NCESW Proceeding - Publication PDF

St.
Joseph’s College (Autonomous)

36, Langford Road, Langford Gardens,
Bangalore, Karnataka – 560027, India
Proceedings of the
National Conference on Ecology,
Sustainable Development and Wildlife Conservation
(NCESW) held on 15th and 16th December 2016
Editors
Ebenezer Wilson, Kiran Jeevan, M.Jayashankar
ISBN: 978-93-86519-05-4
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Proceedings of the National Conference on Ecology, Sustainable Development and Wildlife
Conservation
PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE
Dr. Victor Lobo S.J.

Principal
St. Joseph's College (Autonomous)
Bangalore 560 027
A hearty welcome to St. Joseph's College and to the National Conference on 'Ecology,
Sustainable Development and Wildlife Conservation'. I warmly congratulate the Department
of Zoology, Environmental Science and WACC for initiating and organizing this conference
to promote research and academic learning.
The theme is an apt theme reflecting the needs of the present times. The world is going
through an environmental crisis, and we are living in the edge of time, it is very appropriate
that the two Departments and WACC have decided to deliberate and talk about issues and
concerns to save our Planet.
I warmly welcome and wish all the participants of the National Conference good luck and I
pray that you will have a great learning experience while you are here on campus and also
take the learning to bring about change and save our Earth.
St.Joseph’s College (Autonomous) 2

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EDITORIAL
The National Conference on 'Ecology, Sustainable Development and Wildlife

Conservation' is an important and pivotal step in enhancing research and publications among
students and faculty. The three aspects in the theme of this National Conference on Ecology,
Sustainable Development and Wildlife Conservation are inseparably interrelated with each
other.
Our heartfelt gratitude to all those who contributed to the success of the release of this
conference proceedings.
EDITORS
Dr. M.R.Ebenezer Wilson Prof. Kiran Jeevan Dr. Jayashankar.M

Associate Professor Staff Coordinator, Assistant Professor
Department of WACC PRO and Placement Department of Zoology
Environmental Science
Officer

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CONTENTS
1 An Assessment Of Mangrove Diversity, Mangalore, Karnataka 6
S. Murugan And Usha Anandhi
2 Diversity Of Saproxylic Coleopterans In An Ecotone Adjoining 13
Bannerghatta National Park
Swathi Muralidhar, Avinash Krishnan, Sagarika Phalke And M. Jayashankar
3 The Essence Of Water User Associations In Management Of The Canal 21
Irrigated Area In India
Gururaj.B , Mahadevaiah.G. S And Kadli Veeresh
4 Diversity And Conservation Of Reptiles In Periyar Tiger Reserve, Kerala 26
Anju B.Kanjirakkattu, Dilmol Varghese, Vinod K.V And Gigi K.
5 The Diversity Of Ants In Coles Park, Bangalore 35
Dakshin V John And Charles M
6 Preliminary Results On The Spider Fauna (Arachnida: Araneae) Of The 41
High Altitude Shola Ecosystem In The Western Ghats
Mathew M. Joseph, Jimmy Paul, Pradeep M. Sankaran, P.A. Sebastian
7 Effect Of Fire On Heteropogan Contortus Dominated Grazing Land At 50
Sivaganga, Semi-Arid Tamilnadu
Meenal K, Anusiya Devi A And K.Manoharan
8 Effect Of Street Lights On Plant 54
Smriti Tiwari
9 Mahua (Madhuca Longifolia): An Ideal Landscape Tree For 58
Ant Conservation
Viyolla Mendonce, Abraham Verghese, M. S. Reddy
10 Grazing Land Degradation At Nagamalai In The Eastern Ghats Of Tamil 64
Nadu
Anusiya Devi A, Suresh Kumar R And K. Manoharan
11 Distribution And Ecology Of The Mangrove Forest In The Gulf Of 69
Mannar Region, South East Coast Of Tamilnadu, South India
Suresh Kumar R And Meena K And K. Manoharan
12 Mangrove Litter Fall And Litter Decomposition In The Gulf Of Mannar 74
Region, India
Meena K, Meenal K And K. Manoharan
13 Honey Bee Propolis And Its Bioactive Components: A Promising Adjuvant 78
Approach For Cancer
Shashikala A, B.P.Harini, K.Renukadevi And M.S.Reddy
14 A Report On The Species And Numbers Of Urban Wildlife Rehabilitated 89
At Wrrc, Bannerghatta During The Year 2015-16 And Their Causes
Roopa Satish
15 Nest Diversity And Nest Characteristics Of Stingless Bee Tetragonula 96
Species In Bangalore
B.Manjunatha, Renuka Devi. K And M.S.Reddy

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16 Bee Flora And Floral Calendar Of Bumble Bees 100

In Bengaluru And Its Environs
Renukadevi .K, A. Shashikala, B.P.Harini And M.S.Reddy
17 Assessment Of Degradation Of Paravur Kayal Using Gis And 105
Geoenvironmental Tools - Strategies For Restoration And Management
Shiekha E. John, Rajimol T. R., Maya K. And Padmalal D.
18 The Effect Of Climate And Weather Conditions On Avian Species In 112
Guddegere, Tirthhalli Karnataka And Its Implications
Karan Dubey, Sanjay. S, Prathiba R.D
19 Impact Of Indiscriminate Use Of Pesticide On Male Fertility And Its 123
Mitigation With Medicinal Plant Extracts
Priyanka Sinha, M.S Reddy And A. Nath
20 Diversity Of Spiders At Kalinga Centre For Rainforest Ecology (Kcre) In 131
Agumbe
Syed Ismail. A
21 Bioefficacy Of Oil Formulations Against Flea Beetle, Luperomorpha Vittata 137
(Duvivier) Under Laboratory And Field Conditions On Cabbage, Brassica
Oleraceae
A.K. Chakravarthy, S. Onkar Naik, V. Sridhar, S. Thippeswamy And
M.Jayashankar
22 Identification Of Genes Underlying The Qtl Regions In The Qtl-Nils Of 143
Ir64/Azucena
Grace Sharon Arul Selvi And Shailaja Hittalmani
23 Graphical Genotyping Of Pyramids And Analysis Of Inherited Blocks Of 149
Qtl Regions On Grain Yield, Root And Shoot Morphology in Rice (Oryza
Sativa L.).
Grace Sharon Arul Selvi And Shailaja Hittalmani
24 SEASONAL VARIATION IN SOIL MICROBIAL POPULATION IN 163

THE AGRO-
FORESTRY ZONE OF WESTERN GHATS, WAYANAD; KERALA.
Sabitha Thomas, Ebenezer Wilson, Antoney PU.

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Paper-1
AN ASSESSMENT OF MANGROVE DIVERSITY, MANGALORE,

KARNATAKA
S. Murugan and Usha Anandhi
Reproductive Physiology Unit, Department of Zoology, Bangalore University (Karnataka)
E-mail: muru3986@gmail.com
INTRODUCTION:
Mangroves are arboreal salt-tolerant flowering plants growing ideally in tropical and
subtropical regions (Ellison and Stoddart, 1991). The word "Mangrove" could mean the
ecosystem or a single plant (Tomlinson, 1986). A mangrove plants is shrub, palm, tree or fern
growing above mean sea level of marine coastal environments or estuaries exceeding a height
of half a meter (Duke, 1992). The mangrove ecosystem is distinguished from other plant
species by naming them as "Mangals" (Macnae, 1968). Mangrove ecosystem, due to the rich
biodiversity and unusual habitat, command a unique attention among the coastal
environments. This ecosystem holds diverse faunal and floral diversity because of their
effective interaction of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystem. Mangroves apart from being
nurseries for number of economically important aquatic animals, support for microbial flora
growth and providing habitats to crustaceans, molluscs, reptiles, mammals and birds. They
also have tremendous social and ecological value providing income by collection of
molluscs, crustaceans, fish, fuel wood, charcoal, timber and wood chips. Mangrove
ecosystem has a key role in trapping of pollutants, coastal land stabilization by filtering
sediment and protection against natural calamities (Elizabeth McLeod and Rodney V. Salm-
2006).
Mangroves act as filter for land runoffs and green-walls for soil erosion, thus crucial
in stabilising the loose soil from high wind velocity, tidal surges and cyclonic storms (Rao
and Sastry, 1973 and Rao et. al., 1963). Around 80 mangroves species are found to be
distributed throughout the world (Saenger et al., 1983). Though mangrove distribution is
found over 112 countries (Naskar and Mandal, 1999) covering about 240 x 103 km2 (Lugo et
al. 1990 and Twilley et al. 1992), India has 2.66% of the world’s mangroves (Arun and Shaji,
2013), having fourth largest mangrove of 6749Km2. The mangroves are highly threatened
across the globe. There is very limited data on the availability and importance of mangroves
in South Canara, India, hence the present study was undertaken. The main objective of the
study is to assess the diversity of mangrove flora, which would help in deriving taxonomical
details based on species diversity, richness and evenness from the selected sites of
Mangalore.
MATERIALS AND METHOD:

Study area: Mangrove vegetation in India, particularly in Karnataka is found to be
distributed in Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Uttara Kannada with a coastal line of about
320kms. Dakshina Kannada district has four main rivers joining the Arabian Sea, namely

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Netravathi, Kumaradhara, Gurupura (Phalguni), Nandini (Pavanje) river. Among these rivers
Kumaradhara confluence with Netravathi at Uppinangady and continues as river Netravathi.
Whereas at Dakshina Kannada Gurupura and Netravathi confluence in Mangalore and
Pavanje confluence with Shambavi river of Udupi district at Mulki to join Arabian Sea. In the
present study the Netravathi - Gurupura estuarine complex (12.90052'68", 74.82013'58" to
12.82081'36", 74.85089'45"), Mangalore has been selected, geograpically located 352 kms
west of Bangalore and 54 kms south to Udupi.
Data Collection: The areas where the true mangroves exist were first identified in the
Netravathi - Gurupura estuary. The study area is divided into 5 sites (Figure A) for
identification and documentation of mangrove diversity. Site 1 and 2 are from Gurupura
estuary, site 3 and 4 are from Netravathi estuary and site 5 is close to estuarine mouth joining
Arabian Sea. Regular surveys were made along the study sites of the estuary to explore the
successful results of the true mangroves. The mangrove identifications were done during their
flowering and fruiting seasons and took photographs with the help of camera. The
nomenclature of the mangroves were done based on Gamble (1957) and Matthew (1983)
identification methods.
Figure A: Map of study site at Netravathi -Gurupura estuarine complex
Biodiversity indices such as diversity index, species richness index and evenness
index were calculated with the following standard formulae.
The diversity index was calculated using the Shannon - Wiener diversity index (H’) (Shannon
- Wiener, 1949).
H =− (Pi ∗ Ln(Pi))
Where, Pi = S / N, S = number of individuals of one species, N = total number of all

individuals in the sample and Ln = Natural logarithm
The species richness index was measured by using the Margalef’s species richness index (d')
(Margalef, 1958).
(S − 1)
d =
Ln(N)

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Where, S = total number of species, N = total number of individuals in the sample and Ln =
Natural logarithm
The evenness index was analysed by adopting the Pielou’s species evenness index (J’)
(Pielou, 1966).
H
J’ =
Ln(S)
Where, H' = Shannon -Wiener diversity index, S = total number of species in the sample and
Ln = Natural logarithm
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION:

In the present study eight true mangrove species (Figure B) have been identified and
documented from six families Avicenniaceae (46.60%), Rhizophoraceae (40.78%),
Lythraceae (4.85%), Euphorbiaceae (4.85%), Poaceae (1.94%) and Acanthaceae (0.97%) in
the Netravathi - Gurupura estuarine complex. The distribution of mangrove species in
different study sites are as shown in Table A. Among the different sites Avicennia officinalis
was found to be dominated in all the study sites, followed by Rhizophora mucronata,
Kandelia candel and Rhizophora apiculata which may be due to their tolerance to the wide
range fluctuations of physico - chemical properties. The important invader species of
mangrove ecosystem is Avicennia officinalis being of hardy in nature and high range of
adaptability and this was followed by Rhizophora sps (Arun and Shaji, 2013). Mangrove
diversity in the coast is usually an association of Rhizophora species with other mangrove
species as the soil is inundated daily two times by the sea water (Basha, 1992).
Table A: Distribution of mangroves in selected sites of Netravathi - Gurupura estuary
Botanical Name Site 1 Site 2 Site 3 Site 4 Site 5

Acanthus ilicifolius + - - - -
Avicennia officinalis + + + + +
Excoecaria agallocha - + - + -
Kandelia candel + + - + -
Porteresia coarctata + - - - -
Rhizophora apiculata + + - + -
Rhizophora mucronata + + + + -
Sonneratia alba + + + - -

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1.94 0.97
4.85% % %
4.85% Avicennia officinalis
Rhizophora apiculata
Rhizophora mucronata
13.59% Kandelia candel

46.60%
Sonneratia alba
Excoecaria agallocha
15.53% Porteresia coarctata
Acanthus ilicifolius
11.65%
Figure B: Percentage of mangroves species during the study period
Mangroves have high potential to get acclimatized to changes in the surrounding

environment. Out of the eight mangrove species Avicennia officinalis, Excoecaria agallocha,
Kandelia candel, Rhizophora apiculata, Rhizophora mucronata and Sonneratia alba were
identified as trees. One mangrove herb species namely Acanthus ilicifolius and one grass
namely Porteresia coarctata are reported from the present study (Table B). In our
investigation, Acanthus ilicifolius is found to be flowering from April to December and
fruiting during July to February and has been reported occurring in varied habitats of West
and East Coasts (Mudaliar et al, 1954). Avicennia officinalis flowered during June to
September and fruited during September to March. Kandelia candel was found to flower
from January to December with fruiting from April to January and this plant is found to be
very fast disappearing from the mangrove locations of Mangalore. Excoecaria agallocha and
Sonneratia alba flowered from February to July and fruited during June to January and
August to February respectively. Rhizophora apiculata and Rhizophora mucronata showed
flowering and fruiting simultaneously from July to October (Suma and Gowda, 2013).
Table B: Mangroves plants identified at Netravathi - Gurupura estuary.
Habit
Botanical Name Family Name
Acanthus ilicifolius Acanthaceae Herb
Avicennia officinalis Avicenniaceae Tree
Excoecaria agallocha Euphorbiaceae Tree
Kandelia candel Rhizophoraceae Tree
Porteresia coarctata Poaceae Grass
Rhizophora apiculata Rhizophoraceae Tree
Rhizophora mucronata Rhizophoraceae Tree
Sonneratia alba Lythraceae Tree

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Among the different study sites the Shannon-Wiener diversity index of mangrove
species showed highest at site 2 and lowest at site 5, Margalef’s richness index was noticed
highest at site 1 and lowest at site 5 and Pielou’s evenness index was observed highest at site
5 and lowest at site 3 (Table C). This may be attributed to the dominance of Avicennia
officinalis, Rhizophora sps. and physico-chemical properties of the study sites.
Table C: Diversity index, richness index and evenness index of mangroves at different study
sites during the study period. (H’ = Shannon-Wiener diversity index; d = Margalef’s species
richness index; J = Pielou’s evenness index)
Biodiversity indices Site - 1 Site - 2 Site - 3 Site – 4 Site - 5

Diversity index (H’) 1.623 1.691 0.684 1.336 0.000
Richness index (d) 1.716 1.443 0.910 1.259 0.000
Evenness index (J’) 0.724 0.904 0.660 0.761 1.000
The site 1 and 2 showed high level of diversity as well as richness located in
Gurupura estuary which might be due to slow flowing water and good amount of substratum.
Site 3 and 4 showed moderate level of diversity and richness, which could be due to the fast
flowing water and less amount of substratum at Netravathi estuary. Site 5 close to estuarine
mouth showed no diversity and richness but showed highest evenness as only Avicennia
officinalis was found distributed. The evenness in other sites varied in the order Site 2 > Site
4 > Site 1 > Site 3.
CONCLUSION:
In the present investigation, 8 species of true mangroves with 6 tree species, 1 herb
species and 1 grass species were identified from Netravathi - Gurupura estuarine complex,
Mangalore. Even though these mangroves protect human resource and biodiversity, these
ecosystem are experiencing enormous threat due to their tremendous exploitation for fuel
wood, timber, paper, charcoal, alcohol and medicine (Upadhyay et al. 2002). In the recent
times over 40% mangrove areas has been depleted (Satheesh Kumar et al, 2011) as increased
human settlement has increased pressure on these mangroves. Hence immediate conservation
activities towards the better management of remaining mangroves with legal enforcement of
protection rules are of at most need.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:
The authors are grateful to Dr. S. Saraswathi, Assistant Professor, BMCRI, Bangalore
for the support provided in conducting the study.

