Biology and Management of India’s Wildlife Dr. D.K. Belsare M.Sc., Ph.D., S.S.E., D.Sc., F.N.A.Sc., F.Z.S.I. Former Professor of Bioscience and Head of the Department of Bioscience, Barkatullah University, Bhopal, M.P. (India) Dr. Rakesh Kumar Singh (Bhabua) D.F.Sc., Ph.D. (Israel), F.Z.S.I., F.I.A.E.S., F.S.L.Sc., F.I.A.Sc., F.I.F.S.I., Former Consultant of the World Bank of Bangladesh and Nigeria. ISO 9001:2015 CERTIFIED © Authors 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 and/or otherwise without the prior written permission of the authors and the publisher. First Edition : 2019 Published by : Mrs. Meena Pandey for Himalaya Publishing House Pvt. Ltd., “Ramdoot”, Dr. Bhalerao Marg, Girgaon, Mumbai - 400 004. 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Preface India’s wildlife is distributed in Palaearctic, Ethiopian and Oriental biogeographical realms and constitutes 26 endemic species which are critically endangered as per IUCN List. Three species, i.e., Indian Wild Ass, Leopard and Red Fox are threatened to extinction. Many of its wild cats, which balance India’s ecosystems, are on the verge of extinction. The Tiger, which is an ‘icon’ of India, may vanish in near future and efforts are being made to conserve its population at any cost. The meeting of 13 countries held at St. Petersburg (Russia) on 23-24 November, 2010 to plan out for conservation of Indian Tiger’s population indicates the importance of this magnificent species of wildlife. Once it becomes extinct, it will not be restored. The healthy forests are recognized by the presence of tiger population, because they are at the apex of ecological pyramid. However, the main aim of this book is to focus the attention of other wildlife species, which are equally important for the health of forests of India and to balance its ecosystems. The management of wildlife should, therefore, be done in scientific manner and considering India’s ethnic diversity (Belsare, 2002). The natural heritage of India was made famous in Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book and has had a profound impact on people’s perceptions of the country’s wildlife. Another important point to mention here is the threat posed by endocrine disruptive chemicals in environment coming from disposal of plastic waste, biomedical waste and pharmaceutical industrial effluents, that enter our waterways and soil. The conservationists must pay immediate attention to control this pollution so that we may not loose our precious wildlife species. Acknowledgements We wish to thank Professor Wilfred Bassus of Tharandt Institute, Germany for his visits to forests of Madhya Pradesh during 1983-85 and suggestions made regarding wildlife of this State when he used to accompany us during field studies. Our (DKB) thanks are also due to Professor Dr. Jan Dobrowlski of Center of Environmental Studies, Krakow, Poland for arranging my lectures on Wildlife Management and to Late Professor E. Seidel of Berlin, UNEP Coordinator for Ecosystem Management (DKB) for giving me an opportunity to deliver lectures on Wildlife Biology and Management at Technical University, Dresden (Germany) during Training Course sponsored by UNEP for participants from the tropical countries for the period 1980 to 1987. We are also grateful to Mr. J.J. Dutta, Chief Warden Wildlife Wing of Madhya Pradesh Forest Department for providing facilities in National Parks for study on wildlife. Introduction The Indian subcontinent represents the confluence of three biogeographical realms of Wallace classification. These are Palaearctic (desert and Northeastern Himalaya), and the rest of the continent as Ethiopian (Afro-tropical) and Oriental (Indo-Malayan) realms. Hordridge (1967) presented a life zone system such as ice desert (Trans-Himalayan), moist forest in the Himalayas and the eastern part of Peninsula, in the Western Ghats, and Andaman & Nicobar Islands; dry forest over most of the Northern plains and the Peninsula; thorn woodland dry forest from Punjab to Tamil Nadu and the desert/scrub in the extreme western portions. Udvardy (1975) distinguished eight biogeographic zones such as, the Malabar rainforest, the Western Ghats, the Bengalian rainforest: parts of West Bengal, Assam and other rainforests of the Northern-east, the Indus-Ganges Monsoon forests – most of the Northeastern Frontier areas, the Mahanadia – Eastern (coastal areas of Andhra Pradesh and Orissa), the Coromandal (Eastern Ghats), the Deccan Thorn Forest (much of the Deccan plateau), the Thar Desert (arid zones of Gujarat and Rajasthan), the Laccadive Islands, the Andaman & Nicobar Islands, the Himalayan High Lands, and the Tibetan (Trans-Himalayan cold desert area of Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir). Rodgers and Panwar (1988) recognized ten biogeographic zones and twenty biotic provinces. These are: (1) the Trans-Himalaya with one province (18,423 km2), (2) the Himalayas with four provinces (2,10,662 km2), (3) the Indian desert with two provinces (2,15,757 km2), (4) the Semiarid Zone with two provinces (5,45,850 km2), (5) the Western Ghats with two provinces (1,32,606 km2), (6) The Deccan Peninsula with five provinces (13,80,380 km2), (7) the Gangetic Plain with two provinces (3,54,782 km2), (8) the Northeast India with two provinces (17,134 km2), (9) the Islands with three provinces (8,249 km2) and (10) the Coasts with two provinces (82,813 km2). The grassland ecosystem of India covers 3.9 per cent (12 million ha) of its total landmass. The bamboo forests are not included in this ecosystem. There are five broad grass cover types found in India (Belsare, 2006). These are: 1. Sehima-Dichanthium type which is spread over peninsular India. The key species are Sehima nervosum, Heteropogon contortus, Dichanthium annulatum, and Themeda quadrivalvis. 2. Dichanthium-Cenchrus-Lasiurus type which are found in northern parts of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Western Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and semi-arid Punjab. There are 11 perennial grasses, 19 legumes and 26 herbs. 3. Phragmites- Saccharum-Imperata type which spread over the alluvial plains of Ganga and delta plains of West Bengal and Assam Valley. There are 19 species of perennial grasses, 16 legumes and 40 herbs. 4. Themeda-Arundinella type covering the northern plains to the outer humid hills of the Himalayas, in Assam, Manipur, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir. There are 47 perennial grass species, 9 species of legumes and 30 herbs. The temperate-Alpine type is distributed over the higher altitudes of Jammu & Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Assam. There are 47 species of perennial grasses, 6 species of legumes and 67 species of herbs. The desert ecosystems of India are natural ecosystems characterized by very low rainfall (< 600 mm) and are broadly distinguished into sandy warm desert in the far western region of Rajasthan, salt desert (> 10,000 km2) in the western region of Gujarat and cold desert (1,09,990 km2) in the trans-Himalayan region of Ladakh, Jammu & Kashmir and Lahaul-Spiti in Himachal Pradesh. India has a rich variety of wetland habitats, ranging from river system of 14 major rivers, 44 medium-sized rivers to 55 minor rivers with total linear length of 45,000 km. Some of the largest rivers in the world are in India and 80 per cent of the total length is covered by 14 major rivers (Belsare, 2010). Besides these, there are several streams and village ponds to large lakes and reservoirs, the longest rivers, coastal lagoons, estuaries and brackish waters, coral reefs, mangroves, open coastal and oceanic waters. There are numerous man-made wetlands like reservoirs behind dams and impoundments and aquatic ponds. These ecosystems can be grouped into two categories, i.e., marine and brackish or freshwater on the basis of salinity. The ecosystems supported on the coast are estuaries, coral reefs, mangroves, sea grassbeds, sandy beaches, rocky beaches, lagoons and salterns. Oceanic ecosystem covers an area of 1.5 to 1.6 million km2. India represents 2.4 per cent of the world’s area, but accounts for 7.3 per cent of its faunal wealth (Belsare, 2006).