Entomofaunal Study of River Tawi in Jammu J and K India
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www.ijcrt.org © 2020 IJCRT | Volume 8, Issue 4 April 2020 | ISSN: 2320-2882 Entomofaunal Study of river Tawi in Jammu J and K India 1Sanjay Kumar, 2Anil Kumar Verma 1Lecturer Zoology, 2Associate Professor 1School Education Deptt. J and K, 2G G M Science college Jammu Abstract Insects represent the culmination of evolutionary development of terrestrial arthropods and have adopted to the most diverse types of environment. The transition from aquatic to terrestrial mode of life was a crucial step in the evolution of higher metazoa and undenieable so in the tracheaete arthropoda. Insects of any water body plays significant role in maintaining ecological balance and becomes part of food chain, food web at specific trophic levels .Besides , they functions as biological indicators for determining the water quality and pollution in respective water bodies. The present investigation also reveals the role of insects and their types in a particular water body i.e river Tawi in Jammu. In Jammu region there are so many water bodies starting from wells, ponds, springs, lakes, and reaches upto streams but lacking coastal areas or oceans since the region is surrounding by hilly terrain. The river tawi is considered as holly and sacred river from religious point of view and supposed to be a life line of the Jammu city and other towns located on the banks of river . During this investigation it has been observed that there are large no of insect species present in the river but maximum emphasis were given on the subject about presence of some developmental stages of insects found frequently on the river banks. The most common method used for this study was hand nets , scoops and forceps capturing and even manual capturing was also carried out keeping in view the harmless nature of insects .In this study about 2-3 kms area of river tawi were investigated near the main tawi bridge.It has also been observed and realized during the investigation that the impact of pollution gradually reduces the population of some important insect species in the river. There are about 4-5 species of insects were observed and studied at different developmental stages ( larval , nymphal and adults ). Key words: Arthropods, Ecology, Insects, Sacred, river Tawi. IJCRT2004511 International Journal of Creative Research Thoughts (IJCRT) www.ijcrt.org 3577 www.ijcrt.org © 2020 IJCRT | Volume 8, Issue 4 April 2020 | ISSN: 2320-2882 1. Introduction Insects constitutes about 70% of all known species of animals especially fishes are considered as incarnation of Devi, Devtas .Insects are the only invertebrates that can fly ( Voshell , 2002 ), etc. But, unfortunately the Tawi river getting exposed to various most insects feed on plant material while some feed on animal types of chemicals and pollutants day by day. In the near future tissues. Aquatic entomology is the study of aquatic insects ( there might be maximum chances of exposure that can be Pennak , 1989 ). Aquatic insects play most significant role in the devastating for aquatic life and ecological balance of the water fresh water ecosystem. They are most abundant in fresh water bodies. habitats and often exhibit high diversity. In aquatic food webs they serve as food item for nearly the full range of vertebrate and The present condition of river Tawi is deteriorating day today invertebrate predators and many function as predators because it is flowing very close to Jammu city that is densely themselves. Water insects live some portion of their life cycle in populated and also winter capital of J and K UT. All the the water. They feed in the same ways as other insects. There are drainages containing sewage waste effluent coming from about 45000 species of insects known to inhabit diverse fresh different regions of City joins the river Tawi directly and water ecosystems ( Balram , 2005 ). Diversity of insects in lentic indirectly. This effluent exposing the river with hundreds of water tends to increase with increased nutrients (Daly, 1998 ). chemicals or pollutants . Besides, Solid wastes lying near the river banks and inside the river also causing adverse effect on Many fishes , amphibians, shorebirds, water fowls and other its aquatic fauna. It has also been witnessed that during the animals forage heavily on both the aquatic and terrestrial stages festivals like Navratras, Ganesh chaturthi and other social or of aquatic insects, which are essential to their survival ( Thorpe family functions people used to through garbages or solid waste and Covish , 1991 ). Environmental scientists have become to and other non- biodegradable material to the river. All such realize that uses or changes of waterways and lakes may have mismanagements of different types of wastes causing huge dire short-term or even irreversible long- term effects not only on physical, chemical and biological damage to river .During the the quality of water itself but also on