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REFERENCE:
1. Arun. T. Ram and Shaji. C. S. 2013. Diversity and Distribution of Mangroves in
Kumbalam Island of Kerala, India. IOSR Journal Of Environmental Science,
Toxicology And Food Technology. Volume 4, Issue 4 (May. - Jun. 2013), PP 18-26.
2. Basha S.C. 1992. Mangroves of Kerala- A fast disappearing asset, Indian forester.
120(2), 175-189.
3. Duke N.C. 1992. Mangrove floristic and biogeography. Pp.63100 in Tropical
Mangrove Ecosystems. A.I. Robertson and D.M. Alongi, Eds. American Geophysical
Union, Washington DC., USA.
4. Elizabeth McLeod and Rodney V. Salm. 2006. Managing Mangroves for Resilience
to Climate Change. The World Conservation Union (IUCN), Gland, Switzerland.
5. Ellison J.C. and D.R. Stoddart. 1991. Mangrove ecosystem collapse during predicted
sea-level rise: Holocene analogues and implications. Journal of Coastal Research 7:
151-165.
6. Gamble J.S. 1957. Flora of the Presidency of Madras, Botanical Survey of India,
Calcutta.
7. Lugo A.E, Brown S and Brinson M.M. 1990. Concepts in Wetland Ecology. In: A.E.
Lugo, M.M. Brinson and S. Brown (eds). Amsterdam: Ecosystems of the World 15,
Forested Wetlands. Elsevier, 53-85.
8. Macnae W. 1968. A general account of the fauna and flora of mangrove swamps and
forests in the Indo-West-Pacific region. Advances in Marine Biology 6:73-270.
9. Margalef R. 1958. Temporal succession and spatial heterogeneity in phytoplankton.
In: Perspectives in Marine biology. Buzzati-Traverso (Ed.), The University of
California Press, Berkeley, p. 323-347.
10. Matthew K.M. 1983. The Flora of the Tamilnadu Carnatic, The Rapinat Herbarium,
Tiruchirapalli.
11. Mudaliar, Rajasekara C and Sunanda Kamath. 1954. Back water flora of the west
coast of South India, J.Bombay.Nat.Hist.Soc. 52.
12. Naskar K.R. and R.N. Mandal. 1999. Ecology and Biodiversity of Indian Mangroves.
Daya Publishing House, New Delhi, India.
13. Pielou E. C. 1966. The measurement of diversity in different types of biological
collections. J. Theor. Biol. 13: 131-144.
14. Rao T.A and Sastry A.R.K. 1973. Studies on the flora and vegetation of coastal
Andhra Pradesh, India, Bull. Bot.Surv. India, 15, 92 –107.
15. Rao T.A, Aggarwal K.R. and Mukherjee A.K. 1963. Ecological studies on the soil
and vegetation of Krusadi group of islands in the Gulf of Mannar. Bull. Bot. Surv.
India, 5, 141–148.
16. Saenger P, Hegerl EJ and Davie JDS. 1983. Global status of mangrove ecosystems.
The Environmentalist 3 (supplement 3).
17. Satheeshkumar P, Manjusha U. and Pillai N.G.K. 2011. Conservation of mangrove
forest covers in Kochi coast. Current Science. 101(11), 1400.
18. Shannon C. E. and W. Wiener. 1949. The mathematical theory of communication.
Urbana, University of Illinois Press. 177 pp.

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19. Suma and Gowda P.V. 2013. Diversity of Mangroves in Udupi District of Karnataka
State, India. International Research Journal of Biological Sciences. Vol. 2(11), 11-17.
20. Tomlinson P.B. 1986. The botany of mangroves. Cambridge University Press.
21. Twilley R.R, Chen R.H and Hargis T. 1992. Carbon sinks in mangroves and their
implications to carbon budget of tropical coastal ecosystems. Water, Air and Soil
Pollution, 64, 265-288.
22. Upadhyay V.P, Ranjan R. and Singh. J. S. 2002. Human mangrove conflicts: The way
out. Current Science 83: 1328-1336.

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Paper-2
DIVERSITY OF SAPROXYLIC COLEOPTERANS IN AN ECOTONE
ADJOINING BANNERGHATTA NATIONAL PARK
Swathi Muralidhar, Avinash Krishnan, Sagarika Phalke and
M. Jayashankar*4
ARocha Field study centre, Kessaraguppe, Bangalore
*Department of Zoology, St. Joseph’s College Bangalore-560 027
INTRODUCTION
Beetles are part of the pioneer insects that loosen the bark of the wood allowing
further decomposition to take place. Saproxylic beetles are species which are involved in or
dependent on wood decay and therefore play an important role in decomposition processes
and thus for recycling nutrients in natural ecosystems. They are associated with both living
and dead trees. (1)
The study plot (N12.813660, E77.567320) is a 5 acres farmland abutting on its west is
Bannerghata National Park (BNP), part of one of the largest remaining scrub forests of the
country, situated in Karnataka, Southern India. The predominant vegetation of the park is
characterised by thorn scrub and dry deciduous forest. (2) The abutting farmlands form an
extension of BNP, comprising of fallow lands, teak plantations, grassland patches and water
bodies, forming an ectone habitat. Some of these microhabitats were classified and selected
for the study conducted over a period of 4 days of sampling.
Map1. Google earth view of the area of sampling sites, BNP and AFCS.

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MATERIALS AND METHODS

Sampling
Seven sampling sites (A, B, C, D, E, F and G) were selected for the pitfall trap
method. Wet Pit- fall traps were used. Each sampling site had two sampling units selecting a
different medium type viz., water and wheat-hay. Apart from these, handpicking was also
done. The first retrieval was done after 24 hours and the second retrieval was done after 48
hours to assess whether the duration of the trap could influence the sample size.
For experimentation:
1. Plastic cups- 8cm in diameter and 9.2 cm in length.

2. Tap water filled up to the height of 3.6cm into each cup (180 ml).
3. 30 gms of wheat flour
4. Hay
5. Ethyl acetate
For collection of samples:
6. Brush- brush no.1

7. Dissection needle
8. Sieve- Plastic, diameter 0.1 mm
For preservation:
9. Zip locks covers

10. Camphor-2gms in each zip bag
Traps were laid on December 8th, 2015, at around 11.00 am. Two pits of height equivalent to
the height of the cups were dug and placed about 20 cm apart from each other in an area of
around one sq. mt.

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A. Water Body
B. Bamboo understorey
C. Teak Trees
G F
D. Short Grass
E. Long Grass
F. Forest
A G. Agricultural area E
B D C
Fig 1. Sampling Sites along with the two sampling traps
Identification
Viable samples were separated out from the non- viable ones. The latter was
discarded as they didn’t posses their whole anatomy or degraded due to longer preservation
duration. The viable samples were identified in Department of Entomology, University of
Agricultural Sciences.

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RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The summary of seven different sampling sites is given below:
Sampling Elevation Sample Sample Total Vegetation Human/ Canopy Soil

Site (in mts) Size in Size in Sample type Cattle
Trap 1 Trap 2 (N=) (predominant Movement
tree species)
Bamboo 873 7 7 9 8 31 Lantana Low Full Clay
understorey camara
N12.81433
E077.567756
Short Grass 896 6 3 4 2 15 Piperia High Full Clay

unalascensis
N12.81399
E077.56755 Mimosa
pudica
Tall Grass 876 7 12 8 7 34 Chromolaena Low None Clay
ordata
N12.81365
E077.56814 Mimosa
pudica
Forest 902 1 3 6 12 22 Chromolaena Low Partial Clay
ordata
N12.81320
E077.56862
Teak Trees 901 4 0 2 7 13 Lantana Low Partial Clay

camara Silt
N12.81423
E077.56760
Agriculture 881 8 5 0 3 16 Solanum High None Clay

site lycopersicum
N12.81391
E077.56728
Table 1. Sampling site description

The below graph represents the comparative study of the total sample size from each
sampling site and the number of order Coleopteran found in each sampling site. 107 samples
were found to be viable out of 172 samples Total number of Coleopterans was found to be 40
which accounts for 37.38% of total viable samples. The highest number of Coleopterans was
seen in the Bamboo understory sampling site followed by Short grass, Water Body and Forest
regions. Teak tress, Long grass and Human Dominance had the least number of Coleopterans
samples. Agricultural site was found to have no Coleopteran samples.

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Pit fall trap with water as a medium was the standard method followed while pit fall trap with
wheat hay medium and ethyl acetate as the intoxicating agent was a modification of the
standard method employed to assess which could be the better substrate.
Total sample size No. Of Coleoptera
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Water body Teak trees Bamboo Short Grass Tall Grass Forest Agriculture
Thicket
Graph 1. Total sample and composition of coleopterans in the sample

Highest sample yield was found in wheat media rather than water medium method. Amongst
the different trap types, pit fall with water medium attracted more individuals (14) individuals
belonging to 5 families) compared to wheat-hay medium (N=22) individuals of 7 families of
Coleopterans)
To compare the measure of diversity amongst the different sampling sites and the mediums
used, Shannon’s index of diversity and Simpson’s diversity index were used. (4) From the
below table, we can comprehend that the highest value is from the water body region
followed by human dominance regions and Tall Grass region with 2.7 and 2.6 families
respectively. We can see from the below table that the highest value of Shannon’s index of
Diversity is from Bamboo Thicket followed by Water body sampling site.
The least was found to be in Teak Trees region. Bamboo thicket has a larger sample size
distributed amongst the two families, Staphylinidae and Nitilinideae. While Water Body
region has a smaller sample size distributed over 3 different families of Nitidulidae,
Hydrophilidae and Tenebrionidae. Furthermore, evenness which represents the relative
abundance of a given family in the given area (6) has the highest value from Bamboo thicket
followed by Short Grass region and Forest regions. The least measure was found to be in
Teak Trees region.
Water Bamboo Short Tall Forest Teak Human

body thicket grass grass trees dominance
Total 5 13 5 4 5 4 4
number of
individuals

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Shannon’s 1.05 1.14 0.672 1.039 0.6724 0.562 1.0395

diversity 4 5 2
index (H)
Simpson’s 0.36 0.4925 0.52 0.375 0.52 0.52 0.375

diversity
index (D)
Evenness 0.96 1.65 0.970 0.946 0.9702 0.405 0.7498

2 2 5
Table 4. Diversity Indices and Evenness for each Sampling site
Water medium Wheat-hay medium
No Of Families 5 7
(Staphylinidae 8; Nitilinideae (Nitilinidae-6; Tenebrionidae- 5;

- 2; Dytisidae-1; Hydrophilidae- 1; Staphylinidae-
Tenebrionidae- 2; 2; Bostrychidae- 3;
Hydrophilidae- 1) Curculionidae- 2; Dermestidae-3)
No Of Individuals 14 22
Shannon’s Diversity 1.2523 1.8045

(H)
Simpson’s Diversity 0.3764 0.1796

(D)
Evenness 0.778 0.9273
Table 5. Shannon’s Diversity Index, Inverse of Simpson’s Diversity and Evenness for two
different media
From the above tabulation, we can comprehend that all the measures for Shannon’s, Inverse
of Simpson’s Diversity Index and Evenness was found to be higher when pit fall trap was laid
with wheat-hay as medium indicating that the wheat- hay medium might be better way of
trapping Coleopterans than the water medium for the pit fall traps.
The results of the present study revealed the following families of Coleopterans,
Curculionidae(2), Staphylinidae(10), Nitidulidae(8), Dermestidae(3), Bostrychidae(3),
Scarabaeidae(3), Tenebrionidae(8), Dyticidae(1), Hydrophilidae(2) and Chrysomalidae(1).
The highest number of Coleopterans belonged to the family of Staphylinidae (25%), followed
by Nitidulidae (20%) and Tenebrionidae (20%) having same number of samples each. The
least number of samples belonged to the family of Chrysomalidae (2.5%). No coleopterans
were found in either of sampling units in Agriculture sampling site. Agriculture sampling site

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had the highest human interference and other anthropogenic factors (7) viz., foraging of
domesticated birds (8) and dry heat (9) with no shade availability in the vicinity and hence
might explain the lack of Coleopteran samples. It might also be due to short duration study or
sampling effort which has to be further investigated.
Highest number of Coleopterans was obtained from Bamboo understorey sampling site which
had least human interference associated with complete canopy and an even contour. The red
clay soil might be a factor for the prevalence of the beetles in this region though most of the
soil throughout the regions of traps was clay in nature. The dependence of the abundance of
the Coleopterans on soil type is yet another factor that needs further investigation. (10)
The highest number of samples belonged to the Staphylinidae family probable to the soil
factors that prevailed across the whole research area constantly (clay wet soil) and the
availability of food to associate with their predatorism behaviour. (11) Beetles belonging to the
family Nitidulidae were found in water body sampling site and Bamboo thicket sampling site
which might explain the resistance of these beetles to strong breezy conditions. (12)
Beetles belonging to Tenebrionid family were rather found in a varied spread of area ranging
from AFSC itself, Tall grass, Teak trees and Water body sampling sites. This variability can
be explained by the fact that these beetles are known for their omnivorous characteristic
which involves plant scavenging, feeding on rotting wood and fungi. All the regions had an
appreciable amount of human interference and other anthropogenic factors. (13)Chrysomalidae
and Dyticidae families had one sample each found in Arocha field study centre, collected
using the manual method. Though our study points at wheat hay medium as a better trapping
method than water medium, further studies are warranted for the same on basis of duration
and the trap medium and its efficacy. Better preservation of the samples also might improve
the diversity study and yield better results.
REFERENCES
1. Anders Lindhe, Ake Lindlow, Nils Asenblad: Biodiversity and Conservation, Nov
2015, Vol 14, Issue 12, pp 3033-3053
2. Varma S., V. D. Anand, K.G. Avinash and M.S. Nishant: Ecology, Conservation and
Management of Asian Elephant in Bannerghatta National Park, Southern India,
Arocha India/ANCF, 2009.
3. Waletr R. Tschinkel and Clyde D. Willson: Department of Biochemistry and Zoology
and the Cancer Research Genetics Lab, University of California, Berkerly, reprinted
from Journal of Experimental Zoology, Vol 176, No.2, Feb 1971.
4. George Mathew, P. Rugmini, V.V. Sudheendrakumar: Insect Biodiversity in
Disturbed and Undisturbed forests in the Kerala parts of Western Ghats, KFRI
Research Report 135, Peechi, Thrissur, Feb 1998.
5. Gray Stirling and Brian Wilsey: The American Naturalist, Vol 158, No.3, Sep 2011,
pp 286-299.

