OCCASIONAL PAPER No. 310 RECORDS OF THE ZOOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA A CODlpendiulD on the Faunal Resources of Narntada River Basin in Madhya Pradesh KAILASH CHANDRA, R.M. SHARMA AND PRAVEEN OJHA Zoological Survey of India, Central Zone Regional Centre, labalpur-482 002, Madhya Yradesh, India Edited by the Director, Zoological Survey of India, Kolka~a Zoological Survey of India Kolkata CITATION Chandra, Kailash, Sharma, R.M. and Ojha, Praveen 2010. A Compendium on the Faunal Resources of Narmada River Basin in Madhya Pradesh. Ree. zool. Surv. India, Dee. Paper No., 310 : 1-152, (Published by the Director, Zool. Surv. India, Kolkata) Published : March, 2010 ISBN 978-81-8171-243-1 © Govt. of India, 2010 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, re-sold hired out or otherwise disposed of without the publisher'S consent, in any 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 shoud be unacceptable. PRICE Indian Rs. 350.00 Foreign $ 30 £ 25 Published at the Publication Division, by the Director, Zoological Survey of India, 234/4 A.J.C. Bose Road, 2nd M"SO Building, Nizam Palace (13th floor), Kolkata- 700 020 after laser typeset by Typographia, Kolkata - 700 012 and printed at East India Photo Composing Centre, Kolkata-700 006 RECORDS OF THE ZOOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA OCCASIONAL PAPER 310 2010 Page 1-152 CONTENTS 1. ~ODUCI'ION ......................................................................................................................... 1 2. STU'DY ~A .............................................................................................................................. 5 3. NATURAL RESOURCES ............................................................................................................ 8 4. FAUN'AL RE.SOURCES ............................................................................................................. 16 S. GENERAL REMARKS . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 125 6. SUMMAR.Y ............................................................................................................................... 129 7. ACKNOWI..E.DGEM:ENTS ........................................................................................................ 130 8. BmUoo.'RA.PHY ...................................................................................................................... 130 1. INTRODUCTION Since the inception of the Central Zone Regional Centre (earlier Central Regional Station, Jabalpur) in the year 1960, the scientists of the Centre have been exploring the faunal resources of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh States in Central India by undertaking intensive and extensive faunistic surveys, which resulted in the accumulation of huge faunal collections. Even exclusive surveys were undertaken in the Narmada Valley from the origin of the river to its fall into the Arabian Sea in Gujarat, from 1962 to 1972 (Kbajuria & Ghoshal, 1979, Khajuria, 1981, Kbajuria & Agrawal, 1981, Khajuria, & Mahabal, 1994). Besides, short surveys in early thirties and forties were also conducted by the scientists from the Head Quarters office of the Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata to study aquatic fauna of the river Narmada (Khajuria, 1981). The present excercise of compiling faunal information was undertaken with a view to bring out a consolidated information on the fauna recorded till date including the identified collections present at the Zoological Survey of India, Kol1cata from Narmada River basin in Madhya Pradesh to serve as a baseline data for future studies. Madhya Pradesh, occupying almost the central position in the country, is veritably the heart of India. The state with an area of 3,08,000 sq. km is now the second largest state in India after Rajasthan. To its east is the plains of Chhattisgarh and its western boundary is enveloped by the Aravali hills. On the southern boundary is the Tapi Valley and in the west, the plateau of Maharashtra. The rivers Chambal in the north and Godavari in the south also form its boundaries. Water is our common treasure and a basic need of every living being, thus called an elixir of life. India is blessed with omnipresent and innumerable surface water resources in the form of small, medium and big rivers. There are 20 large and small river basins/draining areas in India of which, the Ganga basin is the largest among all the basins (Map-I). The Indian River basins are : SL No. Names of River Basins 1. Indus 2. a) Ganga (Upto border) b) Brahmaputra (Upto border) c) Barak etc. (Upto border) 3. Godavari 4. Krishna S. Cauvery 6. Pennar 7. East flowing rivers between Krishna and Pennar and between Mahanadi and Godavari 8. East flowing rivers between Krishna and Kanyakumari 9. Mahanadi 2 Rec. zool. Surv. India, Occ. PaperNo. 