. Editorial Board Ajith Kumar, Ph. D. Aasheesh Pittie, B. Com. National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bird Watchers Society of Andhra Pradesh, GKVK Campus, Hebbal, Bengaluru Hyderabad C.R. Babu, Ph. D. as. Rawat, Ph. D. Professor, Centre for Environmental Management Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun of Degraded Ecosystems, University of Delhi, New Delhi K. Rema Devi, Ph. D. M.K. Chandrashekaran, Ph. D., D. Sc. Zoological Survey of India, Chennai Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bengaluru J.S. Singh, Ph. D. Professor, Banaras Hindu University Anwaruddin Choudhury, Ph. D., D. Sc. Varanasi The Rhino Foundation for Nature, Guwahati S. Subramanya, Ph. D. Indraneil Das, D. Phil. University of Agricultural Sciences, GKVK, Institute of Biodiversity and Environmental Conservation, Hebbal, Bengaluru Universiti Malaysia, Sarawak, Malaysia R. Sukumar, Ph. D. Y.V. Jhala, Ph. D. Professor, Centre for Ecological Sciences, Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru K. Ullas Karanth, Ph. D. Romulus Whitaker, B. Sc. Wildlife Conservation Society - India Program, Reptile Park Crocodile Trust, Bengaluru, Karnataka Madras and Bank Tamil Nadu T.C. Narendran, Ph. D., D. Sc. S.R. Yadav, Ph. D. Professor, Department of Zoology, Shivaji University, Kolhapur University of Calicut, Kerala Senior Consultant Editor J.C. Daniel, M. Sc. Consultant Editors Raghunandan Chundawat, Ph. D. Wildlife Conservation Society, Bengaluru Nigel Collar, Ph. D. BirdLife International, UK Rhys Green, Ph. D. Royal Society for Protection of Birds, UK Qamar Qureshi, M. Phil. Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun T.J. Roberts, Ph. D. World Wildlife Fund - Pakistan Rachel Reuben, Ph. D. Mumbai Editorial Assistant: Sonali V. Vadhavkar, M. Sc. Layout and Typesetting: V. Gopi Naidu © Bombay Natural History Society 2009 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS). Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be addressed to the Honorary Secretary, BNHS at the address given above. VOLUME 106(3): DECEMBER 2009 CONTENTS EDITORIAL 229 THE EXTINCTION CRISIS: FACTOR FICTION? Simon N. Stuart 230 CONSERVATION STATUS OF THE LAST SURVIVING WILD POPULATION OF HANGUL OR KASHMIR DEER CERVUS ELAPHUS HANGLU IN KASHMIR, INDIA Khursheed Ahmad, S. Sathyakumar and Qamar Qureshi 245 WHEN CHANOS CHANOS BECAME TSUNAMI MACCHi. THE POST-DECEMBER 2004 SCENARIO IN THE ANDAMAN & NICOBAR ISLANDS Pankaj Sekhsaria 256 PITFALLS AND OPPORTUNITIES IN THE USE OF MARKET-BASED INCENTIVES FOR BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION Paul Morling 263 AGRICULTURE AND CONSERVATION Compiled by Persis Taraporevala, Rhys Green and Ashish Kothari 277 COMMUNITY-BASED CONSERVATION Compiled by Persis Taraporevala and Ashish Kothari 280 ESTIMATION OF STRIPED HYENA HYAENA HYAENA POPULATION USING CAMERA TRAPS IN SARISKATIGER RESERVE, RAJASTHAN, INDIA Shilpi Gupta, Krishnendu Mondal, K. Sankar and Qamar Qureshi 284 HUMAN-ELEPHANT CONFLICT IN A COLONISED SITE OF DISPERSED ELEPHANTS: KOUNDINYA WILDLIFE SANCTUARY (ANDHRA PRADESH, INDIA) Ranjit Manakadan, S. Swaminathan, J.C. Daniel and Ajay A. Desai 289 POPULATION STATUS AND HABITAT USE OF WILD PIGS SUS SCROFA IN KEOLADEO NATIONAL PARK, BHARATPUR, RAJASTHAN, INDIA Tanushree Srivastava and Afifullah Khan 298 NOTES ON THE DISTRIBUTION, NATURAL HISTORY AND VARIATION OF HEMIDACTYLUS ALBOFASCIATUS (GRANDISON AND SOMAN, 1963) (SQUAMATA: GEKKONIDAE) Kshamata S. Gaikwad, Harish Kulkarni, Ravindra Bhambure and Varad B. Giri 305 FISH FAUNA OF THE WETLANDS OF SRIHARIKOTA ISLAND, SOUTHERN INDIA AND THEIR CONSERVATION ISSUES Ranjit Manakadan, K. Rema Devi, S. Sivakumar and T.J. Indra 313 DIVERSITY, CONSERVATION AND MANAGEMENT OF MAMMALS IN BAGO YOMA, RAKHINE YOMA AND ALAUNGDAW KATHAPA NATIONAL PARK IN MYANMAR Surendra Varma 324 NEW DESCRIPTIONS RECORD OF TWO NEW SPECIES OF APANTELES FOERSTER (BRACONIDAE: MICROGASTRINAE) FROM CENTRAL INDIA Puja Ray and Mohd. Yousuf 335 MISCELLANEOUS NOTES BIRDS REPTILES 1. Threats to foraging habitat of Indian Courser Cursorius 3. Precise locality records of Eryx whitakeri Das, 1991 with coromandelicus in Abdasa taluka, Kachchh, Gujarat, notes on scalation and a comment on its common name India Ashok Captain, Sanjay Thakur and Anil Khaire 342 S.B. Munjpara and I.R. Gadhvi 339 AMPHIBIANS 2. Sighting of albino Changeable Hawk-eagle Nisaetus 4. Occurrence of Indian Painted Frog Kaloula taprobanica limnaeetus in Sitamata Wildlife Sanctuary in south (Family Microhylidae) at Arnala