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6. Fabian D. Menaled, Richard G. Smith, Joseph T. Dauer, Tyler B. Fox: Agriculture,

Ecosystem and Environment: Impact of Agriculture Management on Carabid
Communities and weed seed predation, Vol 118, Issues 1-4, Jan 2007, pp 49-54.
7. Hance T. Gregoire-Wilo.C, Lebrun. P: Uni. Catholique Louvain, Lab ecological
biogeography, Louvain-la-Neuve 1348, Belgique, ISSN 0031-4056.
8. Melanie E. Orror, Rebecca L. Thomas, Graham J. Holloway, Mark D. E Fellower:
Urban Ecosystems, June 2015, Vol 18, Issue 2, pp 465- 475.
9. T.Di Bathista: Environmetrics, Inference on Ecological Diversity, Dipartmento di
metodi Quantitativie Teoria Economica, Universita’ “G. d’ Annunzio”, Italy.
10. Evans MEG: 1965: A comparative Account of Feeding Methods of Beetles Nebria
brevicollis (F) (Carabidae) and Philonthus decorus (Grav.) (Staphylinidae).
Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 66: 91-109.
11. Pavel Jakusbec, Jan Ruzicka: Czech University of Life Sciences, European Journal of
Entomology 112(4): 747-754, July2015.
12. Carmelo Peter Bonsignore, Charlie Bellamy: European Journal of Entomology
104(3):425-431, 2007| 10.14411/eje.2007.062.
13. Gaelle Rouault, Jean Noel Candau, Francois Lieutier, Louis – Michel Nageleisen,
Jean- Calude Martin and Nathalis Warzee: Annals of Forest Sciences, Vol 63, No. 6,
Sep 2006, pp 613- 624.
14. Kiran Gaunle, “How to calculate Species Evenness”, Retrieved from

http://classroom.synonym.com/calculate-species-evenness-2851.html
15. Coordination of the saproxylic beetle component of the European Red List was
carried out by Ana Nieto (IUCN Regional Office for Pan Europe) and Helen Temple
(Species Programme), Keith N.A. Alexander (IUCN Saproxylic Beetles Specialist
Advisor), “Saproxylic beetles”, Retrieved from
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/conservation/species/redlist/beetles/introductio
n.html
16. M. Beals, L.Gross and S. Harrell, “DIVERSITY INDICES:

SHANNON'S H AND E “Retrieved from
http://www.tiem.utk.edu/~gross/bioed/bealsmodules/shannonDI.html

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Paper-3
THE ESSENCE OF WATER USER ASSOCIATIONS IN

MANAGEMENT OF THE CANAL IRRIGATED AREA IN INDIA
Gururaj.B 1, Mahadevaiah.G. S 2 and Kadli Veeresh 1

1.
Ph.D. scholar, Dept.Agri. Economics, UAS, GKVK, Bangalore -560065, Karnataka
2.
Associate Professor, Dept.Agri. Economics, UAS, GKVK, Bangalore-560065
E-mail: vurguru026@gmail.com.
INTRODUCTION
Agriculture is the primary source of livelihood in rural areas, which account for 58% of
India’s population (Economic survey, 2015). Irrigation would continue to play a sub
stainable role in achieving food self-sufficiency, producing more grains, stabilizing food
prices, sustaining agricultural growth, absorbing labour force in rural areas, and alleviating
rural poverty; all of these are vital for food security. Since Irrigation is the base for about 59
% of total agricultural output. The rapid expansion of irrigation and drainage infrastructure
has been one of India’s major achievements it led to net irrigated area (NIA) expanded, from
23 M Ha to 65.3 M Ha during 1951 to 2015 and on other hand cropping intensity, as
increased from 111.07% in 1950-51 to 139.19% in 2015-16. (Economic Survey, 2015-
16). Thereby India has moved from the net importer to net exporter of food grains with
increase of food production from 50 m tonnes in 1951 to 252 m tonnes 2015-16.
Recent researches by many scholars and institutions have shown that the
effectiveness of surface irrigation in developing country likes India has been severely
hamstrung, mainly due to currently water fee collected as percentage to value of crops and
capital expenditure about 1.2% and 0.2% as compared to 11% and 10% in 1905
respectively. While maintenance expenditure as % of working expenditure and
maintenance expenditure as % of capital investment currently around 34% and 0.95% as
compared to 53% and 2.60% in 1905 besides this the canal irrigation system is
overestimated of more returns in recent times following table (1) but in reality it realising
only 18.3% of value crops as percentage of capital investment as compared to 87% during
British period it results into poor infrastructure maintenance and inefficient operation of
surface irrigation.

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Table: 1. Deteriorating Finances of Indian canal irrigation: AD 2000 compared with

AD1900
Source: Thushar (2011)
Poor maintenance of canal irrigation

Widening the gap between the irrigation utilised and potential:
The Irrigation commission recommended to establish of Commands of
irrigation projects should be taken up in order to fully utilise irrigation potential and reduce
the gap between the irrigation potential and utilisation subsequently committee set up
Ministry of irrigation and Power has initiated the command area development
programme (CADP) in
1974 to irrigation potential utilisation and optimise agricultural production from
irrigated land through integrated and coordinated approach of efficient water management.
Despite the CADA establishment the gap between the irrigation potential and
utilisation has been widened as followed in the Fig (1) so in order to relook the Ministry of
Water resources formed committee under chairmanship of Samar in 2008 the major
outcome of the study indicates that lack of proper operation and maintenance, incomplete
distribution system, non-completion of Command area development, changes in cropping
pattern and diversion of irrigated land to other purpose explained the gap. In their selected
Major and Major and Medium and Major and

Medium systems Multipurpose projects in Medium
in British India, India projects in India,
Source 1902-1903. 1977-78 1987-88
Burton Vaidyanathan
CWC, 2006.
Buckley 1905 Committee report
Water fees collected as %
10 1.43 0.33 0.20
of capital investment
Value of crops irrigated as
87 Na Na 18.30
% of capital investment
Water fees collected as %
11 Na 2 1.20
of value of crops irrigated
Water fee collected as % of
280 45 20 7.90
Working Expenses
Maintenance expenditure as %
53 42 38 34
of working capital
Maintenance expenditure as %
2.60 Na Na 0.95
of capital investment
samples, 40% of the gap was due to poor maintenance and 25 to 40% due to incomplete
distribution system further cropping pattern 15 to 20% of the gap.

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Fig (1): Plan wise widening of the gap between the Irrigation potential and utilized
Source: Planning commission (2014)
Deprivation of Tail end-users:
Farmers who have land at the end of the canal system are called tail-enders. They
include farmers in the tail reach as well as those at the end of the upper and middle reaches of
the canal system. It has been neither known that many get neither enough nor timely water. A
national research study undertaken by the Development Support Centre shows that tail-ender
deprivation is far more than assumed thus far. The areas with warabandi system in Punjab
and Haryana, 70 per cent of the tail-end farmers got 54 per cent to 70 per cent less water than
they were entitled to. A good example of how this is hidden from the existing monitoring
system is the large Tungabhadra system in Karnataka where farmers in the last reach got 91
per cent less water than they were entitled to even though the project performance was
claimed as 90 per cent (Shah, 2003). A major impact of this was the lower agricultural
productivity of tail end farmers, movement to low-value crops or practice of leaving land
fallow. The causes of tail-ender deprivation are excessive use by head-reach farmers, poor
maintenance, fewer funds allotted to tail regions for maintenance, poor construction, and
design fault.\
The Groundwater irrigation:
In India around 64 percent of cropped area underground water as against 36 percent of

canal water it is mainly because of the rapid deterioration of canal irrigation systems that
have already been created (Gulati et.al 1999) and the availability of low cost electric and
diesel pumps coupled with little or no electricity charges, the groundwater has been a major
driver in the irrigated area expansion. Second, expansion of groundwater-irrigated areas is in
large part due to increase in the reliability of water supply. Groundwater irrigation, due to
its lesser variation in its supply and higher reliability in irrigated water supply, reduces the
risk of investment in labour, seed, fertilizers, pesticides and other inputs and induces the
farmers to increase the agricultural productivity (Thushar, 2011). The over exploitation of

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ground water resulting in significant and increasing social and economic costs. Farmers are
being confronted with the need to move to deeper wells with inevitable increase in cost of
farming, making it especially difficult for small and marginal farmers. (Rita, 2014).
Table: 2. Extent of Irrigation Deprivation levels of tail-enders in selected gravity flow

Irrigation Projects in India
States Name and types studied Extent of FID
Gujarat Dharoi- Major; Mahi Right Bank- Major 7-37%

Haryana Western Yamuna- Major 56-84%
Karnataka Tungabhadra System- Major, Vanivilas, Two Rainfed tanks 40-91%
Maharashtra Mula-Major, Walen tank- Minor 29-70%

Orissa Hirakuda- Major 35-72%
Tamil Nadu ParambikulamAliyar-Major, Two Rainfed tanks-Minor 24-55%
Abbr: FID: Flow of Irrigation deprivation; Source: Shah (2003).
Significance of Water User Associations

More recent thinking on improving the performance of canal irrigation system has
promoted rehabilitation of irrigation schemes combined with institutional reforms relying on
the participation of farmers and local bodies through participatory irrigation management
(PIM).Participatory Irrigation Management (PIM) that involves farmers in the planning,
operation and maintenance of the irrigation system, is considered an effective way of
enhancing efficiency and equity of irrigation water. Setting up of organizations is accorded a
significant attention in the PIM programmes (Chopra et al., 1990). Several states in India are
looking towards involvement of farmers in the operation and maintenance at higher levels
through a variety of PIM and Irrigation Management Transfer programmes (Gulati et al,
2005).
The National Water Policy also emphasizes on the participation of farmers in
management of irrigation system, principally in water distribution and collection of
water rates (GoI, 2002).
Some of the studies indicated that the number of canal irrigations applied and yield
realized was found to be statistically significantly higher on participating farms than that of
non-participating farms. The net income (Rs.7360/ha) has from canal irrigated participating
farmers and negative net returns (Rs. -3398/ha) from non-participating farmers (Aruna. et al
2011 and Bassi, 2012). This clearly indicated that the participation in WUAs had a positive
impact on the profitability of crop production, may be due to better reliability of canal
irrigation after intervention of the WUAs.

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CONCLUSION
The success of WUAs depends on group action and efforts of members, effective
management, capacity building of farmers and irrigation officials, political will,
bureaucratic commitment, government and legal support, financial viability of WUAs and
proper execution.
The some of the studies reveals that the returns are also higher on the participating
farms which depicts the positive impact of participation in WUAs. Further, distribution of
these benefits has been observed more equitable among different farm sizes. Therefore, the
farmers’ participation in WUAs is critical in improving farm water management and crop
productivity in efficient and equitable manner under the canal command area.
The efforts should be directed towards generating awareness among the farmers
regarding the advantages of WUAs to induce effective and efficient participation of all
stakeholders. Farmers should also be educated about the existing best practices of
cultivation and optimal use of irrigation. The creation of WUAs must be based on social
capital and cohesiveness according to identified needs, common interests and collective
efforts. More importantly, integrated and comprehensive reforms are needed to ensure
effectiveness of WUAs as institutions for increasing efficiency and equity in access to
irrigation, enhancing agricultural productivity and improving livelihoods.
REFERENCES:
1. Anonymous, GoI (Government of India), 2002, National Water Policy, Ministry
of Water Resources, New Delhi, p. 2-10.
2. Aruna, G., Singh, D, R., Kumar,S. and Kumar.A., 2012 Canal irrigation
management through water user association and its impact on efficiency, equity and
reliability in water use in Tamil Nadu. Agricultural economics Research review,
25(2):409-419.
3. Bassi. N, 2012, Surface Irrigation and livelihood results of user- managed irrigation
system in Maharashtra, India Water, Law and the Commons, New Delhi, 45-56.
4. Shah, A., 2003, Tail-enders and other deprived in canal irrigation systems: Gujarat.
Paper presented in: National Workshop on tail-enders and other deprived in canal
irrigation Systems, Ahmedabad. October 20-23, p.22-27.
5. Thushar, S., 2011, Past, present and the future of canal irrigation in India.
IWMI TATA water policy programme unpublished report, p. 256-275.
6. Upadhyay, V., 2006, A rights based approach to water user associations in India.
paper prepared in: Water, Law and the Commons, New Delhi:.42-75
7. Anonymous, 2008, studying the gap between Irrigation Potential Created and
Utilised in India. Indian institute of Management, New Delhi, p. 45-60.

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Paper-4
DIVERSITY AND CONSERVATION OF REPTILES IN PERIYAR

TIGER RESERVE, KERALA
Anju B.Kanjirakkattu, Dilmol Varghese, Vinod K.V and Gigi k. Joseph
Nirmala College, Muvattupuzha
E-mail:anjukanjirakkattu@gmail.com
INTRODUCTION
Reptiles are among the most astounding components of global biodiversity. They are cold-
blooded (poikilothermic), lung breathing amniotes with pentadactyl limbs (Abraham et al.,
2011). The world’s known diversity of living reptiles has reached 9,546 species (Pincheira-
Donoso et al., 2013). Reptiles play important roles in natural systems, as predators, prey,
grazers, seed dispersers, commensal species and as bio-indicators for environmental health
(Bohm et al., 2013). Reptile species are declining on a global scale due to threats from
habitat loss and degradation, invasive alien species, environmental pollution disease,
unsustainable use and global climate change (Gibbons et al., 2000).
The Western Ghats range of south-western India is one of the last remaining stretches of the
bio-diverse tropical wet evergreen forests in peninsular India and is home to a unique endemic
radiation of biota, which makes it a global biodiversity hotspot (Myers et al., 2000). At least
325 globally threatened (IUCN Red Data List) species occur in the Western Ghats, of which 5
species are reptiles (UNESCO, 2012). The Periyar Tiger Reserve (PTR), Thekkady, named
after the Periyar River is located in the southern Western Ghats of Kerala state. Periyar Tiger
Reserve is home to an astounding diversity of flora and fauna, distributed in a diverse array of
habitats, many of which are endemic to the Western Ghats.
The reptilian fauna of the Western Ghats have been investigated by Chandramouli & Ganesh
(2010), Bhupathy et al. (2012), Guptha et al. (2012), Bhupathy & Sathishkumar (2013) and
Srinivasulu et al. (2014). Palot (2015) has documented 173 reptilian species from Kerala in 24
families coming under three orders. Very little intensive, adequate and long term studies have
been carried out in order to assess the reptilian diversity of the Tiger Reserve (Zacharias,
1997, Radhakrishnan, 1999, Thomas et al., 2012). Therefore, the present study makes a
modest attempt to explore the status and diversity of reptiles in Periyar Tiger Reserve.

