Conservation Area Series No. 19 FAUNA OF DESERT NATIONAL PARK RAJASTHAN (Proposed Biosphere Reserve) Edited by the Director, Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata Zoological Survey of India Kolkata CITATION Editor-Director. 2004. Conservation Area Series, No. 19 : 1-135 (5 Plates) (Published by the Director, Zool. Surv. India, Kolkata) Published - August, 2004 ISBN 8l ...817I-049-S Project Coordinator DR.N.S.RATHORE Scientist-E Desert Regional Station, Zoological Survey of India, Jodhpur © Governlnent of India, 2004 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 India: Rs.3S0.00 Foreign : $ 20.00; £ 15.00 P~hlished ilt the Publication Division by the Director, Zoological Survey of India, 234/4, A J C Bose Road, 2nd MSO Building, (13th Floor), Nizam Palace, Kolkata-700 020 and printed at East India Photo Composing Centre, Kolkata-700 006. Fauna of Desert National Park Conservation Area Series No. 19 2004 Pages 1-135 CONTENTS Page Desert National Park - An overview N. S. Rathore 1-32 Plant and Soi 1 Nematodes Q. H. Baqri and P. Bohra 33-38 Mollusca K. V. Surya Rao, S. C Mitra and R. N. Manna 39-44 Insecta : Thysanura A. K. Hazra, M. Biswas and S. K. Mitra 45-50 Insecta : Odonata M. Prasad 51-5X Insecta : Orthoptera M. S. Shishodia 59-65 Insecta : Dermaptera G. K. Srivastava 67-68 Insecta : Mantoidea M. S. Shishodia 69-70 Insecta : Isoptera N. S. Rathore and N. Tak 71-78 Insecta : Diptera S. Kumar 79-80 Insecta : Lepidoptera D. R. Maulik 81-84 Insecta : Hymenoptera N. Tak and N. S. Rathore 85-90 Insecta: Hymenoptera: Acu)eata R. N. Tiwari, B. G. Kundu, S. Roychowdhury and S. N. Ghosh 91-99 Arachnida : Scorpions D. B. Bastawade 101-103 Acarina : Metastigmata A. K. Sanyal and S. K. De 105-108 Amphibia S. K. Chanda 109-110 Reptilia R. C. Sharma and N. S. Rathorc 111-117 Aves P. L. Kankane 119-130 Mammalia P. L. Kankane 131-135 Plates I-V Zool. Surv. India Conservations A.rea Series 19, Fauna of Desert National Park. : 1-32, 2004 DESERT NATIONAL PARK - AN OVERVIEW N. S. RA THORE Desert Regional Station, Zoological Survey of India, Jodhpur, India INTRODUCTION Biosphere Reserve Programme is an extended activity of conservation of representative ecosystem in the form of National Park or nature reserve. It emphasises the need for conservation of the whole environment including man and his traditional activities. The concept of establishing Biosphere Reserve is the major aim of the UNESCO'S Man and the Biosphere (MAB) programme. By now a network of about 250 Biosphere Reserves has developed in more than 70 countries. Indian Biosphere reserve's Programme, initiated in 1979 intends to preserve representative biotic communities in 13 potential biogeographical regions of country. The Thar Desert has been included as one of the 13 biomes. The hot desert in northwestern region is a unique and the only habitat of its type over the Indian subcontinent. It was, therefore, appreciable that the Ministry of Environment and Forests constituted a working group in 1988 to draw a project document. on the Thar Desert Biosphere Reserve (Anon. 1988). The major objective of Biosphere Reserve system is to provide in situ conservation of plants, animals and micro-organisms, not in isolation but in their totality as components, of the ecosystem. The concept emphasis's the need for conserving ecosystem of a size large enough to ensure self-perpetuating and unhindered evolution of the web of living organisms. Being the most populated desert of the planet, large enough. undisturbed areas are not available presently in the Thar Desert. Resultantly the working group recommended to upgrade the status of the Desert N.ational Park as a Thar Desert Biosphere reserve (Anon. 1988). Inspite of the fact that climatic conditions are very harsh, the extreme xeric region of the country exhibits a vivid and spectacular biodiversity. Moreover, the abundance of certain insects, mites, arachnids, reptiles and rodents is simply astonishing and speaks of the highly specialized deserticolous adaptations. 