beach, Mumbai, Rajasthan Maharashtra Manoj Parashar and Satish Kumar Sharma 341 Pritesh Nandvikar and Parveen Shaikh 344 FISH 8. First record of an exotic butterfly Leopard Lacewing 5. Occurrence of epizoic Cirripede, Conchoderma virgatum Cethosia cyane from the Andamans (Spengler, 1790) on Pennella instructa Wilson infected T.C. Khatri and Tripta Khatri 349 on Sailfish Istiophorus platypterus caught from North-west 9. Biology of Nilgiri Tiger Parantica nilgiriensis (Moore 1 877): Indian EEZ an endemic butterfly of the Western Ghats of southern India S. Varghese, V.S. Somvanshi and Sijo P. Varghese 344 Unni Krishnan Pulikkal 349 6. On a record of Amphilophus trimaculatum (Gunther) OTHER INVERTEBRATES (Teleostei : Perciformes: Cichlidae) in the natural waters 1 0. Comparative study on the biology of Eudrilus eugeniae of Tamil Nadu, India (Kinberg) and Eisenia fetida (Savigny) under laboratory J.D. Marcus Knight and K. Rema Devi 347 conditions INSECTS S.S. Hundal and Zinia 352 7. Ixora chinensis Lam.: A new host plant for Common BOTANY Silverline Spindasis vulcanus Fabricius (Lepidoptera: 1 1 . Cortiella caespitosa Shan & Sheh (Apiaceae) — a new Lycaenidae) from West Bengal entrant to India Soumyajit Chowdhury, Rahi Soren and Suvankar Patra . 348 Debabrata Maity 355 Cover Photograph: Green Avadavat Amandava formosa By Rajat Bhargava ACKNOWLEDGEMENT WE ARE GRATEFUL TO THE MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Govt of India, FOR ENHANCED FINANCIAL SUPPORT FOR THE PUBLICATION OF THE JOURNAL. 11 Editorial Conserving Nature in a Globalizing India As a part of its 125 year celebration, BNHS had organized an International Conference on ‘Conserving Nature in a Globalizing India’, at Bengaluru from February 17-19, 2009. Most presentations at the conference were sharing of work experience and ideas, and discussions by experts, and therefore, could not materialize into peer-reviewed papers. Among those that were submitted as papers and accepted, after peer-review are published in this issue, along with the other articles accepted for the JBNHS. To name a few: Simon N. Stuart, Chairman, IUCN Species Specialist Groups, discusses the extinction crises that our Earth is facing, mainly due to our activities. Sadly, one of the best examples of the extinction crisis is the Hangul or Kashmir Stag. Khursheed et al. have deduced that the last surviving and genetically viable Hangul population of 140-170 individuals is restricted to Dachigam National Park in Kashmir, making it one of the rarest mammals in the world. Emergency measures, besides conservation breeding, need to be taken to revive the population. Despite the numerous benefits of biodiversity and healthy ecosystems to human being, Paul Morling has shown that biodiversity is still not a mainstream topic, and is undervalued and overexploited. It is very interesting, something we need so much that we over-exploit it, but at the same time we under-value it! Morling’s paper reviews market-based approaches for identifying the salient features that determine their potential for improving conservation finance. In this issue of the JBNHS, we also give extracts of some sessions: the discussion on Agriculture and Conservation, chaired by Dr. Rhys Green of Cambridge University and RSPB, and Mr. Ashish Kothari of Kalpavriksh, a famous NGO of India. The importance of community-based conservation was highlighted by Mr. Ashish Kothari and his team during an interactive session. Pankaj Sekhsaria discusses the impact of the tsunami of 2004 on Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and the aftermath of this unfortunate natural calamity. He emphasizes the importance of protection of the coastal zones, development planning, including tourism, and proper location of construction projects. The importance of so-called ‘wastelands’ is highlighted by Dr. S.B. Munjpara and Dr. I.R. Gadhvi giving example of the Indian Courser, which is declining fast as its habitat is taken up by tree plantation, agricultural expansion, and industrial development. Like the Indian Courser, there are many species of short-grass plains of arid and semi-arid areas that are under threat as their habitat is generally outside the protected areas system. Editors FEB 2 3 2011 Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society, 106(3), Sept-Dec 2009 230-244 THE EXTINCTION CRISIS: FACT OR FICTION? Simon N. Stuart 1 'International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Species Survival Commission, 1 196 Gland, Switzerland; United Nations