Study Area
The study was carried out in Periyar Tiger Reserve (925 km2, 9°15’ and 9°40’N latitude and
76°55’ and 77°25’E longitude), located on the Western Ghats - in the Idukki district, Kerala
(Figure 1). It is one of the 49 tiger reserves in India. The elevation of PTR ranges from 200 to
2019 m asl with the highest peak at Vellimala. Terrain is undulating with lofty peaks of over
1700 meters bordering the North and East. The temperature of this region varies between

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150C to 310C whereas the annual rainfall from 2000 mm to 3000 mm. The reserve supports a
varied diversity of flora and fauna including many endemic and endangered species (Periyar
Tiger Reserve, 2012). (Figure 1 near here)
Sampling Methodology
Transect, visual encounter survey and opportunistic observation methods with modifications
to suit the present study were employed for sampling reptiles of the study area. Fifty four
transects covering three kilometres each were carried out. The specimens were photographed
with a Canon 60D digital camera and species identification was done by using standard field
guides and in consultation with experts.
Data Analysis
The status of each species was assigned based on the number of observations of reptiles and
divided into the following abundance categories: Common: > 10 individual, Uncommon: 2 -
10 individual and Rare: 1 individual.
RESULTS
Species Richness and Abundance
A total of 70 reptiles comprising of 21 species, 10 families and two orders namely, Testudines
and Squamata were observed in the reserve (Table 1). No reptiles belonging to the Order
Crocodilia were recorded from the reserve. The study resulted in identification of two species
of turtles (9.5% of total species richness), 11 species of lizards (52.4%) and eight species of
snakes (38.1%).
Four species of reptiles are first reports from the reserve, which includes the turtle Indian
Flapshell Turtle (Lissemys punctata), two gecko species, Four- clawed Gecko, (Gehyra
mutilata) and Jerdon’s Day Gecko (Cnemaspis jerdonii), and a subspecies of Trinket Snake,
Montane Trinket Snake (Coelognathus helena monticollaris). Montane Trinket Snake was
observed at an elevation of 1200m asl.
The most abundant species recorded were Calotes versicolor and Ptyas mucosa (15.71%),
followed by Hemidactylus frenatus and Eutropis carinata (Table 1). Twelve species were
least abundant, represented by single individual each. Among turtles, the abundant species
was Melanochelys trijuga. Calotes versicolor was the dominant species among lizards
(22.9%), followed by Hemidactylus frenatus and Eutropis carinata (18.75%). With respect to
snakes, the highest number of individuals was contributed by Ptyas mucosa (61.11%). (Table
1)
Status
Among the two species of testudines recorded from the reserve, the Indian Flapshell Turtle
was rare and the Indian Black Turtle was uncommon (Table 1). Of the 11 species of lizards
reported during the study, four were numerically rare, six were uncommon and one was
common. Among the eight species of snakes reported, only one was common and the rest (7)
were observed to be rare. Accordingly, two reptile species were common, seven were

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uncommon and 12 were rare. Several species of snakes were numerically rare compared to
lizards.
Five species of squamates endemic to Western Ghats namely, Indian Day Gecko, Jerdon’s
Day Gecko, Montane Trinket Snake, Gunther’s Vine Snake and Hill Keelback were observed
during the study period. The Western Ghats endemics constituted 23.80% of the total species
observed. This was followed by Western Ghats and Eastern Ghats endemic, South Indian
Flying Lizard (4.76%), Western Ghats and Sri Lanka endemic, Common Hump-nosed Pit
Viper (4.76%) and Roux’s Forest Lizard which is endemic to India (Figure 2a).
With reference to the 2016 IUCN Red List, four species with vulnerable conservation status
was identified (Table 1). Also, two species with near threatened conservation status namely,
Melanochelys trijuga and Ahaetulla dispar were observed. Six reptilian species were of least
concern and nine species constituted the not evaluated categories (Figure 2b). (Figure 2)
DISCUSSION
The present study provides an updated profile of the reptilian species diversity occurring on
Periyar Tiger Reserve. A record of 21 species of reptiles including four new reports to the
area has resulted from the study. This includes the addition of one subspecies of Coelognathus
helena, the Montane Trinket Snake (Coelognathus helena monticollaris). As the other
subspecies of C. helena namely, Coelognathus helena helena (Common Trinket Snake) was
already reported from the same location by Zacharias (1997), they have tentatively been
considered as distinct species in the present analysis. Also, it is being suggested that further
taxonomic research is required to clarify whether C.h. monticollaris warrants recognition as a
full species. The study has resulted in addition of two more gecko species, Gehyra mutilata
and Cnemaspis jerdonii to the records. This point to the necessity of detailed study into the
Gekkonidae family, especially the Cnemaspis species which are the least studied and
understood geckos of the family.
Low species richness of reptiles when compared to previous studies from the Reserve
(Zacharias, 1997) is mainly attributed to the season selected for the study. Due to their
pokilothermic and ectothermic nature, they are more susceptible to seasonal variation than
other vertebrates. The study was carried out during the month of February, which is
essentially a dry period and this might have contributed to the reduced diversity (Pradhan et
al., 2014). Further, the decrease in species encountered could be due to either samples being
missed, especially if individuals are small in size and residing in the clumped leaf litter, the
ability of individuals to make themselves inconspicuous by their immobility and their swift
movement that enables them to escape even before they were noticed or due to well
camouflaging ability of species (Ates-Camino et al., 2010).
The present report of 21 reptiles constitutes about 4.05% reptiles of the country (Aengels et
al., 2011), 9.25 % reptiles reported from the Western Ghats (Srinivasulu et al., 2014) and
12.13% reptiles of the state (Palot, 2015). Together with the data from Zacharias (1997),
present study provided a list of 49 reptiles from the reserve (28.32% of state’s reptilian
richness), highlights conservation importance of the area.

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In the present study, high species richness of lizards could be due to their ability to adapt to
variety of habitats, especially geckos, majority of which have become human commensals and
their non- poisonous and insectivorous nature. Also, in the reserve the most abundant species
were recognised as Calotes versicolor and Ptyas mucosa. The reason for their higher
abundance compared to other reptiles can be attributed to their habitat generalist, harmless
nature and copious prey resources.
The presence of unique microhabitats in the reserve could be the reason behind the observed
high endemism. Species such as the Western Ghats endemic Hill keelback is observed near
forest steams and other water bodies, in relatively undisturbed patches (Whitaker & Captain,
2004). Mountains also create isolated habitats far away from other such similar habitats,
promoting local speciation (Gadgil, 1996). At the same time, the presence of 1 Western Ghats
and Eastern Ghats endemic, 1 Western Ghats and Sri Lanka endemic and 1 species endemic
to India indicates the dilution and dispersal of the observed level of endemism in the Western
Ghats.
The conservation importance of the Tiger Reserve is further supported by the present
documentation of 4 reptile species (19.04%) belonging to the IUCN ‘vulnerable’ category and
2 species (9.52%) which belong to the IUCN ‘near threatened’ category. The present record
of 4 species belonging to vulnerable conservation category, 2 are new additions to the
previous records; thereby making the total number of reptilian species belonging to the
vulnerable category to be recorded from the reserve to five. Nameer et al., (2015), has
recorded the occurrence of 11 reptiles (6.35%) belonging to vulnerable category and 8 species
(4.62%) belonging to near threatened conservation category from Kerala. Thus, on
comparison with aforesaid data it is evident that Periyar Tiger Reserve supports a major share
of reptiles of conservation importance.
The main causes of species loss in Western Ghats are degradation and the fragmentation of
forests, over exploitation of natural resources, pollution, illegal hunting, introduction of
exotics and climate change (Radhakrishnan & Rajmohana, 2012). For preserving the
populations of reptiles in Periyar Tiger Reserve the following measures are recommended: (i)
Dead and decaying logs, leaf litter and tree trunks serve as ideal microhabitats for several
reptilian species and therefore needs to be conserved for ensuring the survival of the species.
The Management Plans developed for the area should include programmes for conservation
of the microhabitats. (ii) Grasslands and vayals in the reserve were found to harbour endemic
species like Montane Trinket Snake and Hill keelback, thus forming habitats of considerable
conservation importance. Cutting of grasses and incidence of fire in these habitats can lead to
destruction of microhabitats and thus loss of species. Thus complete protection from such
biotic disturbances should be warranted. (iii) Fencing of roads in the regions where tangent to
the area and tunnelling for unhindered passage of reptiles to reduce the road mortality. (iv)To
reduce the adversity caused by indiscriminate killing of snakes, varanids and other lizards,
local inhabitants need to be educated regarding the values of different reptilian species.
Brochures containing information on occurrence and identification of venomous vs non-
venomous species could be distributed. (v) Pollution of various water bodies, which form
habitats for reptiles species especially snakes and turtles, in the Tiger Reserve should be

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prohibited. (vi)Environmental impact assessment should be undertaken to determine the

impact of infrastructure and tourism facilities on the diversity and distribution of reptilian
fauna before the commencement of the projects.
The large numbers of species known from the Western Ghats, some of which are described in
this study, combined with the large numbers of species still being described, highlight the
need for a more concerted scientific study of the Periyar Tiger Reserve as well as a need for
greater protection of the habitat that remains.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors are deeply grateful to Kerala Forest Department for granting permission. We are
indebted to, Dr. R J Ranjit Daniels, Director Earth Care, Chennai, Dr. Muhamed Jafer Palot,
Assistant Zoologist, WGRC, ZSI, Calicut and Dr. Varad B Giri, Post Doctoral Fellow, NCBS,
TIFR, Bangalore for identification of some difficult reptile species.
REFERENCES
1. Abraham, K.G., Samuel, A.K. & Venkadathu, P.K. (2011). The Chordates - Diversity
and Adaptations: For Undergraduate Students. Greenleaf Publictions, Kottayam. pp.
1-269
2. Aengals, R., Kumar, V.M.S. & Palot, M.J. (2011). Updated checklist of Indian
Reptiles. Retrieved from http://zsi.gov.in/checklist/Checklist%20of%20
Indian%20Reptiles.pdf
3. Ates-Camino, F.B., Relox, R.E. & Leańo, E.P. (2010). Herpetofaunal Endemism and
Diversity in Tropical Forests of Mt. Hamiguitan in the Philippines. Herpetol. Conserv.
Biol., 6(1), 107−113.
4. Bhupathy, S. & Sathishkumar, N. (2013). Status of Reptiles in Meghamalai and its
environs, Western Ghats, Tamil Nadu. Journal of threatened taxa, 5(15), 4953-4961.
5. Bhupathy, S., Srinivas, G., Sathishkumar, N., Murugesan, M., Babu, S.,
Suganthasakthivel, R. & Sivakumar, P. (2012). Diversity and conservation of selected
biota of the Megamalai landscape, Western Ghats, India. Current Science, 102(4),
590-595.
6. Bohm, M., Collen, B., Baillie, J.E.M., Bowles, P.,....... Zug, G. (2013). The
Conservation Status of the World’s Reptiles. Biological Conservation, 157, 372–385.
7. Chandramouli, S.R. & Ganesh, S.R. (2010). Herpetofauna of Southern Western
Ghats, India − Reinvestigated After Decades. Taprobanica, 2(2), 72-85.
8. Gadgil, M. (1996). Western Ghats: A Lifescape. J. Indian Inst. Sci., 76, 495-504.
9. Gibbons, J.W., Scott, D.E., Ryan, T.J., Buhlmann, K.A...... Winne, C.T. (2000). The
Global Decline of Reptiles, Déjà Vu Amphibians. BioScience, 50(8), 653-666
10. Guptha, M.B., Rao, P.V.C., Ramalingam, G., Kishore, S., Rajasekhar, M. &
Kumbhar, A. 2012 Status of Amphibians and Reptiles of Nelapattu Bird Sanctuary,
Andhra Pradesh, India. World Journal of Zoology, 7 (4), 306-311.

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11. Myers, N., Mittermeier, R.A., Mittermeier, C.G., da Fonseca, G.A.B. & Kent, J.
(2000). Biodiversity hotspots for conservation priorities. Nature, 403, 853–858.
12. Nameer, P.O., Praveen, J., Bijukumar, A., Palot, M.J., Das, S. & Raghavan, R. (2015).
A checklist of the vertebrates of Kerala State, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa,
7(13), 7961–7970.
13. Palot, M.J. (2015). A Checklist of Reptiles of Kerala. Journal of threatened taxa,
7(13), 8010-8022.
14. Periyar Tiger Reserve. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.periyartigerreserve.org
15. Pincheira-Donoso, D., Bauer A.M., Meiri, S. & Uetz, P. (2013). Global Taxonomic
Diversity of Living Reptiles. PLoS ONE, 8(3), e59741.
16. Pradhan, S., Mishra, D. & Sahu, K.R. 2014. Seasonal variation and abundance of
herpetofauna in the Gandhamardan hills range, Western Orissa, India. International
Journal of Research in Zoology, 4(2), 51-54.
17. Radhakrishnan, C. (1999). Lizards and Snakes of Four Conservation Areas in the
Idukki District, Kerala State. Rec. Zool. Surv. India, 97, 155-165.
18. Radhakrishnan, C. & Rajmohana, K. (2012). Fauna of Ecosystems of India – Western
Ghats. The Director, ZSI, Kolkata. pp. 1-14
19. Srinivsaulu, C., Srinivasulu, B. & Molur, S. (Compilers) (2014). The Status and
Distribution of Reptiles in the Western Ghats, India. Conservation Assessment and
Management Plan (CAMP). Wildlife Information Laision Development Society,
Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu.
20. Thomas, S., Mathew, L., Joseph, S.K., Mary, P.C, Varghese, D., Anto, A.,...........
Sanjayankumar (2012). A Reconnaissance Study of Animal Diversity in Periyar Tiger
Reserve, Kerala with Special Reference to Invertebrates. Sci. & Soc., 10(2), 173-184.
21. UNESCO. (2012). Western Ghats. Retrieved from http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1342
22. Whitaker, R. & Captain, A. (2004). Snakes of India. The Field Guide. Draco Books,
India. pp. 385
23. Zacharias, V.J. (1997) Reptiles of Periyar Tiger Reserve. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc.,
94, 575-579.