2 Fauna of Desert National Park, Conservation Area Series 19 Some studies were undertaken on the fauna occurring in districts of laisalmer and Barmer and good work on the subject has been published by several scientists (Sinha~ Prakash et al. Prakash and Gupta, Kapoor, Rahmani, Roonwal et al. and others). However, an intensive faunal composition of proposed DNPIDBR was yet to be ascertained. Realising the importance of the bio-geography of the area, a research project entitled "Studies on Vertebrate and Invertebrate Fauna of Desert National ParkIDesert Biosphere Reserve" was undertaken during 1994-98. The faunistic surveys and material coHections were taken up by the parties of the Desert Regional Station, Jodhpur. In the present publication, the results of these surveys, together with information available from earlier surveys done by this department and other scientists have been collaborated, compi led and presented in the fonn of papers. Brief overview of relevent aspects as location, area, topography, climate, geology, soil, vegetation, fauna. etc, have been given to act as a general introduction to all the contributions that follows. The Desert National Park-Desert Biosphere Reserve The Desert National Park (DNP), the proposed Desert Biosphere Reserve (DBR) is situated between 25°47' Nand 26°46' Nand 70° 15' and 70°45' E, (Figs. I and 2). This covers an area of 3162 Km. of which 1900 Km. is in laisalmer district and remaining 1262 Km. in Barmer district of Rajasthan state. It is the western most geographic region of India. The area falls in the extreme hot, arid region of very low rainfall zone of the country. The human population is low, 4-5 persons per Km. TOPOGRAPHY The entire area is essentially plain grassland with a few hills in the north-western side of the D N P. The entire zone is dominated by sand hjlls and sand dunes. Most of the dunes arc of Barchan type but tall; iixed and parallel dunes are aJso present. These- dunes at places rise up to 100 m. elevation. The blown sands (mostly due to aerodynamic processes and partly due to biotic interference from shifting sand dunes) add to the inhospitability of the are~l At pla,e~ topography is gravelly and stoney with few isolated ridges. Interdunal and sandy plains are other topographic units occurring in the region. There are interdunal depression and valleys orjginated mostly by wind action. There are no perennial river but seasonal streams are mostly nalJahs. The water table is very deep. CLIMATE The climate of this region ~s characterise~ by extremes of temperature. In summer, the day temperature rises up to 49°C with surface temperature sometimes touching 50°C. The nights are generally very cool. The temperature in winter may fall up to 2°C. Several. droughts RATHORE : Desert National Park: An overview 3 ,.·7 PUNJAB N • 'I-- WESTERN RAJASTHAN t (0 I l, ~ANGA~GJ\£3. \ • ( \) I Kms. 50 0 50 100 100 / ~ANUMANGAAN", ,., t I' • • \ ~ HARYANA L ./ ./ ".. _< ro} / ...... ..",/ , ( ., ,-/ ~ ""'..., \, . ( , J r~, • I "" CHURUO r,~ \ { BIKANER ( ,-( OJHUNJJUNUN ."-\ ~ 0 1 \ J / ..-- .. <--, ') I \ ""'r • ~) J ". ...... '" "-' I //1".-. "-."",, / \, SIKAR I • I ", J" J \,... 0 ".",/ / J ,_/ J ,'" (~ \ 0 '-I ( , 1 NAGAUR \. \ ,-.., ) '-~ ( ( ,~J ,-,-......) JODHPUR \. ." / .I 'J. _ ~,,--, , - \'- ..... ~., J "\ , ~ (I \.1 , ("... " r BARMER ) I ) o ,~-O r ,/"', PAll I I "'--""0 ,)( I I I JALORI t I .,"" ) J ,'* \ I' "," ("-,, jJ, __ --~"..-( / • I GUJARAT NSR Fig. 1. : Map of western Rajasthan. Showing proposed area of the TharDesert Biosphere Reserve. 4 Fauna of Desert National Park, Conservation Area Series J 9 70° 30~, , 700 45' '\ 4 o 4 SAM 1"-" \ ,Miles I , I " / NIBA " /. \ JAISALMER ,'BINDHA ) I ~.. BARAN , .,,1 NURUKA • , -- UKRALA (SOMOONI \ " , ,. ~, ',.,' I DHANELA J I I, • I , ,I I I \ I \ I \ eBERSIYA IOAW e\ KHARIYA \ I .KATA \ I '. I I ) 0 I I 26 I ~nA.~ .".---~ 15' .". " ". 15' MYAJLAR SINGHDAR .1-_-", .... " ----.". \ \ \ '""' ",. .,',,( , '--""-- \ ;;,,' I , \ / / \ BARMER /" ~ I OHAGARI , I • GIRAB '" ,/ I ORABA e, 26 26° t. HALAKAR. '\ O' \ CHATRORI \ HARSANI 0' " ....... " . TURVI.'- -.I' , BIJAWAL ',,- • OARWALIYA MORBA.' " • _----___'7 '-'-----.,....,...- ."".- 7 0 45' NSR Fig. 2. : Desert National Park. Area covering proposed Thar Desert Biosphere Reserve. (After Anonymous 1988) RA THORE : Desert National Park: Afl overview 5 accompanied by very strong high wind velocity, low relative humidity, evaporation far exceeding precipitation, aridity index being 80 percent, are the characteristic features. The rainfall pattern is extremely erratic, and annual rainfall is about 100-150 mm. but it fans only in about 3-7 days in a year, mostly during the months July-September. The winter is quite cold while the heat during summer is intense and scorching. GEOLOGY Jaisalmer district was submerged under sea during the Jurassic, Cretaceous and Eocene ages. It probably uplifted in the upper tertiary times. Resultantly the rivers, Saraswati and Dhrishtavati changed their course and aridity spread in the region. The region is characterised by an entire range of formations from the lower pre-Cambrian to the Quaternary. Among the oldest are the Banded Genissic complexes. The sedimentary rocks and Tertiary formations are sediment deposited in ·shallow neritic environment.