the aquatic ecosystems ( investigation it has been observed that there are scattered Voshell, 2002 ). population of entomofauna or insects in the river. Attempts were made to observe and study the insects randomly in the selected The worrying rate of habitat loss, fragmentation and sites located near the main tawi bridge and its extended stretches simplification due to human never ending activities renders the up to 2-3 kms in both the directions( North and South ). overall scenario particularly dark pressing of the internal community of scientists and taxonomists to urgently fill the Generally, aquatic water bodies possess several types of insect enormous taxonomic - gap ( Dubois 2011 ) also known as “ species such as plecoptera, neuropteran, ephemeroptera, Linnaean short fall “ ( Brito 2010 ). In entomology, the basic hemiptera, coleopteran and collembolan. This investigation also systematic work involves , probably more than in any other witnessed some of these insect species from the river tawi after animal groups . repeatedly collected the data from the specific sites. According to Lewis and Gripenberg , 2008; aquatic insects often make good indicators because they are present in some quantity in almost every type of habitat and many are habitat specialists. 2.Overview of study area Aquatic insects are used for monitoring the health of aquatic environment because of their differential responses to stimuli in Tawi river (Fig1) is considered as sacred and holy river as the their aquatic habitat and determining the quality of that case with most of the rivers in India. The length of river tawi is environment ( Merritt ; Commins and Berg, 2008 ). 141 kms. It is flowing in two countries viz India and Pakistan. Tawi river is a major left bank tributary of Chenab river. Tawi In Jammu region of (JKUT) we have only fresh water aquatic River also called as Surya Putri in ancient tezet. Tawi river is ecosystems because we don’t have ocean boundaries or coastal also known for it rich repository or mineral resources.Tawi river areas.The main riverine ecosystem is that of river tawi in Jammu originates from a glacier that lies at an elevation of 4250 m in the which is also known as life line of Jammu. As far as aquatic north of the Bhaderwah town of district Doda in Jammu and insects of river Tawi are concerned there are large no of species Kashmir.Tawi River is also known for its rich biodiversity and present having great ecological and scientific Importance. The ecosystem that is comprised of fishes, Amphibians, burning issues of these water bodies are of series concerned for phytoplanktons ,Zooplanktons and insects etc. the scientific community and research work .Since our Indian culture is linked with the nature and its resources directly and indirectly for religious or ritual formalities. Some of the water bodies in Jammu region particularly river Tawi and some prominent lakes are preserved and conserved keeping in view the religious belief of the community, where some of the fauna IJCRT2004511 International Journal of Creative Research Thoughts (IJCRT) www.ijcrt.org 3578 www.ijcrt.org © 2020 IJCRT | Volume 8, Issue 4 April 2020 | ISSN: 2320-2882 1983).Larson (1985) revealed that small and temporary water bodies have more species as compare to large and permanent water bodies. Cheng (1985), Glausiusz, (1997) and Daly (1998) reported that there are almost no insects associated with the marine environment. In most fresh water ecosystems aquatic insects comprise bulk of the biomass along with other three groups viz. Molluscs, Crustaceans and Fish (Odum, 1996).Daly (1998) reported that with increased nutrients in lentic water tend to increase in the diversity of insects. Khan and Ghosh (2001) revealed presence of 70 species of aquatic insects from 20 different wetlands of West Bengal, India. According to Balram (2005), about 45000 species of insects are known to inhabit diverse fresh water ecosystems.Deep and Rao (2007) reported 8 species of Hemiptera from the Pochram lake of Andra Pradesh, India. Fig-1-Jammu Tawi river Saikai (2007) reported presence of 25 species aquatic insects in Deepor Beel of Assam. Bath (2008) reported 8 orders of aquatic . insects from Harike wetland in Punjab. The insects are estimated to comprise more than 75% of the known species of the animals and approximately 0.9 million species of insects have been described throughout the world (Jain 3. Historical review et al.,2010). Thakare et al .,(2011) reported 13 water beetles in Kolkas region of Melghat Tiger reserve of central Insects are present almost all the habitat of the nature. They are India.Vasantkumar and Roopa (2014) reported that presence of present in scorching sun of the tropic to frozen Antarctica. They 15 species belonging to 6 orders.They recorded highest number may be aerial , terrestrial or aquatic forms. Insect originated in of aquatic insects from the order Hemiptera and the most lower Devonian period and are considered to be descent of abundant order was the Coleoptera.