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Table 1. Reptiles of Periyar Tiger Reserve, their status and abundance
SL. COMMON NAME SCIENTIFIC IUCN STATUS ABUNDANCE

NO. NAME STATUS
I.ORDER TESTUDINES
FAMILY
GEOEMIDIDAE
1. Indian Black Turtle Melanochelys NT UC 3
trijuga (Schweigger,
1812)
FAMILY
TRIONYCHIDAE
2. Indian Flapshell Turtle Lissemys punctata LC R 1
(Bonnaterre,1789)
II. ORDER
SQUAMATA
FAMILY AGAMIDAE
3. Roux’s Forest Lizard$ Calotes rouxii LC R 1
Duméril & Bibron,
1837
4. Indian Garden Lizard Calotes versicolor NE C 11
(Daudin, 1802)
5. South Indian Flying Draco dussumieri LC UC 3
Lizard# Duméril & Bibron,
1837
FAMILY
GEKKONIDAE
6. Brook’s House Gecko Hemidactylus NE UC 2
brookii Gray, 1845
7. Asian House Gecko Hemidactylus LC UC 9
frenatus Schlegel,
1836
8. Four- clawed Gecko Gehyra mutilata NE R 1
(Wiegmann, 1834)
9. Indian Day Gecko* Cnemaspis indica VU UC 3
Gray, 1846
10. Jerdon’s Day Gecko* Cnemaspis jerdonii VU R 1
(Theobald, 1868)
FAMILY SCINCIDAE
11. Bronze Grass Skink Eutropis macularia NE UC 7

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(Blyth, 1853)
12. Common Keeled Skink Eutropis carinata LC UC 9
(Schneider, 1801)
FAMILY VARANIDAE
13. Bengal Monitor Varanus bengalensis LC R 1
(Daudin, 1802)
FAMILY
COLUBRIDAE
14. Montane Trinket Snake* Coelognathus VU R 1
helena monticollaris
(Schulz, 1992)
15. Indian Rat Snake Ptyas mucosa NE C 11
(Linnaeus, 1758)
16. Gunther’s Vine snake* Ahaetulla dispar NT R 1
(Gunther,1864)
FAMILY NATRICIDAE
17. Hill Keelback* Hebius monticola LC R 1
(Jerdon, 1853)
18. Checkered Keelback Xenochrophis NE R 1
piscator (Schneider,
1799)
FAMILY ELAPIDAE
19. Common Indian Krait Bungarus caeruleus NE R 1
(Schneider, 1801)
20. King Cobra* Ophiophagus VU R 1
hannah (Cantor,
1836)
FAMILY VIPERIDAE
21. Common Hump-nosed Pit Hypnale hypnale NE R 1
Viper% (Merrem, 1820)
(Abbreviations are LC – Least Concern, NE – Not Evaluated, NT – Near Threatened, VU –

Vulnerable, * – Western Ghats Endemic, # - Western Ghats & Eastern Ghats Endemic, % -
Western Ghats & Sri Lanka Endemic, $ – Endemic to India, R – Rare, UC - Uncommon and
C – Common)

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Figure 1: Geographical location and map of Periyar Tiger Reserve
Western Ghats Endemics

Least Concern
Western Ghats and Eastern Ghats
Endemics Not Evaluated
Western Ghats and Sri Lanka Endemics Near Threatened
24% 19%
33%
4%
10%
62%
38%
5%
5%
(a) (b)
Figure 2. (a) Endemic status of reptiles recorded from Periyar Tiger Reserve (b) IUCN
Conservation status of reptiles recorded from Periyar Tiger Reserve

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Paper-5
THE DIVERSITY OF ANTS IN COLES PARK, BANGALORE

Dakshin V John and Charles M
Department of Zoology, St.Joseph’s College Bangalore-560 027
E-mail:dakshin.6@gmail.com
INTRODUCTION:
The origin of ants goes back in time to the hoary ages, somewhere between 140-168
million years ago. Ants are basically called social insects and among social insects ants are
placed in the category of highly evolved species called eusocial or truly social, where
individuals of the same colony cooperate in caring for the brood. There also exists an overlap
of generation enabling the offspring’s to assist the adults at least for some period during their
lifetime. Basically, the body of an ant is divided into head, alitrunk, petiole and gaster. Some
of the major morphological features, which are important for taxonomic studies, are shown in
fig 1. The present study is a checklist of myremecofauna in coles park of Bangalore.
Fig 1. General morphology of an ant
Diacamma ceylonense, showing some of the important morphological features used in

taxonomy.
STUDY AREA:
Coles Park is one of the popular parks in Fraser Town, located West of St. John's Hill,
enclosed Promenade Road, Haines Road, Kemp Road, St. John's Church Road and Sauders
Road. Coles Park is named after Arthur Henry Cole (1780-1844), British Resident of Mysore
(1809, 1812), who went on to become the Member of Parliament on return to Ireland,
representing Enniskillen between 1828-1844. Arthur Henry Cole paid an important role in

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getting the support of the Maharaja of Mysore for the construction of St. Bartholomew's
Church in Mysore. Covering areas an area of 27,280m2, Coles Park was established in
1914.Coles Park was once in its peak of glory with a bandstand and 3 tennis courts. The Band
of the Bangalore Rifle Volunteers played at the bandstand every first Saturday of the month.
YWCA used to run of the tennis courts. The park is fairly maintained, even though there are
some encroachments. Coles Park is officially known as the Freedom Fighters Park, however
still popularly known by its former name. The Park is open between 5AM to 11PM. Cole's
Park has been known by that name for nearly 200 years.
MATERIALS AND METHODS:

The basic tools were required. A magnifying glass, pen and pad and a copy of the field
guide for reference. Using this whole study was conducted. Coles Park has 8 major areas with
greenery and then the jogging track cutting these 8 into equal bits. It took two and a half
months to get the complete species list of ants. Specimens were not collected at all but
observed and data was recorded. Data was two times every week and once in the evening
every week for the duration of this experiment
TAXONOMIC KEYS
Several types of keys are used in taxonomic studies; all are dichotomous and are based
on a series of choices. But, the most commonly used is the dichotomous-bracket key.
Taxonomic keys are prepared based on externally observable diagnostic characters. Here, in
key to genera of the subfamily myrmicinae, a single genus occurs more than once, this is
because the characters are chosen for ease of recognition and some characters may occur in
more than one state in a single taxon. For e.g. the number of antennal segments in worker
ants vary from 4-12. The numbers of antennal segments is usually easily counted and hence
form a very useful character for subdividing a key.
RESULT AND DISCUSSION:
A total of four (4) sub families were seen under which were identified to be under 13
different genera. The total number of species seen were 16 in total from the 8 main parts of
Coles Park.

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Cerapachyinae Cerapachys Cerapachys aitkeni Forel

Cerapachys longitarsus
(Mayr)
Myrmicinae Cataulacus Cataulacus taprobanae Smith
Monomorium Monomorium criniceps
(Mayr
Paratopula Paratopula
Recurvidris Recurvidris recurvispinosa
Dolichoderinae Dolichoderus Dolichoderus affinis Emery
Technomyrmex Technomyrmex albipes
Formicinae Anoplolepis gracilipes Smith
Acropyga Acropyga acutiventris
Camponotus Camponotus sp.6.
Camponotus sp.9
Oecophylla Oecophylla smaragdina
Polyrhachis Polyrhachis bihamata
Polyrhachis sp. 7
Plagiolepis Plagiolepis exigua Forel
NOTES ON SOME IMPORTANT FAMILIES
Notes on genera and species of Ponerinae

Under this subfamily, 13 species belonging to 6 genera were identified. Most of the
members belonging to this subfamily nests in soil or in decaying vegetation. They are strictly
monomorphic. In many genera a well differentiated queen caste is lost, instead a mated
worker functions as queen.
SUBFAMILY 2: CERAPACHYINAE
Members of this subfamily differ from ants of the subfamily Ponerinae in having the
frontal lobes very narrow so that the antennal sockets are completely visible in the frontal
view. Another characteristic feature is that the abdominal segment 3 is reduced to from a full
sized abdominal segment to a small post-petiole. This subfamily is represented in our
Campus by a single genus, Cerapachys. In our Campus, there are only 2 species
of Cerapachys. The members of this subfamily make nests in soil
SUBFAMILY 3: DORYLINAE
Only one species of Dorylus is recorded so far from the Institute campus. Members
(workers) of this subfamily can be distinguished from ants of the subfamily Ponerinae,
Dolichoderinae and Formicinae in not having eyes.
Genus 8. Dorylus Fabricius

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The males, females and workers of this genus differ considerably in appearance. The
male is elongate and wasp-like in appearance with prominent eyes and ocelli.
8.1. Dorylus labiatus Shuckard
Dorylus labiatus Shuckard, 1840. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., 5: 315 – 328.
Major workers are 6-8mm and are yellowish, highly polished and shining. The head, thorax
and abdomen are with minute scattered punctures. Minor workers are lighter in colour and
are 2.5-4mm. in length. Males of this species are brownish yellow and are 30-33mm in
length. Head, except mandibles, and antennae are balck. The legs are darker than the body.
The coxae are castaneous brown.
Distribution: Dharwad, Coorg (Ali, 1991) and Rajasthan, (Tak, 1995 and Tak and Rathore,
1996).
Range: Continental India (Bingham, 1903)
SUBFAMILY 4: AENICTINAE
It belongs to the group of Army ants. All members belonging to this subfamily are
blind. They are long, slender and resemble some of the Myrmicinae, but differ from them in
not having eyes, frontal lobes, and having antennal sockets completely visible in the frontal
view.
SUBFAMILY 5: PSEUDOMYRMECINAE
The subfamily Pseudomyrmecinae is a group of slender bodied, large-eyed, arboreal
ants found throughout the Old and New World tropics (Ward, 2001). Members are mostly
arboreal. Some species have mutualistic associations with particular plants; ants nest in
modified cavities (domatia) of the living plants, and provide protection against herbivores
(reviewed in Ward, 1990). There is only one genus,Tetraponera, from our Campus to
represent this subfamily. Ward (2001) revised the ant genus Tetraponera in the Oriental and
Australian regions and revealed 33 species. In the same publication, four species groups are
defined and aspects of their phylogeny and biogeography are explored.
Genus 11. Aphaenogaster Mayr
Ants of this group are elongate and slender bodied. This group can be confused with few
species of Pheidole, but it can be separated from Pheidole by its large size and 4-segmented
antennal club (Pheidole has 3 segmented antennal club). More over this is a monomorphic
species, while Pheidole is dimorphic or polymorphic.
11.1. Aphaenogaster beccarii (Emery)
Ischnomyrmex beccarii Emery, 1887. Ann. Mus. Civ.Stor. Nat. Gen., 25: 427 – 473.
Length 7mm. It is light brown in colour. Legs are remarkably long and slender. It makes nest
in soil. Many times, I have seen it taking over the abandoned nests of other species. Nest
entrance is not very large, but is always with loose soil around. It walks very slowly and in a

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peculiar manner, with the legs spread wide apart and the abdomen bent down between the
legs, which are unique for this species. This is a very common species in Bangalore.
Distribution: Bangalore, Coorg, Chikamagalur, Dharwad, Hassan, Shimoga (Ali, 1992),
Bombay and Western India (Bingham, 1903).
Range: India and Sumatra (Bingham, 1903).
Genus 32. Acropyga Roger

There is only one species under this genus and it is a rare one. 11- Segmented antennae
characterize members of this genus.
32.1. Acropyga acutiventris Roger
AcropygaacutiventrisRoger, 1862. Berl. Entomol. 2,6: 233 – 254.
Length 5mm. Reddish yellows all over. Eyes are unusually small and jet-black. I have seen it
foraging on tree trunk.
Distribution: Bangalore and Kolar (Ali, 1992).
Range: India, Burma and Sri Lanka (Bingham, 1903)
CONCLUSION:
This study shows the diversity of ants seen in an urban part of Bangalore city. This
shows us that ants need clean soil with a lot of trees to complete their life cycle. This brings
us to the ecology and conservation part which means we have to plant more trees and keep
the soil clean as ants can thrive and this is important for the earth.

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REFERENCES:
1. Ali, T. M. (1991). Ant fauna of Karnataka. IUSSI Newsletter. 5: 1-8
2. Ali, T. M. (1992). Ant fauna of Karnataka. IUSSI Newsletter. 6: 1-7
3. Wheeler, w.m. (1913). Ants, their structure, development and behaviour. Columbia
University Biological Series 9.
4. Donisthorpe, H. (1942). Ants from Colombo museum Expedition to South India. Ann.
Mag. Nat. Hist. London. 9: 449-461.
5. Forel, A. (1913a). Ameisen aus Sumatra, Java, Malacca und Ceylon. Gesammelt
V.Prof. Dr. V. Buttel - Reepen in den Jahren, 1911-1912. Zool. Jahrd.Jena Abt.
F.Syst. 36: 1-148.
6. Forel, A. (1913b). Fourmis de Rhodesia, etc. recoltees par M. Arnold, le Dr. H.
Brauns et K. Fikendey. Annales de la Societe Entomologique de Belgique. 57: 108-
147.
7. Rastogi, N., Nair, P., Kolatkar, M., William, H., and Gadagkar, R. (1997). Ant fauna
of the Indian Institute of Science Campus - Survey and some preliminary
observations.J.Indian Inst. Sci. 77: 133-140
8. Rabeling, Ch., Brown, J. M. & Verhaagh, M. (2008). Newly discovered sister lineage
sheds light on early ant evolution. Proceedings of the National Academy of
Science.105: 39, pp. 14913-14917: 14914.
9. Varghese, T., Milind, M. Gadagkar, R. (2004). Checklist of ants in the Insect
Museum. Technical report No. 104., Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute
of Science, Bangalore.

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Paper-6
PRELIMINARY RESULTS ON THE SPIDER FAUNA (ARACHNIDA:

ARANEAE) OF THE HIGH ALTITUDE SHOLA ECOSYSTEM IN THE
WESTERN GHATS
Mathew M. Joseph, Jimmy Paul, Pradeep M. Sankaran, P.A. Sebastian
Division of Arachnology, Dept. of Zoology
Sacred Heart College (Autonomous), Kochi, Kerala, India
E-mail: mathewmj@shcollege.ac.in
INTRODUCTION
Mountains of Western Ghats have the unique feature of harbouring some of the most
threatened and isolated ecosystems globally, the tropical montane cloud forests (TMCFs) or
simply cloud forests. Cloud forests have been broadly defined as “forests that are frequently
covered in cloud or mist” (Hamilton, et. al., 1995). Within Western Ghats Cloud forests
typically occur between 1000 m and 3000m above sea level, and are a natural mosaic of
grasslands and forest patches in an undulating terrain, commonly referred to as the shola-
grassland ecosystem. These Shola habitats also comprise a complex landscape with multiple
nested levels of patchiness. Since Sholas are found only on sky island mountain-tops, they are
isolated at a large geographical scale (Robin and Nandini, 2012). The landscape of the shola
forests can be best described as “islands” of cloud forests within vast tracts of grasslands.
Located above 1000 m, the shola-grassland ecosystem mosaic in the western Ghats consists
of rolling grasslands with shola fragments restricted to sheltered folds and valleys in the
mountains separated from the grasslands with a sharp edge. Since sholas frequently have
persistent cloud cover, they can be classified as lower montane cloud forest or upper montane
cloud forest depending on elevation (Bruijnzeel and Hamilton, 2000). TMCFs have high
proportion of many endemic plant and animal taxa specifically adapted to cool and humid
conditions.In general; one cannot describe the sholas as having a fixed species composition.
Altitudinal factors seem to play an important role in species composition. Unfortunately,
TMCFs (shola) has received little conservation and attention in India, and there is urgent
need to assess the threats to it and its inhabitants.
Against this backdrop, a study was conducted to document the spider fauna of the cloud
forests of Western Ghats with the aim of using spiders as model organisms to study and
assess the biodiversity in the TMCFs in the Western Ghats because of the fact that spiders are
considered to be excellent indicators of the overall health of terrestrial ecosystems.
Monthly spider samplings were undertaken in the various study sites of Western Ghats
representing different subtypes of cloud forests viz, Tropical Upper Montane Evergreen
Forests, Tropical Lower Montane Evergreen Forests, Tropical Montane Semi Evergreen