310 t INDI N _ap-I : Ri r Sa in f India Cbandra el al.: A Compendium on the Faunal Resources of Narmada River 3 81. No. Names of River ,Basins I 10. Brahmani and Baitarani 11. Subemarekha 12. Sabannati 13. Mahi 14. \\est flowing rivers of Kutch ,and Kathiawar including Luni I IS. Nannada 16. lapi 17. \\est flowing rivers from Tapi to Tadri 18. ~st flowing rivers from Tadri to Kanyakumari I 19. Area of Inland drainage in Rajasthan I 20. Minor river basins drainage to Bangladesh RIVER BASINS IN MADHYA PRADESH • There are ten River basins in the state of Madhya Pradesh as ten major rivers originate from the State and most of them have interstate basins. The rivers namely, Chambal, Sindh, Betwa and Ken flow northward and drain in to Yamuna, whereas the river Son falls directly into Ganga. Narmada, Tapi and Mahi rivers flow westward and meetArabian Sea whereas Wclinganga and Pench rivers meet Godavari in the south. The State can be divided into the following six major river basins (Map .. II) . Ti • Map-II: River Basin in Madhya Pradesh ape : Showing major re ervo~ in tbeannada as I '.....~ o CHANDRA et ale : A Compendium 011 the Faunal Resources of Narmada River s 1. Ganpbasln Yamuna basin Chambal sub-sub basin Kunwari sub-sub basin J amni sub-sub basin Betwa sub-sub basin Dhasan sub-sub basin Ken sub-sub basin Paisuni and Baidhan sub-sub basin Tons sub basin Sone sub basin 2. Nannadabasln 3. Godavari basin 4. Tapibasln . s. Mablbasin 6. Mahanadi basin 2. STUDY AREA The Narmada River Basin Nannada river basin lies between East Longitude 72° 32' and 81° 45' and North Latitudes 21° 20' and 23° 45' The River Narmada is the fifth largest river in India and the largest west flowing river of the Indian peninsula, originating from Maikal ranges at Amarkantak in Madhya Pradesh at an elevation of 900 m. It flows westwards over a length of 1,312 km before draining into the Gulf of Cambay, 50 Ian west of Bharuch city in Gujarat. Vindhya hills in the north, Satpura ranges in the south, Maikal ranges in the east and the Arabian Sea in the west form the boundaries of the basin.Total drainage area of the river is 9879~ km2, out of which 85149 km2 lies in Madhya Pradesh after formation of Chhattisgarh, which has 710 km2• Out of its total 1312 Ian length, the river flows for a length of 1112 kIn in Madhya Pradesh.The river Narmada has 41 tributaries of which 22 are on the left bank (south) and 19 on the right bank (north) with catchment area of more than 3500 sq. kin. The major tributaries are Banjar, Hiran, Kolar, Sukta, Tawa, Tendoni, Beda, Sher, Shakkar, Min, Hathni (Jobat), Halone and Goi rivers. The basin has an elongated shape almost like a ~in ribbon with a maximum length of 953 kin east to west and a maximum width of 234 Ian north to south. The first 1,077 km of the river flows in Madhya Pradesh and the next 35 km stretch of the river forms the boundary between the State of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. Again for the next 39 km, it forms the boundary between Maharashtra and Gujarat. The last stretch of 161 kIn lies in Gujarat. The total catchment area of about 1 Lakh sq. Ian extends in the administrative States of Madhya Pradesh (86.18%), Gujarat (11.6%), Maharashtra (1.5%) and Chhattisgarh (0.72%). Approximately, 35% of the basin area is under forest cover, 60% under arable land and 5% is grassland, wasteland etc (Gupta & Chakrapani, 2(07). 6 Rec. zool. Surv. India, Occ. Paper No. 310 Therefore, Narmada River is the "Life Line" of Madhya Pradesh and the "River of prosperity" for the State as almost 87 % of its basin lies in Madhya Pradesh and drains about 19 % area of the State covering twenty-three districts viz. Balaghat, Barwani, Betul, Chhindwara, Damoh, Dewas, Dindori, Dhar, Harda, Hoshangabad, Indore, Jabalpur, Jhabua, Katni, Khandwa (East Nimar), Khargone (West Nimar), Mandla, Narsinghpur, Raisen, Sagar, Sehore, Seoni and Shahdol. In fact, some district headquarters are located (Mandla, Jabalpur, Narsinghpur, Hoshangabad and Barwani) on the banks of the river or in close vicinity. The N armada basin is considered extremely important for paleontological studies in India as several dinosaur fossils have been found in the area e.g. Titanosaurus indicus and Rajasaurus narmadensis, besides the discovery of a skullcap of Homo erectus narmadiensis in 1984 and report of a human