IMPACT OF DEVELOPMENTAL PROJECTS LIKE ROAD WIDENING ON THE BIRD POPULATION OF GULBARGA CITY Arun, P.R., Babu,S., Divyapriya, C. & Niveditha, R.K. Final Report submitted to Karnataka Forest Department Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History A Centre of Excellence under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Govt. of India, Anaikatty (PO), Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu – 641 108, March 2018 CONTENTS CONTENTS............................................................................................................................2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS...................................................................................................6 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY....................................................................................................7 1 INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................10 1.1 OBJECTIVES 10 1.2 STUDY AREA 10 1.2.1 Gulbarga district 11 1.2.2 Chincholi Wildlife Sanctuary 11 1.2.3 Geography and soil structure of Gulbarga 12 1.2.4 Socio-Economic Profile 12 1.2.5 Urbanisation in Gulbarga 12 1.2.6 Vegetation Profile 13 1.2.7 Past studies on Avifauna of Gulbarga 13 1.3 BIRD HABITATS 14 1.4 METHODOLOGY 15 2 AVIFAUNA OF GULBARGA CITY .......................................................................................16 2.1 SAMPLING LOCATIONS 16 2.1.1 Wetlands 16 2.1.2 Agriculture landscape 16 2.1.3 Gulbarga public park 17 2.1.4 District court campus 17 2.1.5 Inspection Bungalow (IB) campus 18 2.1.6 Gulbarga fort campus 18 2.1.7 Gulbarga University campus 18 2.1.8 Uploan Park 19 2.1.9 Gulbarga ring road 19 2.2 AVIFAUNAL ASSEMBLAGE OF GULBARGA 19 3 BIRD ASSEMBLAGE ALONG THE RING ROAD.....................................................................24 3.1 METHODOLOGY 24 3.1.1 Point counts 24 [ii] 3.1.2 Roosting surveys 25 3.1.3 Nest searches 25 3.2 RESULTS 26 3.2.1 Trees along the Ring road 26 3.2.2 Avifaunal composition 27 3.2.3 Roosting sites 30 3.2.4 Nesting trees 31 4 DISCUSSION......................................................................................................................32 4.1 IMPACTS OF TREE CUTTING ON AVIFAUNA 33 4.2 COMPENSATORY TREE PLANTATION 35 APPENDICES...........................................................................................................................36 REFERENCES..........................................................................................................................55 PLATES...................................................................................................................................58 [iii] LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Details of the bird samplings conducted at Gulbarga, Karnataka..................................... 22 Table 2. Major tree species recorded along the Ring road, Gulbarga, Karnataka........................ 26 Table 3. Relative abundance of bird species recorded along the ring road, Gulbarga, Karnataka................................................................................................................................................... 28 Table 4. Abundance status of birds along Gulbarga Ring road, Karnataka .................................... 30 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Bird community composition at Gulbarga, Karnataka ......................................................... 20 Figure 2. Species richness of birds at various locations in Gulbarga, Karnataka .......................... 22 Figure 3. The study area, Gulbarga city, Karnataka and sampling locations .................................. 25 Figure 4. Percentage composition of avifaunal families along Gulbarga Ring road, Karnataka. ....................................................................................................................................................................... 27 Figure 5. Percentage feeding guild composition of avifauna along Gulbarga Ring road, Karnataka................................................................................................................................................... 28 LIST OF APPENDICES Appendix I Birds recorded along the Ring Road stretch........................................................................ 36 Appendix II Checklist of Birds of Gulbarga ................................................................................................ 39 Appendix III Birds recorded from Chincholi Wildlife Sanctuary......................................................... 51 [iv] LIST OF PLATES PLATE 1. View of Sampling Locations in Gulbarga City .......................................................................... 58 PLATE 2 View of Sampling locations Cont.. ............................................................................................... 59 PLATE 3 Bird species recorded from Gulbarga......................................................................................... 60 PLATE 4 Bird species recorded from Gulbarga Cont.............................................................................. 61 PLATE 5 Bird species recorded from Gulbarga Cont.............................................................................. 62 PLATE 6 Bird species recorded from Gulbarga Cont.............................................................................. 63 PLATE 7 Bird species recorded from Gulbarga Cont.............................................................................. 64 PLATE 8 Bird species recorded from Gulbarga Cont.............................................................................. 65 PLATE 9 Bird species recorded from Gulbarga Cont.............................................................................. 66 PLATE 10 Bird species recorded from Gulbarga Cont. .......................................................................... 67 PLATE 11 Bird species recorded from Gulbarga Cont. .......................................................................... 68 PLATE 12 Bird species recorded from Gulbarga Cont. .......................................................................... 69 PLATE 13 Bird species recorded from Gulbarga Cont. .......................................................................... 70 PLATE 14 Tree usage along Gulbarga Ring road..................................................................................... 71 PLATE 15 Gulbarga Ring Road view.............................................................................................................. 72 [v] ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The present study could be conducted within limited time and resources only with the active support of various people and agencies. We are thankful to all those directly and indirectly conttibuted to this study. We sincerely thank Mr. Sivasankar, S., IFS, Deputy Conservator of Forests, Gulbarga division, for his enthusiastic support throughout this study. Mr. Sivasankar and his team of officers are highly acknowledged for the excellent hospitality and logistic arrangements for our team’s travel and stay at Gulbarga. The Karnataka forest Department is acknowledged for the funding support provided for the study. We are also thankful to Dr. K. Sankar, Director, SACON for all his support and guidance. His critical comments and inputs on the earlier drafts of this report was highly helpul in improving the final report. Mr. Mohamed Ibrahim, N. of ENVIS centre, SACON is acknowledged for kindly providing the GIS maps used in the report. Authors are also thankful Mr. Mohammed Moiuddin, (Chincholi Wildlife Sanctuary), Dr. Rajah Jayapal (Principal Scientist, SACON) and Mr. Muthukumar (L&T, Gulbarga, Karnataka) for their help in successfully completing this study. (Authors) [vi] EXECUTIVE SUMMARY mpact of developmental activities on urban biodiversity is an important aspect of urban ecology that often gets neglected. Negative ecological impacts of linear Iintrusions, such as roads are increasingly being recognized and reported from different parts of the world (Fahrig and Rytwinski, 2009; Forman and Alexander, 1998; Spellerberg and Morrison, 1998; Rajvanshi et al. 2001, Rajvanshi & Mathur 2015). At the request of the Karnataka Forest Department, SACON undertook a study to evaluate avifauna in the proposed area of road widening, along the ring road around the Gulbarga city, Karnataka. During November 2017, we documented the avifauna through extensive bird surveys along the ring road as well as from other major green areas of the city. The study documented the avifauna composition of the overall Gulbarga city with special reference to evaluation of the role of roadside trees along the proposed stretch of road widening in supporting the Avifauna. The past data from the area was also collated from secondary sources (www.ebird.org) for the preparation of final checklist. With a total of 162 bird species (including secondary information) Gulbarga city is rich in its avifaunal community. During the surveys as part of the present study, 114 bird species, belonging to 16 orders and 51 families, were recorded from Gulbarga. The present study was limited to a single season survey and the past records of additional bird species reported from the city were also collated from authentic secondary sources for the generation of final checklist for the city. Road widenings do impact the environment especially when there is wilderness and associated biodiversity along the road edges. Direct impacts such as road kills and indirect impacts such as habitat loss and fragmentation are the major impacts from road projects. The