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Forests, Grasslands etc. All spider specimens were collected from high altitudes (Above 1400
m). Sampling techniques included litter extraction, sifting, pitfall traps, sweeping and visual
search. The collected spiders were identified with the help of literature up to species level,
wherever possible (Tikader, 1987; Barrion and Litsinger, 1995; Dippenaar-Shoeman and
Jocque, 1997; Deeleman-Reinhold; 2000, Sebastian and Peter, 2008) using stereoscopic
microscopes (Leica MS5 and Zeiss Stemi 2000-C stereomicroscope).
Field photos were taken with Canon EOS 6D attached with Canon EF 180mm f/2.8 Macro
USM Lens. The microphotographic images were taken with a Leica DFC295 digital camera
attached to Leica M205 C stereomicroscope with the software package Leica Application
Suite (LAS), version 4.3.0. The specimens are deposited in a reference collection housed at
the Division of Arachnology, Department of Zoology, Sacred Heart College, Thevara,
Cochin, Kerala, India.
RESULTS
A total of 114 species of spiders belonging to 23 Families and 81 genera have been sampled
so far from the Tropical Montane Cloud Forests (TMCF) of Western Ghats (Table 1) and out
of these, 52 spp. have been identified up to species level while 75 have been identified up to
generic level (Table 2). Out of the 114 spp., 111 belong to suborder Araneomorphae and 3
belongs to suborder Mygalomorphae. Among the spiders collected, 6 spp. viz, Psechrus sp.
(Family Psechridae), Ebrechtella sp. (Family Thomisidae), Haploclastus sp. (Family
Theraphosidae) and Plebs mitratus (Family Araneidae), Okileucauge sp. (Family
Tetragnathidae), Martensopoda sp. (Family Sparassidae) have provisionally been identified to
be new to science. At the generic level, Ebrechtella Dahl,1907 is reported for the first time
from India. At the species level, Neriene hammeni Van Helsdingen, 1968 and Steatoda
cingulata Thorell, 1890 are being reported for the first time from oriental (Indomalayan)
region.
Taxonomic analysis revealed Araneidae to be the dominant family represented by 18 spp.
under 15 genera. Family Therididae was the second dominant family with (14 spp. belonging
to 10 genera). Family Thomisidae (12 spp. belonging to 10 genera), Salticidae (7 spp.
belonging to 8 genera) Tetragnathidae (8 spp.under 6 genera) and Clubionidae (8 spp. under 2
genera) were the other important families sampled during this study period. Analysis of the
guild structure revealed nine feeding guilds viz., orb-weavers, ground runners, stalkers,
burrowers, ambushers, foliage runners, space web builders, sheet web builders and tangle
web builders (Fig. 1). Orb-weavers, belonging to the families Araneidae, Tetragnathidae and
Uloboridae constituted the dominant guild representing 24% of the total spp. sampled.
Ambushers, represented by families Thomisidae, Philodromidae and Pisauridae formed the
second major guild (18% of the total spp. sampled). Other major guilds included foliage
runners (14%), space web builders and ground runners (13% each), stalkers (7%), Tangle
web builders (5%), sheet web builders and burrowers (3% each). Comparitive analysis of
species collected from upper montane (UMCFs) and lower montane cloud forests (LMCFs)
reveals six families (Ctenidae, Pholcidae, Gnaphosidae, Hersilidae, Lyocranidae,

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Uloboridae) were exclusively collected from LMCFs and three families (Hahnidae,
Palpimanidae, Zodaridae) were collected only from UMCFs (Fig.2).
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

An important finding of this study is the discovery of six new spp. of spiders, as well as
sighting of another three spp. for the first time from India. These findings indicate the
biological wealth of the shola ecosystem and further points out the necessity of more detailed
exploration in order to comprehensively understand the biodiversity of our country. The
discovery of any new species is significant considering the fact that biodiversity is
disappearing from our planet at an astonishing rate. Accurately naming new species and
subspecies helps to create a more meaningful map of biodiversity distribution. It is also a
necessary prerequisite for achieving legal protection for threatened habitats such as Western
Ghats. Extensive sampling in different geographic locations reveals that exceptionally high
levels of endemism exhibited by some genera such as Plebs, Martensopoda, Hermippus and
sighting of other new species are considered, cloud forest ecosystem is one among the hottest
in respect of species diversity.
Along with the species documentation, the study also reported exceptional intraspecific
variation exhibited by Plebs mitratus which is reported for the first time in the genus based
on specimens collected from three different tropical montane cloud forests in Western Ghats
of Kerala viz., Nayamakkadu Shola near Eravikulam National Park, Shola forest in Chembra
hills and Aanamudi Shola National Park. Even specimens from the same Shola forest
(Nayamakkadu Shola) exhibited such variations revealing the incredible intraspecific
variations exhibited by P. Mitratus.
Another notable finding of the study is the occurrence of mating plug, the paternity protection
device, which is rare in spiders which was reported for the first time in the orb weaving
spider genus Plebs Joseph & Framenau, 2012. These preliminary results provide the baseline
information for developing appropriate management techniques and consolidate the
necessary resources for obtaining conservation status of spiders in the cloud forests of the sky
islands in Western Ghats.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We are grateful to Rev. Dr. Prasant Palackappillil CMI, Principal, Sacred Heart College
(Autonomous) for providing laboratory facilities. Thanks are due to Mr. Nafin K.S, Mr. C. S.
Jayadevan and Mr. Tony Antony for their assistance in the field. We thank the Chief
Conservator of Forests, Kerala Forest Department for the collecting permit. We especially
acknowledge Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB)-DST, New Delhi for
providing funding support under Major Research Project: No. SB/SO/AS/ 094/2013.

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REFERENCES
1. Barrion, A. T. and J.A. Litsinger. 1995. Riceland spiders of South and South-East
Asia. CAB International, UK and IRRI, Philippines. 700 pp.
2. Bruijnzeel, L. A.. & L. S. Hamilton. 2000. Decision Time for Cloud Forests. IHP
Humid Tropics Programme Series, No. 13, UNESCO, Paris.
3. Deeleman-Reinhold, C.L. 2000. Forest Spiders of South East Asia: With a Revision of
the Sac and Ground Spiders (Araneae: Clubionidae, Corinnidae, Liocranidae,
Gnaphosidae, Prodidomidae, and Trochanterriidae. Brill Academic Publishers. 591
pp.
4. Dippenaar-Schoeman, A.S. & Jocqué, R. 1997. African Spiders. An Identification
Manual. Plant Protection Institute Handbook No. 9. ARC, Plant Protection Research
Institute, Pretoria. 392 pp.
5. Hamilton, L. S., Juvik, J. O. & Scatena, F. N. 1995. Tropical Montane Cloud Forests.
Ecological Studies. Springer Verlag, New York.
6. Robin, V.V. & Nandini, R. 2012. Shola habitats on sky islands: status of research on
montane forests and grasslands in southern India. Current Science. 103 (12): 1427-
1437.
7. Sebastian, P. A. & Peter, K. V. 2009. Spiders of India. Orient Blackswan, Hydrabad,
India, 734 pp.
8. Tikader, B.K. 1987. Handbook of Indian Spiders. Zoological Survey of India,
Calcutta. 251 pp.
Table 1. Consolidated list of the family, genera and species of spiders collected from
Tropical Montane Cloud Forests in Western Ghats.
Sl. No Family Genus Species
1 Araneidae Clerck, 1757 15 18
2 Clubionidae Wagner,1887 2 8
3 Ctenidae Keyserling,1877 2 2
4 Eutichuridae Lehtinen,1967 1 3
5 Pholcidae C. L. Koch,1850 1 1
6 Gnaphosidae Pocock,1898 2 2
7 Hahniidae Bertkau,1878 2 2
8 Hersiliidae Thorell,1870 1 1
9 Linyphiidae Blackwall,1859 4 6
10 Lycosidae Sundevall,1833 4 5
11 Lyocranidae Simon,1897 2 3

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12 Palpimanidae Thorell,1870 1 1
13 Philodromidae Thorell,1870 3 5
14 Pisauridae Simon,1890 2 3
15 Psechridae Simon,1890 1 2
16 Salticidae Blackwall,1864 7 8
17 Sparassidae Bertkau,1872 4 4
18 Tetragnathidae Menege,1866 6 8
19 Theraphosidae Thorell,1869 1 3
20 Theridiidae Sundevall, 1833 10 14
21 Thomisidae Sundevall, 1833 7 12
22 Uloboridae Thorell,1869 1 1
23 Zodariidae Thorell,1881 2 2
Total 23 81 114

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Table 2. Check list of spiders collected from Tropical Montane Cloud Forests in Western
Ghats
Sl. No. No. Family/Species Guild

I Araneidae Orb Weavers
1 Arachnura angura Tikader, 1970
2 Araneus bilunifer Pocock, 1900
3 Argiope aemula (Walckenaer 1841)
4 Chorizopes bengalensis Tikader, 1975
5 Cyclosa bifida (Doleschall, 1859)
6 C. hexatuberculata Tikader, 1982
7 C. insulana (Costa, 1834)
8 Cyrtophora bidenta Tikader, 1970
9 Eriovixia excelsa (Simon, 1889)
10 Gasteracantha dalyi Pocock, 1900
11 Neogea nocticolor (Thorell, 1887)
12 Neoscona mukerjei Tikader, 1980
13 N. vigilans (Blackwall, 1865)
14 Parawixia dehaani (Doleschall, 1859)
15 Plebs mitratus (Simon, 1895)*
16 Larinia phthisica (L. Koch, 1871)
17 Gea spinipes C. L. Koch, 1843
18 Zilla globosa Saha & Raychaudhuri, 2004
II Clubionidae Foliage runners
19 Clubiona drassodes Cambridge, 1874
20 Clubiona sp.
21 Clubiona shillongensis Majumder & Tikader, 1991
22 Clubiona analis Thorell, 1895
23 Clubiona bengalensis Biswas, 1984
24 Clubiona acanthocnemis Simon, 1906
25 Matidia incurvata Reimoser, 1931
26 Matidia sp.
III Ctenidae Ground runners
27 Acantheis indicus Gravely, 1931
28 Ctenus indicus Gravely, 1931
IV Eutichuridae Foliage Runners
29 Cheiracanthium conflexum Simon, 1906
30 Cheiracanthium indicum O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1874
31 Cheiracanthium sp.
V Pholcidae Space Web Builders
32 Pholcus sp.
VI Gnaphosidae Ground Runners
33 Drassodes astrologus (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1874)

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34 Scotophaeus merkaricola Strand, 1907

VII Hahniidae Sheet Web Builders
35 Hahnia mridulae Tikader, 1970
36 Scotospilus maindroni (Simon, 1906)
VIII Hersiliidae Sheet Web Buiders
37 Hersilia sumatrana (Thorell, 1890)
IX Linyphiidae Tangle Web Buiders
38 Lepthyphantes peramplus (O. Pickard-Cambridge,1885)
39 Lepthyphantes stramineus (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1885)
40 Neriene hammeni (van Helsdingen, 1963)^
41 Oedothorax cunur Tanasevitch, 2015
42 Oedothorax kodaikanal Tanasevitch, 2015
43 Atypena adelinae Barrion & Litsinger, 1995
X Liocranidae Ground Runners
44 Oedignatha albofasciata Strand, 1907
45 Oedignatha scrobiculata Thorell, 1881
46 Paratus indicus Marusik, Zheng & Li, 2008
XI Lycosidae Ground Runners
47 Hippasa agelenoides (Simon, 1884)
48 Hippasa sp.
49 Lycosa carmichaeli Gravely, 1924
50 Lysania prolixa Malamel, Sankaran, Joseph &
Sebastian,2015
51 Pardosa pseudoannulata (Bösenberg & Strand, 1906)
XII Palpimanidae Ground Runners
52 Palpimanus vultuosus Simon, 1897
XIII Philodromidae Ambushers
53 Philodromus chambaensis Tikader, 1980
54 Philodromus decoratus Tikader, 1962
55 Thanatus parangvulgaris Barrion & Litsinger, 1995
56 Tibellus elongatus Tikader, 1960
57 Tibellus katrajghatus Tikader, 1962
XIV Pisauridae Ambushers
58 Dendrolycosa gitae (Tikader, 1970)
59 Hygropoda chandrakantii (Reddy & Patel, 1993)
60 Hygropoda sikkimus (Tikader, 1970)
XV Psechridae Sheet Web builders
61 Psechrus crepido Bayer, 2012
62 Psechrus sp.*
XVI Salticidae Stalkers
63 Chalcotropis pennata Simon, 1902
64 Chrysilla lauta Thorell, 1887

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65 Epeus albus Prószyński, 1992

66 Epocilla aurantiaca (Simon, 1885)
67 Rhene albigera (C. L. Koch, 1846)
68 Rhene daitarensis Prószyński, 1992
69 Telamonia dimidiata (Simon, 1899)
70 Harmochirus exaggeratus Caleb & Mathai, 2015
XVII Sparassidae Ground Runners
71 Heteropoda fischeri Jäger, 2005
72 Martensopoda sanctor Sankaran et al, 2015*
73 Pseudopoda fabularis Jäger, 2008
74 Thelcticopis moolampilliensis Jose & Sebastian, 2007
XVIII Tetragnathidae Orb weavers
75 Leucuage. dorsotuberculata Tikader, 1982
76 L. tessellata (Thorell, 1887)
77 Okileucauge sp.*
78 Tylorida striata (Thorell, 1877)
79 Tylorida sataraensis Kulkarni, 2014
80 Guizygiella indica (Tikader & Bal, 1980)
81 Tetragnatha bengalensis Walckenaer, 1841
82 Prolochus longiceps Thorell, 1895
XIX Theraphosidae Burrowers
83 Haploclastus sp.*
84 Haploclastus kayi Gravely, 1915
85 Haploclastus nilgirinus Pocock, 1899
XX Theridiidae Tangle web builders
86 Achaearanea triangularis Patel, 2005
87 Argyrodes argentatus O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1880
88 Argyrodes bonadea (Karsch, 1881)
89 Chrysso angula (Tikader, 1970)
90 Coleosoma sp.
91 Enoplognatha diodonta Zhu & Zhang, 1992
92 Episinus affinis Bösenberg & Strand, 1906
93 Episinus pentagonalis Chakrabarti, 2013
94 Parasteatoda brookesiana (Barrion & Litsinger, 1995)
95 Parasteatoda oxymaculata (Zhu, 1998)
96 Rhomphaea projiciens O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1896
97 Steatoda cingulata (Thorell, 1890)^
98 Theridion bengalensis Sen, Saha & Raychaudhuri, 2011
99 Theridion zonulatum Thorell, 1890
XXI Thomisidae Ambushers
100 Camaricus formosus Thorell, 1887
101 Camaricus khandalaensis Tikader, 1980

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102 Ebrechtella sp.^

103 Epidius parvati Benjamin, 2000
104 Epidius longipalpis Thorell, 1877
105 Epidius bazarus (Tikader, 1970)
106 Misumena decorata Tikader, 1980
107 Misumenops andamanensis Tikader, 1980
108 Tmarus kotigeharus Tikader, 1963
109 Tmarus soricinus Simon, 1906
110 Xysticus bengalensis Tikader & Biswas, 1974
111 Xysticus breviceps O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1885
XXII Uloboridae Orb Weavers
112 Miagrammopes sexpunctatus Simon, 1906
XXIII Zodariidae Ground Runners
113 Asceua cingulata (Simon, 1905)
114 Hermippus gavi Sankaran, Jobi, Joseph & Sebastian,
2014
*- New to Science , ^ - New to India
Fig.1. Guild composition of spiders collected from Tropical Montane Cloud Forests in
Western Ghats.
3% 5% orbweavers
7% 24% ground runners
13% Foliage runners
Ambushers
Burrowers
13%
3% Space web builders
Stalkers
Sheet web builders
18% 14% Tangle web builders
Fig. 2.Comparison of spider species collected from lower montane and upper montane cloud
forests.
100%
80%
60% LMCF
40%
s
20%
0%

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Paper-7
EFFECT OF FIRE ON Heteropogan contortus DOMINATED GRAZING

LAND AT SIVAGANGA, SEMI-ARID REGION OF TAMILNADU
Meenal K, Anusiya Devi A and K.Manoharan
PG & Research department of Botany
Raja Dorasingam Govt.Arts college, Sivagangai 630561, INDIA
E-mail:manosoc@yahoo.com
INTRODUCTION
Grazing land fire acts as a mineralizing agent and increase the short – term availability of
nutrients for plant growth. The effect of fire on nutrient dynamics are expected to be
dependent upon the inter-relationship of fire behavior, micro climate, total quantities of
biomass consumed by fire and vegetation composition and structure. In the present study
biomass productivity, nutrient losses and redistribution after fire in the grazing land at
Sivagangai was estimated.
METHOD
Ten random quarters (50X50cm) were harvested at burned and unburned sites every
month. Care was taken not to harvest the same area twice. Standing dead material was
collected separately and the litter was gathered after the harvest. Below ground biomass
estimation was carried out by 25X25X30 cm monolith from the centre of harvested plot. The
plant samples were separated and brought to the laboratory in polyethylene bags and
processed for the vegetation analysis. Net productivity and system transfer were estimated
from the harvest data following Singh and Yadava (1974).
CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
Total nitrogen and phosphorus in plants and soil were estimated using a continuous flow
auto analyser (Gradko international Ltd., U.K). Potassium was determined by and atomic
absorption spectro photometer (Perkin-Elmer, Model 5000) following recommended
guidelines for wavelength selections are linear working ranges.
Estimated nutrient in the plant components were multiplied by respective standing crop
phytomass. The nutrient content per gram dry weight of soil was multiplied by the bulk
density and the results are expressed as g/m2/30cm.
RESULTS
Compared to unburned area 26% of soil moisture and 5% clay were reduced in the burned
area. Mean annual above ground living biomass and belowground biomass where higher in
the burned site. In contrast, standing dead and litter biomass were affected in the burned site.
Regrowth following fire increased the living biomass production in the burned site. The total
disappearance of biomass which was utilized by the grazing land is reduce in the burned site
(Table.1).

