Conservation Area Series, 36 Vertebrate Fauna of KANGERGHATI, GURU GHASIDAS AND SANJAY NATIONAL PARKS (Madhya Pradesh and Chhatisgarh) Edited by the Director, Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata Zoological Survey of India Kolkata CITATION Editor-Director. 2008. Vertebrate Fauna of Kangerghati, Guru Ghasidas and Sanjay National Parks, Conservation Area Series, 36 : 1-264. (Published by the Director, Zool. Surv. India, Kolkata) Published : August, 2008 ISBN 978-81-8171-200-4 Co-ordinator Dr. Rina Chakraborty Zoological Survey of India, F.P.S. Building, Kolkata 700 016 © Govt. of India, 2008 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED • No part of this publication may be reproduced stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. • This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise disposed of without the publisher's consent, in an form of binding or cover other than that in which, it is published. • The correct price of this publication is the price printed on this page. Any revised price indicated by a rubber stamp or by a sticker or by any other means is incorrect and should be unacceptable. PRICE Indian Rs. 600.00 Foreign : $ 40; £ 3S Published at the Publication Division by the Director, Zoological Survey of India, 234/4, AJe Bose Road, 2nd MSO Building, 13th floor, Nizam Palace, Kolkata 700020 and printed at MIs Alpha Printers, New Delhi - 110 016. Vertebrate Fauna of Kangerghati, Guru Ghasidas and Sanjay National Parks, Conservation Area Series 36 2008 1-264 CONTENTS 1. AN OVERVIEW .................................................................................................... 1-35 Rina Chakraborty 2. MAMMALIA ....................................................................................................... 37-68 Rina Chakraborty 3. AVES .................................................................................................................. 69-180 Rina Cbakraborty 4. REP'fILIA ....................................................................................................... 181-208 Rina Chakraborty, N.C. Gayen and S. Kar 5. AMPlIIBIA ...................................................................................................... 209-220 K. Deuti 6. PISCES: Freshwater Fishes ........................................................................ 221-263 Subrata Kar Zool. Surv. India Vertebrate Fauna of Kangerghati, ... and S.N.P., Conservation Area Series, 36, 2008 : 1-35. VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF KANGERGHATI, GURU GHASIDAS AND SANJAY NATIONAL PARKS AN OVERVIEW RINA CHAKRABORTY Zoological Survey of India, 27, J.L. Nehru Road, Kolkata 700 016 E-mail: [email protected] INTRODUCTION The rapid growth of human and livestock populations coupled with urbanization and industrialization in the 20th century and consequent pressure of land hunger and development have taken an increasingly heavy toll of the country's wilderness. Conservation measures to mitigate the impacts of these pressures, however have largely been slow and inadequate (Rodgers et al., 2002). Process of setting up of Wildlife Protected Areas (PAs) was started some fifty years ago. The newly formed state Chhattisgarh which came into existence on 1st November, 2000 is one of the small State in India which was actually the eastern part of the state Madhya Pradesh. The state is privileged to have the oldest reserve forest in the country and thus, has a long history of forest management as well as tribal and cultural heritage. The state covers an area of 1,35,084 sq km of which 2929.50 sq km offered to National Parks and 3419.56 sq Ian to sanctuaries. All together it has got three National Parks of which largest is the Guru Ghasidas National Park and the smallest is Kangerghati National Park (Fig. 1), which cover 1471.00 sq km and 200 sq km areas respectively. The India is classified into ten broad biogeographic zones (Rodgers et al., 2002) in which the state Chhattisgarh is situated under Deccan Peninsula. The Deccan Peninsula is again subdivided into five sub-zones like Central highlands, Chhota-Nagpur, Eastern highlands, Central Plateau and Deccan south. Among those subzones the Sanjay National Park falls under Central highlands, western part of Guru Ghasidas National Park is situated under Central highlands and eastern part is under Chhotanagpur plateau and the Kangerghati National Park falls under Eastern highlands. The present report is restricted to the Kangerghati and Guru Ghasi Das National Parks of Chhatisgarh and Sanjay National Park of M.P. N 1 ~ "'"t -~ "'"t'="" ~ -~ ~ ~ ;: ;:: ~ MADHYA PRADESH ~ ~;::s ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ :-.- C) ;: "'"t $:: C) ~ ~ '-2 ~-. t..,~ ~ ~ ~ Vl I. SANJA Y NATIONAL PARK ~ ~. 