Seasonal Monitoring of Waterbirds of Chhari Dhandh wetland in Kachchh District, Gujarat, India

K. Joshi¹ , K. Tatu² , R.D. Kamboj³

1. Gujarat Ecological Education and Research (GEER) Foundation., Gandhinagar, India.
2. Gujarat Ecological Education and Research (GEER) Foundation., Gandhinagar, India.
3. Gujarat Ecological Education and Research (GEER) Foundation., Gandhinagar, India.

Section:Research Paper, Product Type: Isroset-Journal
Vol.5 , Issue.5 , pp.1-5, Oct-2018

CrossRef-DOI:   https://doi.org/10.26438/ijsrbs/v5i5.15

Online published on Oct 31, 2018

Copyright © K. Joshi, K. Tatu, R.D. Kamboj . This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
 

View this paper at   Google Scholar | DPI Digital Library

XML View     PDF Download

How to Cite this Paper

572 Views    403 Downloads    169 Downloads

Abstract :
A study was conducted by Gujarat Ecological Education and Research (GEER) Foundation on waterbirds of Chhari Dhandh during the year 2016-17 covering all the major seasons. A total of 66 waterbird species were recorded that belonged to 14 families. Among all the families, maximum number of species were represented by Anatidae family (i.e., the family of ducks, geese and swans) and Ardidae family (i.e., the family of herons, egrets and bitterns) with 13 species belonging to each family. Chhari Dhandh supported maximum population of waterbirds (n=4,162) in winter. On the contrary, minimum waterbird population (n=362) occurred in this wetland during summer. The study has indicated that Chhari Dhandh has highest utility as waterbird habitat during winter season and therefore maximum management practices should be focused during this period. The study has also indicated that open water and shoreland area support a large number of waterbird species and many of them are gregarious (occurring in congregation) calling for the need of focusing management efforts on these two habitats.

Key-Words / Index Term :
Avifauna, Chhari Dhandh, Habitat, Seasonal variation, Waterbirds, Wetland

References :
[1]. A. Grobicki, C. Chalmers, E. Jennings, T. Jones, & D. Peck, “An introduction to the Ramsar Convention on wetlands”, (previously The Ramsar Convention Manual), In Ramsar Convention Secretariat, Gland, Switzerland, 2016.
[2]. A. Ismail, F. Rahman and S. Z. Zulkifli, Status, “Composition and diversity of avifauna in the artificial Putrajaya wetlands and comparison with its two neighboring habitats”, Tropical Natural History Vol. 12, No., 2, pp. 137-145, 2012.
[3]. J. P. Shah, Y. B. Dabgar and B.K. Jain, “Quantitative analysis of aquatic macrophytes in certain wetlands of Kachchh District, Gujarat” Journal of Pure and Applied Sciences Vol. 19, pp. 11 - 13 ISSN 0975 – 2595, 2011.
[4]. S. N. Varu, “Nalsarovar of Kachchh-Chhari Dhandh (In Gujarati language)”, Vihang (a Gujarati newsletter), Vol. 2, 2007.
[5]. K. Tatu, “Wetland and waterbird heritage of Gujarat- An illustrated directory”, Gujarat State Forest Department, Govt. of Gujarat, pp. 1-690, 2012.
[6]. V. S. Vijayan, “Inland wetlands of India: conservation priorities”, Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History, Coimbatore, pp. 1-532, ISBN: 8190213601, 2004.
[7]. A. Rahmani, R. J. Samanat, Y. N. Rao, R. Manakadan, C. R. A. Kumar, V. Natarajan, J. K. Tiwari, S. Javed, S. Kumar, “A study on the ecology of grassland of the Indian plains with particular reference to their endangered fauna”, Final Report, Bombay Natural History Society and Centre of Wildlife and Ornithology, 1997.
[8]. J. K. Tiwari, “Chhari Dhandh Conservation Reserve an IBA”, Collective journey towards conservation of Chhari Dhandh (Souvenir), pp. 11-13, 2009.
[9]. C. Bibby, M. Jones and S. Marsden, “Expeditionfield techniques-bird surveys”, Birdlife International, Cambridge, UK. pp. 137, 2000.
[10]. S. Ali, “The book of Indian birds”. Bombay Natural History Society and Oxford University Press. Mumbai, India, pp. 1-326, 2002.
[11]. R. Grimmett, C. Inskipp & T. Inskipp, “Birds of the Indian Subcontinent.”. Edn 2, Oxford University Press. Delhi, India, pp. 1-480. ISBN: 978-06-91153-490, 2011.
[12]. GEER Foundation, “Ecological Study of Chhari Dhandh”, Gujarat Ecological Education & Research Foundation, Gandhinagar, 2017.
[13]. R. J. Whittaker, K. J. Willis, “Field scales and species richness: towards a general, hierarchial theory of species diversity”, Journal of Biogeography Vol. 28, No., 4, pp. 453-470, 2001.