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Table.1. Grazing land fire effect on abiotic and biotic factors
parameter Unburned site Burned site
soil moisture 13.97 10.31

Clay 0.53 0.26
Above ground live 597.96 681.30

Standing dead 511.66 242.95
Litter 451.32 224.95
Below ground 329.04 366.19
Dry matter production 2702.20 2793.80
Dry matter loss 2691.90 1043.20
Nutrient cycle
Fire increased the soil nutrient availability. Which showed 19%, 37% and 66% increase of
nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium respectively. The nutrient taken up by plants was higher
in the burned site which showed maximum nutrient uptake in the above ground living
components (174% nitrogen, 186% phosphorous and potassium showed 3fold increase).
Nutrients transfer to below ground compartments showed 2.6% increases in nitrogen where
as phosphores and potassium showed 29.1%, and 22.5% decrease in the burned site. The
nutrient withdrawal from the belowground biomass and litter was reduced in the burned area.
Compared with unburned site 65% nitrogen, 50.3% phosphorous and 68.9% potassium were
released from the below ground biomass and 62.8% nitrogen, 82% phosphorous and 91.6%
potassium where released through litter in the burned site( Fig.1).

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Fig.1. Nutrient dynamics in Burned(B) and Unburned (UB) site
UB B UB B
N 13.37 23.30 N 9.22 9.22
P 1.03 1.92 P 0.85 0.59
K 7.50 21.91 K 7.17 4.34
Above ground Standing dead
Live N 21.54 12.58
P 1.15 0.84
K 7.97 6.88
Litter
N 18.33 9.67
P 0.84 0.84
K 7.97 6.88
UB B
N 21.08 21.63 N 34.45 44.93 N 815.49 976.64
P 1.17 0.83 P 2.20 2.79 P 63.97 87.65
K 15.27 11.84 K 22.77 33.35 K 737.37 1228.12
Below ground Soil
N 20.45 13.32
P 1.16 0.56
K 15.78 10.87
DISCUSSION
Fire plays an important role in the grazing land ecosystem It effectively modulates many
factors directly or indirectly in the ecosystem. In the dry season the grazing lands get very
dry and greater part of them are burned annually to enable young grasses to sprout which are
preferred by grazers. Such practice is obvious in the present study area. The blanket of dead
and decaying vegetation contains nutrients that are largely unavailable for plant growth until
released either slowly and incompletely by decay or rapidly and completely by fire. There
are evidences to the fertilizing effects of ash increment in increasing fresh growth

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(Daubenmine1968, Lioyd1972). Abiotic and biotic factors are also found to change in the
burned site. The removal of the vegetation cover and litter fall in the burned area increased
evaporation. Which results the soil moisture loss in the burned site. In addition, decreased
percentage of clay is also an important factor for the loss of soil moisture. Similar findings
have been reported by Garren (1939); Christenson and Muller (1975). Loss of soil moisture
and clay lead to loss of soil nutrients. Though fire drastically decreases the nutrients from the
systems (Kauffman et al 1993), ash acts as a fertilizer in the burned site which enhances the
plant growth in the burned site. Nutrient return to the burned site was low due to the loss of
standing dead and litter components. The transfer of nutrients where reflected from the dry
matter dynamics of the above system, which showed more dry matter accumulation in the
living biomass, whereas below ground accumulation level was fluctuated. Dry matter return
to soil is low due to loss of standing dead and litter in the burned site. This indicates that
burned sites maintain the above ground living biomass by rapid regrowth after fire. It helps in
maintaining the stability of the system, whereas loss through standing dead and litter was not
reclaimed in the burned area. Thus, the nutrient return to the soil was low. Nutrient losses can
be reduced by rapidly growing vegetation. Sabiiti (1988) and Shanker et al. (1988) observed
rapid regrowth of foliage in the burned site. It is concluded that annual burning is helpful to
the grazer but it affects the ecosystem.
REFERENCE
1. Christensen, N.L. and C.M. Muller. 1975.Effect of fire in factors controlling plant
growth in Adenostoma chaparral. Ecol. Monogr., 45: 29-45.
2. Coutingo, L.M. 1990.Fire in the ecology of the Brazilian Cerrado.p.82-
105.In;Tropical Biota,J.G.Goldammer(ed.),springer-Verlag,Berilin.
3. Daubermine, R.1968.Ecology of fire in grasslands.Advan.Ecol.Res. 5: 209-266.
4. Garren, K.H. 1943. Effects of fire on vegetation of the south Eastern united states.
Bot. Rev. 9: 617-654.
5. Kauffman,J.B., R.L.Cummings, D.L.Salcedo and I.H.Sampai,1993.Biomass and
nutrient dynamics associated with slash fires in neotropical dry forest.Ecology, 74:
140-151.
6. Lioyd, P.S. 1972. Effects of fire on a Derbshire grassland community. Ecology 53:
915-920.
7. Sabiiti, E.N. 1988.Fire intensity and pasture management in Uganda. P. 312-
313.Abst.IIIrd Int.Rangeland Congrees.Soc.Range Manage.India.
8. Shanger,V. and B.K.Trivedi. 1988. Grazing – burning rottion for the management of
sahima heteropogon grasslands in central India. P. 382-385.Abst. IIIrd Int. Rangeland
congress. Soc.Range Manage.India.
9. Singh,J.S. and P.S.Yadava. 1974. Seasonal variation in composition. Plant biomass
and net primary productivity of a tropical grassland at Kurushetra,
India.Ecol.Monogr.44:351-376.

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Paper-8
EFFECT OF STREET LIGHTS ON PLANTS

Smriti Tiwari
Department of Environmental Science, St. Joseph’s College, Bangalore-27
e-mail:tsmriti97@gmail.com
INTRODUCTION
The advent of artificial lighting at night has changed the way we perceive the world
today and similarly had an effect on the natural processes mentioned above. In many areas of
the world, a new type of pollution has been recognized since the early 20th century, called
light pollution. Here, it is important to differentiate between two types of light pollution that
are often confused for the other. The first is astronomical light pollution that is defined as the
degradation of human views of the night sky due to increased night time illumination. The
second is ecological light pollution and includes chronic or periodically increased
illumination, unexpected changes in illumination and direct glare (Longcore & Rich, 2004)
The effect of artificial light on plants has been studied since 17th-18th century and it is
well established that exposure to even low level of lights during hours of darkness is
sufficient to produce a response in the phenology of urban trees, can delay, inhibit, advance
or promote flowering and may even alter the flowering and vegetative growth of crops
(Bennie J, 2015). However, the awareness of these effects has been restricted to the scientific
community alone and not trickled down effectively to city planners, governments and the
common citizens. Hence, lights are set up according to the needs of an area and are often
placed at fixed distances but without any care for the vegetation around.
STUDY DESIGN
This study was designed to measure light intensities at different points under a street
light and horizontally away from the pole (along the spread) on each side. The apparatus used
was a lux and fc (footcandle) light meter (Equinox®-EQ-1301). Measurements were taken at
the ground level, 2.5 m, 5 m and 7.5 m from the ground along the height of the street light.
Measurements along the spread were taken at a distance of 2 metres from the pole from each
side. The unit of measurement used was lux. Also noted were the nature of the lamp, height
of the light, the nature of vegetation near the streetlight (Above, below, and directly receiving
light from the source).

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Measurements were taken in the following areas-
Serial Type of Area Description Number of such

no areas covered
1 Residential Independent houses/ small flats spread over 3
an area. No common boundary wall or gate.
Lighting was BBMP provided
2 Commercial Areas with several shops, BBMP provided 2
lighting
3 Parks Gated and compound wall/fenced area with 3
lights either privately/ BBMP installed
Table 1: Areas covered in the study
RESULTS
There was found a presence of high pressure sodium vapour lamps in both
commercial areas and residential areas and they are known to have impacts on
photoperiodism, flowering, senescence of leaves (Chaney, 2002). In commercial areas the
average illuminance of the spread when the light was at 18 m height was found to be 12.4 lx
and was 36.0 lx when the source was at 12m. This study did not document the various
species of trees found in the areas and also their average heights. A study that takes into
account the vegetation as well can accurately estimate the impacts lights have on trees found
in the area.
In the parks sampled, three types of lamps were found, among which the LED flood
lights found in Vijaya Bank park-2 have the maximum spread 18.4 lx (height 14m) while the
metal halide in Vijaya Bank park -1 have the least spread at 2.9 lx ( height 8m) . The CFL
light source has an intermediate spread, 6.74 lx (height 8m). Hence, if the distance between
two lamps can be larger if LED or CFL lights are used.
Further, it can be observed that for the LED and CFL lights the illuminance on the
ground directly below the light is nearly the same as the spread, while for the metal halide it
is relatively less directly below and greater in the spread. This could act as an advantage for
the vegetation directly below the light and can be used in areas where there is not much grass
cover between two lights.
In parks also, the documentation of tree species wasn’t done in this study but if done,
it can help analyze the impacts better.
There is no significant data available of the exact amount of lux that can cause a
negative/positive effect on trees in tropical climates as found in India. Detailed studies carried
out in the future can improve our understanding of the effect of ecological light pollution
from streetlights on trees.

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Suggestions
From the above study and analysis the following suggestions are made (LED Practical Guide,
2016)-
 Fully shielded fixtures that emit no light upward should be chosen.

 Lampshades with a long horizontal attachment above the luminaire could be
considered to minimize the scattering of light upward
 Use of “warm-white” or filtered LEDs (CCT < 3,000 K; S/P ratio < 1.2) to minimize
blue emission
 Products with adaptive controls like dimmers, timers and motion sensors should be
used. Timers could alternatively switch off a certain section of a row of lights.
 Dimming or turning off the lights during overnight hours could be considered in some
areas.
 The temptation to over-light because of the higher luminous efficiency of LEDs
should be avoided.
 Lighting of the exact spaces and in the amount required for particular tasks should be
carried out.
CONCLUSION
Artificial lighting technology began to be developed when early man learnt to control
fire and there has been no looking back ever since. From the first central draught oil lamp in
1780 we have come a long way to LED bulbs and LED filament technology. Street lighting
is seen as a sign of development and it has become relevant due to urbanization. Modern
lifestyles depend on the visibility at night to navigate through cities as more people work
night shifts or choose to rejuvenate after a long day of work. Further, they induce a sense of
safety in pedestrians and can help prevent road accidents by providing better visibility.
This convenience, however, comes at a price. Firstly, it is an expensive process. It is

estimated that street lighting accounts for 10-38% of the total energy bill in a typical city
worldwide (New York City Global Partners, 2009). Minimal, high efficiency lighting only
where required, is the way forward as we urbanize and electrify villages. Research to
understand impacts better and its communication to the public and government bodies is
another significant step that can be taken in the direction of a better “lit” up world of the
future.

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REFERENCES
1. Bennie, J., Davies, T. W., Cruse, D., & Gaston, K. J. (2016). Ecological effects of
artificial light at night on wild plants. Journal of Ecology.
2. Bennie, J., Davies, T. W., Cruse, D., Inger, R., & Gaston, K. J. (2015). Cascading effects
of artificial light at night: resource-mediated control of herbivores in a grassland
ecosystem. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B, 370(1667), 20140131.
3. Chaney, W. R. (2002). Does Night Lighting Harm Trees. Purdue University, Forestry
and Natural Resources, FAQ, 17, 1-4.
4. LED Practical Guide. (2016, June 21). Retrieved August 21, 2016, from International
Dark Sky Assosciation: http://darksky.org/wp-content/uploads/bsk-pdf-
manager/IDA_LED_handout_48.pdf
5. Longcore, T., & Rich, C. (2004). Ecological light pollution. Frontiers in Ecology and the
Environment, 2(4), 191-198.
6. New York City Global Partners. (2009). Best Practice: LED Street Lighting Energy and
Efficiency Program. Los Angeles. Retrieved August 24, 2016

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Paper-9
MAHUA (Madhuca longifolia): AN IDEAL LANDSCAPE TREE FOR

ANT CONSERVATION
Viyolla Mendonce1, Abraham Verghese2, M. S. Reddy1.
1
Department of Zoology, Bangalore University, Bengaluru 560058, Karnataka India
2
GPS institute of Agricultural Management, Peenya, Bengaluru 560058, Karnataka India
INTRODUCTION:
Plants and trees serve as excellent niches of food and nesting of ants. The relationship
is usually mutual where as ants benefit from the food source, they shape the lives of the trees
right from the first growth spurts of the tiniest seedling to the final days of the mightiest giant
(Ellison, 2016). The Mahua (Madhuca longifolia) is widely used in medicine and
fermentation industry in India. Madhuca longifolia has 73% of sugar is only next to cane
molasses in sweetness, which is a definite lure to the ants. Hence the generic name is
Madhuca which is derived from the term honey-like (Madhu= Honey). The seeds contain
more than 35% oil and 16% of protein which are usually the most foraged for components on
plants by ants. The plant grows well in deciduous, dry and plain regions, and is well adapted
to low rainfall areas and is suitable for sustainability of ant biodiversity (Jatropha World,
2007). However, its possibilities in conserving biodiversity of insects especially ants have not
been fully explored.
MATERIALS AND METHODS:
A biodiversity study of ants, was conducted during October 2013 to September 2014
in a 10 acre peri-urban garden situated at the outskirts of Bangalore
(13°06′50″N 77°35′54″E), in the state of Karnataka, India. Human interventions in the garden
were innocuous like de-weeding and watering of plants and the garden was completely
organic. The tree was sampled by systematized random sampling. Both flowering and non
flowering (vegetative) shoots were considered in sampling the plants. To keep the
observations unbiased, the units/ side branch or shoot for sampling were picked from the
whole plant based on random table number (for example, if the first random table number
was 5, then multiples of two were taken and the 10th, 15th, 20th… shoots were selected for
sampling) as explained by Southwood (1978). Ten such sampling units/plant/species formed
the sampling plan. From the 10 sampling units (n) per species of plant sampled on every
alternate day of the week, in a span of 12 months, and 116 days of sampling, 1160 units were
sampled. Counts of all the species of ants seen on the shoot both on the flowering and non-
flowering were taken. Samples of the ant species were collected, curated and identified upto
the species level before the start of the observations to avoid destructive sampling.