2. GURIGHASIDAS NATIONAL PARK ~ 3. KANGERGHATI NATIONAL PARK "<: ~ --.~ ::s ~-.. Not to Scale "b ~ ~ ~ Fig. 1. Map of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. ~ CHAKRABORTY : An Overview 3 PHYSIOGRAPHY The plateau part of the Deccan Peninsula is the largest and covers an area of 7,00,000 sq lan, slopes eastwards and northwards. The topography is characterized by rounded hills and rolling plains. The plateau is bounded on the east and west by the Ghats, escarpments that meet at the plateau's southern tip. The Deccan's average altitude is about 600 m, sloping generally eastward. The Deccan Peninsula cannot be said to represent any particular type of ecosystem existing in the world today but is a conglomeration of different types of ecosystems. The areas representing ecosystems like dry-deciduous forests, moist-deciduous forests, degraded shrub lands, dry evergreen forests or thorn shrub and tiny areas of semi evergreen forests, besides certain wetland ecosystems and freshwater bodies. The central part of the state Chhattisgarh is almost plain but northern and southern are hilly terrain. Makla-Satpura hill ranges cover the northern part of the state in which high elevated plains of Pandrapat and Mainpat are most significant. The Satpura range extends from west to east and average height is no less than 600 m. Chhattisgarh state is situated in the eastern end of the Satpura Range. Guru Ghasidas National Park is situated in the Korea district which is a great tableland of numerous hills and plateau and the important physiographic feature is pat which is a local word means tableland. Domarpat is a tableland of Sanjay National Park situated in Sidhi district. The main river of the state is Indravati in the south which flows across the centre of Bastar district with a tortuous course and negotiating a distance of 389 km within the state and ultimately discharges itself in the river Godavari. The main rivers of the north are Gopad, Banas and Rihand. Those rivers and their tributaries are flowing northwardly to join Ganga drainage system. River Banas is flowing through the western boundary of the Sidhi district. The Gopad River is originated in the hills of Surguja district of Chhattisgarh, flows almost west but turns after being joined by the Lodhar River from the west. One of the main tributary of Lodhar is Mohan river which rises in the northwest and joins Lodhar near Deosar. The Rihand river flows through the big open plains of southeastern part. The other main rivers are Sabri, Sibnath, Sandur, Pairi, Mahanadi, Apra, Maniyari, Hansdeo, Bango, Ib and Mand. In total, approximately 1,33,084 sq Ian area is completely rocky and the main agricultural areas are river basins. The main ores of the district are iron, tin, buxaite, silimenite, china-clay, gold, coal and limestone. The state lies between 17° 46' to 24° 5' Nand 80°15' to 84° 20' E and is surrounded by Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh in the north, Iharkhand in the northeast, Orissa in the east, Andhra Pradesh in south and southwest and Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh in west. All the three National Parks are belonging to the Deccan Peninsular biogeographic 4 Vertebrate Fauna of Kangerghati, Guru Ghashidas and Sanjay National Parks zone having hilly undulating forested tracts. The whole area is covered with deciduous forests either dry or moist as well as thorn forests. The floral and faunal composition is unique with endemic, rare and endangered species. PARK DETAILS Kangerghati National Park The Kangerghati National Park (Fig. 2) is divided into two ranges, Kutomsar and Koleng, covering an area of about 200 sq km. The river Kanger along with some rivulets flows through the National Park. There are some caves with stalactite and stalagmite columns like Kotamsar, Kailash, Dandak, Devgiri which are unique in structure as well as composition. Among the four caves toe Kutomsar cave faces much anthropogenic pressure due to eco-tourism almost throughout the year except in the monsoon months. The Kangerghati National Park is situated at the southern part of the Bastar district, 26 km south of Jagdalpur. The Parks are paradise for the nature lovers. The moist peninsular sal forests and the south Indian tropical moist deciduous forests are seen in their finest form in Kangerghati National Park. It is situated in a transition zone where southern limit of sal forests and northern limit of teak forests overlap, hence both sal and teak are seen together in this valley. In July 1982, the reserve forest of Kanger valley was declaired as National Park, not only for the protection and conservation of rich floral and faunal diversity but also for its pristine ecology including the splendid waterfalls and astonishing limestone caves and