Faunal Diversity of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham Coimbatore Campus
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Faunal diversity of the Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham Coimbatore campus Dr Maya Mahajan & Dr M Murugesan Faunal diversity of the Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham Coimbatore campus Dr Maya Mahajan & Dr M Murugesan June 2020 1 ©Copyright: ENVIS RP Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore, 2020 Concept: Dr Maya Mahajan Scientific data & text: Dr Maya Mahajan&Dr M Murugesan Photo credits: Dr M Murugesan Dr Arun P R Mr R Sundhararaman Dr Maya Mahajan Mr B Siddhartha Mr H Theivaprakasham Mr Shritharan Thirumalai Mr Sreepad Krishnan Ms Kavya Ram Mr B Santhakumar Mr Subramanian Mr M. Samsoor Ali Mr S Ramesh Kumar Dr HN Kumara Dr HP Ashwin 2 Dedicated to our Beloved Chancellor-Amma Amma says………. By protecting and preserving wild and domestic animals, trees, and plants we are protecting and preserving nature. Trees, animals, birds, plants, forests, mountains, lakes and rivers- everything that exits in nature-are in desperate need of our kindness, compassionate care and protection. There is an inseparable bond between man and nature. For man, there cannot be an existence removed from nature. However, because of man’s thoughtless actions, equilibrium in nature is getting disturbed and the pulse of human life is becoming erratic. Air and water are polluted. Rivers have dried up. Seasons arrive unseasonably. New diseases are spreading. If things continue in this way, the human race is in for a monumental catastrophe...” 3 Table of Contents Acknowledgment 1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 6 2 Methodology followed .......................................................................................................... 6 2.1 Field visits ....................................................................................................................... 6 2.3 Avifauna ........................................................................................................................ 10 2.4 Butterflies ..................................................................................................................... 11 2.5 Mammals ...................................................................................................................... 11 2.6 Reptiles ......................................................................................................................... 12 3 Results ................................................................................................................................. 12 3.1 Avifauna ........................................................................................................................ 12 3.1.1 Endemic and IWPA (Indian Wildlife Protection Act, 1972) birds of the study area ... 13 3.1.2 Diversity Index ............................................................................................................ 13 3.2 Butterflies ..................................................................................................................... 19 3.2.1 Endemic butterflies .................................................................................................... 19 3.3 Mammals ...................................................................................................................... 22 3.4 Reptiles ......................................................................................................................... 23 4 Detailed Description of Birds ............................................................................................... 24 5 Detailed Description of Butterflies ...................................................................................... 98 6 Detailed Description of Reptiles ........................................................................................159 7 Detailed Description of Mammals .....................................................................................168 8 References .........................................................................................................................178 List of Tables Table 1. Sampling techniques used for the present survey ........................................................ 10 Table 2. List of avifauna recorded in Amrita University campus ................................................ 13 Table 3. List of butterflies recorded in Amrita University campus ............................................ 20 Table 4. List of mammals recorded in the university campus .................................................... 22 Table 5. List of reptiles found in the university campus ............................................................. 23 List of Figures Figure 1. Google earth imagery map of the Amrita University campus and its environs. ........... 7 Figure 2. GIS Map of the campus with permanent survey points. ............................................... 8 Figure 3. Different strata of the study area .................................................................................. 9 Figure 4. Few important bird attracting trees in the campus .................................................... 18 Figure 5. Family wise representation of butterfly species in the university campus. ................ 19 4 Acknowledgment: It gives us immense pleasure in expressing our deep sense of gratitude to Br. Abhayamrita Chaitanya, Pro chancellor, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham (University) for his commitment towards nature conservation, inspiring guidance, constant encouragement and invariable support during the study and beyond. We express our special thanks to Vice Chancellor, Dr P Venkat Rangan & Dr Sasangan Ramanathan, Dean, School of Engineering, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham for their continuous support & encouragement and providing all the necessary facilities during the study. We are grateful to Dr S Mahadevan, Deputy Dean for providing accommodation for experts during the field survey. Dr Arun PR, Head, Environmental Impact Assessment division, and Butterfly expert,Dr Raja Jayapal, Principal Scientist, Ornithology and Dr P A Azeez, Director, Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History are greatly acknowledged for their technical guidance and support. We would also like to thank Mr Santhakumar, Mr M Samsoor Ali & Mr S Rameshkumar from Salim Ali Centre, Mr R Sundharraman, Mr MG Santhosh & Mr Ashwin Ganesan from Amrita University, and our budding nature lovers from Amrita Prakriti Samrakshan Samiti (Nature club), B Siddhartha, Anup Nair, S Divyabharathi, Muthuselvi, NKR Prajapathy, K Aravinda, B Rakesh, Sudheer Manoj, Sanjay Sriram, Yuvanisha, Vishnavi, Pavithra for their active participation and supportduring the field surveys. Maya Mahajan & M Murugesan 5 1 Introduction The Coimbatore campus of Amrita Vishwa Vidyappetham (University) is located at the foothills of Western Ghats, 25 kms away from the Coimbatore city near the Ettimadai village. The 400 acres of lush green campus is surrounded by a part of Western Ghats in the north, rain-fed cultivated plains in the south and west and open scrub jungle in the east. The campus has large number of fruiting and flowering trees and shrubs that provide habitat to the diverse fauna including varieties of insects, butterflies, birds, mammals and reptiles. The major fruiting trees found here include Ficus benghalensis, F. religiosa, F. tsjakela, Bridelia crenulata, Syzygium cumini, Santalum album, Azadirachta indica etc. These trees attract large number of frugivorous birds. The majorflowering trees found in the campus such as Butea monosperma, Tecoma stans attract different species of nectarivorous birds. Although the flora of the campus is recorded, the faunal wealth of the campus is not studied systematically. Hence, a present study on the faunal diversity of the Amrita University campus has been carried out by a team of researchers in the Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON) under the guidance of Dr. Maya Mahajan, Associate professor, Environmental Sciences from Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore. 2 Methodology followed 2.1 FIELD VISITS In order to document the fauna (including birds, butterflies, mammals and reptiles) in the campus, detailed intensive and extensive field surveys were conducted from November 2013 to January 2014 followed by rapid surveys in 2015-16 and 2018-19 in the entire campus covering different landscapes and peripheral area. Initially a reconnaissance survey was conducted in the entire campus and its periphery for understanding the vegetation types and land use pattern of the campus. The entire area was tracked and the boundaries were marked using GPS etrex-20. For the convenience, the area was also divided into few blocks and marked as a, b, c and so on, for sampling all the areas in the 6 campus with the same frequency (Figure 1).The Google earth imagery map was prepared by marking different vegetation types and landscapes. Figure 1.Google earth imagery map of the Amrita University campus and its environs. Quantum and the permanent survey points were marked in the map (Figure 2) to make sure that sampling is done uniformly without missing any area. Sampling points were marked again in the areas which were not covered adequately and sampling was carried out in these newly marked areas. 7 Figure 2.Map of the campus with permanent survey points. After marking the area, the area has been stratified in to the following categories viz., (Figure 3) 1. Plantation 2. Garden areas 3. Built up areas 4. Open area (with grassland) and barren lands 5. Forest