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The data on the number of ants were first tabulated and subjected to correlation analysis with
‘r’ as the test criterion at P=0.05. The ants that showed positive significant trend in
occurrence were subjected to a 2x2 contingency table, based on the presence or absence of
ant species on the plants as explained in Southwood (1978) (significant associations at
p=0.05). Species X was the more abundant and species Y was the less abundantly occurring
ant species in the association. The χ2 (chi-square) was calculated using the equation to
determine whether the null hypothesis of independence should be accepted or rejected.
N
N (ad − bc) − 2
χ =
(a + b)(a + c)(c + d)(b + d)
Table value for χ2 at 5%, one degree of freedom is 3.84 and calculated value above this was
significant according to Southwood (1978).
RESULTS:
Eight ant species were recorded on M. longifolia, namely, Camponotus sericeus, Ca.
parius, Tapinoma melanocephalum, Paratrechina longicornis, Solenopsis geminata,
Crematogaster ransonneti and Monomorium pharoanis and Myrmecaria brunnea. Species
richness on this tree was the highest among all other plants sampled. Coefficients correlation
‘r’ matrix was calculated between the ant species recorded on the plant. There was significant
positive relationship (at p=0.05) between C. sericeus with T. melanocephalum, S. geminata,
M. pharoanis and M. brunnea. Camponotus parius had a significant positive relationship
with T. melanocephalum, S. geminata and M. brunnea. Tapinoma melanocephalum had a
significant positive trend with P. longicornis, S. geminata and M. brunnea. Solenopsis
geminata had a significant positive trend withM. brunnea. The other ant species did not show
significant trends. The significant ant species relationship was tested for association by
subjecting them to 2x2 contingency using chi square as a criterion. Camponotus sericeus had
a positive association with T. melanocephalum and S. geminata. Solenopsis geminata had a
significant positive association with C. parius and T. melanocephalum. Myrmicaria brunnea
had a significant positive association with T. melanocephalum and S. geminata. The other
associations were non significant.

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Table 1: Occurrence index (OI) and test for significance of the recorded ant species on
M. longifolia
C. c C. s C. p T. m P. l S. g M. p C. r M. b
M. longifolia OI 0 0.09 0.12 0.05 0.07 0.05 0.12 0.01 0.01
χ2 6.4 2.0 8.9 0.0 0.4 0.0 8.9 4.6 4.6
Table 2: Correlation coefficients ‘r’ between ants on M. longifolia.
Ants C. C. T. P. S. M. C.
sericeu parius melanoc longicorni geminata pharoan ransonne
s ephalum s is ti
C. parius 0.109
T.melanocep 0.266* 0.295*
halum
P. -0.02 0.026 0.261*
longicornis
S. geminate 0.298* 0.529* 0.693* 0.029
M. pharoanis 0.266* -0.032 -0.024 -0.057 0.08
C. ransonneti -0.024 -0.031 -0.019 -0.022 -0.020 -0.023
M. brunnea 0.242* 0.604* 0.501* -0.022 0.695* -0.023 -0.09
*Significant at p=0.05
Coefficients correlation ‘r’ matrix was calculated between the ant species recorded on
the plant. There was significant positive relationship (at p=0.05) between C. sericeus with T.
melanocephalum, S. geminata, M. pharoanis and M. brunnea. Camponotus parius had a
significant positive relationship with T. melanocephalum, S. geminata and M. brunnea.
Tapinoma melanocephalum had a significant positive trend with P. longicornis, S. geminata
and M. brunnea. Solenopsis geminata had a significant positive trend with M. brunnea. The
other ant species did not show significant trends (table 2).

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Table 3: Interspecific association of ants on M. longifolia.
Interspecific association of ants on Components of the χ2 Type of

contingency table value association*
M. longifolia
Species X Species Y a b c d
C. sericeus S. geminata 4 2 6 104 19.85* ad>bc +
T. 4 2 6 104 19.85* ad>bc +
C. sericeus melanocephalum
M. pharoanis C. sericeus 2 8 12 94 0.089 -- --
C. sericeus M. brunnea 1 0 9 106 2.192 -- --
T. 2 4 12 98 0.997 -- --
C. parius melanocephalum
C. parius M. brunnea 1 0 13 102 1.368 -- --
C. parius S. geminata 3 3 11 99 5.22* ad>bc +
T. 5 1 1 109 62.89* ad>bc +
S. geminate melanocephalum
T. 1 0 5 110 4.13* ad>bc +
melanocephalum M. brunnea
T. 1 5 7 103 0.02 -- --
melanocephalum P. longicornis
S. geminate M. brunnea 1 0 5 110 4.13* ad>bc +
*χ2 > 3.84 at p=0.05
The significant ant species relationship was tested for association by subjecting them
to 2x2 contingency using chi square as a criterion. Camponotus sericeus had a positive
association with T. melanocephalum and S. geminata. Solenopsis geminata had a significant
positive association with C. parius and T. melanocephalum. Myrmicaria brunnea had a
significant positive association with T. melanocephalum and S. geminata. The other
associations were non significant.
DISCUSSION:
Among all the other 58 ants observed in the garden, M. longifolia had the highest
species richness supporting eight ant species. Though there were no significant occurrence of
any of the ant species (table 1), but the very fact that the species richness was eight was
important in regard of biodiversity conservation. The tree is considered an “ant-plant” for the
abundance of resources it contains and this is in agreement to Hawkins et al. (2003) who
claimed that there is no global consensus on the patterns of occurrence of components
deciding species richness. This clearly suggests that, for a high occurrence on a designated
ant-plant other factors like plant semiochemicals and abiotic influences may play a crucial

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Studies of González-Teuber and Heil (2009) reported that higher the host’s
investment in nectaries can be associated with better protection against herbivores. Perhaps
the high sugar investment by the plant is its direct investment towards protection from
herbivory. On M. longifolia, the ant M. pharoanis was found to be carrying its larval forms
upwards toward the foliages, as it might have had its nesting site in the crevices of the tree.
Camponotus sericeus, C. parius and S. geminata were recorded nesting close by on the
ground and hence foraging on the tree and its surroundings. These ants advantageously
selected nesting sites proximal to the ant-tree that supported their food requirement.
Tapinoma melanocephalum, a crevices dweller was also seen frequently on the tree
and possibly had its nest on the tree. Paratrechina longicornis, M. brunnea and C. ransonneti
were the other ants recorded on this tree. With an ability to harbour and support the foraging
and nesting of these many number of ants, and definitely being a high resource of sugar this
tree indeed supported the myrmecofaunal biodiversity in the area and in turn benefitted from
them. Though the tree did not provide myrmecophyte sort of structural adaptations (Speight
et al., 2008) for the ants at any visible range, the long leaves (longi= long; folia= leaves) and
crevice like spaces were exploited by ants for resting or nesting. Predation of small
invertebrates also added to the diverse feeding habits of the recorded ants (Freddie, 2013).
The positive associations between C. sericeus and S. geminate, C. sericeus and T.
melanocephalum, S. geminata and C. parius, S. geminata and T. melanocephalum, S.
geminata and M. brunnea and T. melanocephalum and M. brunnea (table 3) are evidences
that the tree provides sufficiently for multiple foraging ants and there is lesser opportunity for
competition of resources. The other ant species that did not show negative association either,
thus supporting the fact that the tree provides sufficient resources for all the ants foraging on
it. Other non-recorded, yet commonly seen canopy dwelling ants like the O. smaragdina and
P. rastellata also might be favoured by the plant as the long leaves are ideal for nest building.
Medicinal and economic benefits of this plant being numerous add to the promotion of
cultivation of the M. longifolia. This tree can hence be termed an ideal “ant-plant” and
growing it will definitely help in conserving the ant fauna diversity in man-made ecosystems.
The high sugar, oil and protein content is sufficiently available in the tree for the ants. In low
rainfall areas the ecological sustainability of this plant itself qualifies the plant to be an ant-
plant (Buckley, 1982 and Benzing, 1991). Thus, the M. longifolia serves as an excellent niche
for foraging, feeding and nesting of ants. Not only should the ant tree be promoted but also
the ground area around it needs to be conserved or left undisturbed to augment ant
biodiversity. Under-utilised, insecticide-free horticultural plants if tailored into appropriate
landscapes in gardens/ parks can beside economic impacts benefit ant conservation.
Acknowledgement: The first author, Viyolla Pinto, is thankful to DST-Inspire fellowship

programme, for funding the research. This study is a part of her PhD research work.

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REFERENCES:
1. Benzing, D. H., 1991, Myrmecotrophy: origins, operation and importance. in Huxley,

C. R. and Cutler, D. F., Editors. Ant-plant interactions. Oxford University Press, New
York. 353-373
2. Buckley, R., 1982, Ant-plant interactions: a world review. In R. Buckiey. Editor. Ant-
plant interactions in Australia. The Hague, Netherlands. 111- 141
3. Ellison, 2016, http://www.americanforests.org/magazine/article/ants-and-trees-a-
lifelong-relationship/ available as on 5/12/2016.
4. Freddie Richard, 2013, "Predatory Behavior in Dominant Arboreal Ant Species: The
Case of Crematogaster Specie Hymenoptera : Formicidae - Springer." Predatory
Behaviour in Dominant Arboreal Ant Species: The Case of Crematogaster Specie
Hymenoptera: Formicidae - Springer.
5. González-Teuber M and M. Heil, 2009, Nectar chemistry is tailored for both attraction
of mutualists and protection from exploiters. Plant Signaling and Behavior 4 : 809-
813.
6. Hawkins, B.A., Field, R., Cornell, H.V., Currie, D. J., Guegan, J.F., Kaufman, D.M.,
Kerr, J.T., Mittelbach, G.G., Oberdorff, T., O'Brien, E.M., Porter, E.E. & Turner,
J.R.G. (2003) Energy, water, and broad-scale geographic patterns of species richness.
Ecology, 84, 3105-3117.
7. Jatropha world, 2007, Global Authority - Non-food biodiesel crops.
http://www.jatrophabiodiesel.org/Madhuca%20Indica/about-plant.php as on 1/1/2016.
8. Southwood, T.R.F., Ecological Methods with Particular Reference to Study of Insect
Populations. 1978, ELBS edition, Chapman and Hall, London
9. Speight, Martin R., Hunter, Mark D. and Watt, Allan D. 2008, Ecology of Insects 2nd
ed.. West Sussex, UK : Wiley Blackwell Publications. 212–216.

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Paper-10
GRAZING LAND DEGRADATION AT NAGAMALAI IN THE

EASTERN GHATS OF TAMIL NADU
Anusiya Devi A, Suresh Kumar R and K. Manoharan
Raja Dorasingam Govt.Arts college, Sivagangai 630561
E-mail: manosoc@yahoo.com
INTRODUCTION
The grazing lands cover about 40% of the land surface. Today there is a growing
evidence of grazing land degradation throughout the world. Most of the productive area under
grasslands and forests have been converted into croplands and wastelands to serve the
growing needs of human population. Removal of the original forest vegetation due to
grazing. Cutting and burning may result in successional grasslands. Many of the grasslands
in India (Singh 1968) fall in this category. Natural and anthropogenic changes are associated
with substantial ecological disturbances (Terry & Stephen 1995)
In India grazing lands occupy an area of about 121 m ha. Approximately half of the total
land area has become degraded due to various human activities. About 6000 metric tons
(MT) of fertile toop soil and 8.4MT of plant nutrients are estimated to be lost annually due to
erosion (Yadav 1986) this leads to decrease the land productivity. Vegetation – soil feed
backs play a central role in current grazing land ecology. Physiology of grasses nutrient and
dry matter dynamics have been studied by many ecologists (Seasiedt 1995 Manoharan et al
1999). Grazing land degradation is the degradation of ecosystem. The structure and function
of a grazing land ecosystem been altered (Chen& Li 1999).
In south India. The grazing lands of Eastern Ghats are totally mismanaged. Frequent
burning and overgrazing are two major contributors to desertification. Apart from this
conversion into agriculture as well as industrial growth have eliminated much of the
grasslands wealth. Reduction of ground cover on the soil leads to dry and severe micro –
climate which in turn provides a way for xerophytic succession. These changes contribute
towards reduction in the rate of energy flow of the primary producers. Resulting in a
breakdown of the biogeochemical cycles. Therefore the present work was undertaken to
study the present status of grazing lands in this region and their future sustainable
management strategies.
MATERIAL AND METHODS

After a through survey twelve sites were selected based on different geographical location
and attitudes. In all the sites biomass was estimated at monthly intervals. Biomass estimation
was carried out by simple harvest method (Milner and Huges 1968). Soil samples from all the
sites were also collected on each sampling date from three level (10, 20 and 30cm) depths for
physicochemical analysis, percentage of soil moisture was estimated by gravimetric method.
Soil texture was determined by the standard sieve method (international society of soil

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sciences 1927). Nutrient analysis was carried out with the help of auto analyzer and atomic
absorption spectrophotometer.
RESULT AND DISCUSSION

The climate variables depend on the precipitation and temperature of the area. In the
Eastern Ghats. Least productive site (1347gm2 y1) occurs where precipitation is low and the
temperature is high. The most productive site (1889gm2y1) occurs where the annual
precipitation is greater than 800 nm and mean annual temperature is around 20°c. There is a
general trend showing increased production with increasing precipitation and temperature.
Correlation matrix analysis clearly indicated that precipitation increases the soil moisture and
relative humidity. Even though high above ground live biomass was observed during high
precipitation. Mc.Naughton (1987) observed that grassland productivity is more responsive to
precipitation because of increased soil nutrients and soil moisture availability. Temperature
increased the litter production. This may also be due to low moisture percentage during that
period.
BURNING EFFECT
Clay percentage, Soil moisture total dry matter production and nutrient contents were
shown in table.1. Compared with control, in the burnt site 27.6% clay and 20.6% moisture
were decreased. Total dry matter production showed 3.4gm increases. Fire stimulate
regeneration of young sprouts (Grodha 1999). Removal of vegetation cover resulted to
increased evaporation from the upper soil layer in burned areas. For this reason, soil moisture
tends to be somewhat lower than in unburnt area. Similar observations were also made by
Cristenson and Muller (1975). Soil and vegetation must be managed together (Herrick &
whilkford 1999). Clay percentage also decreased in the present study which may also be an
important factor for the loss of soil moisture in the burnt areas. Soil erosion is more evident
in steep slopes with heavy rainfall after fire. Low soil moisture and removal of clay lead to
decreased soil nutrient availability. Though fire drastically decreased the nutrient status in
the system. A great deal of nutrients locked up in the plant biomass are released through ash.
Which act as good fertilizer in the bur area. These nutrients enhanced the input (plant
uptake) in the system. The output of all nutrients form the system was comparatively lower
than that of the unburned system. This indicates that nutrients returned to the soil in the burnt
areas were lower than the unburnt area. The transfer of nutrients where very much reflected
in the dry matter dynamics of the above system. Burning effect on the grazing land ecosystem
clearly indicated that soil moisture. Clay, nutrients and biomass are the major controlling
factors of this grazing land ecosystem. If any one of these factor affected that will cause
damage to this ecosystem. Present study clearly indicated that fire in this region is helpful to
the grazers but not to the ecosystem.

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Table.1. BURNING EFFECT ON LAND DEGRADATION
Total dry matter loss 1043 (2692)

(gm2yr1)
Clay (%) 11.20 (14.1)
Soil moisture (%) 0.75 (1.05)

AVAILABLE NUTRIENTS
Plant Soil (gm-2/yr1)
Nitrogen 44.93 (34.45) 976.64 (815.94)
Phosphorus 2.79 (2.20) 87.65 (63.97)
Potassium 33.35 (22.77) 1228.12 (737.36)
Sodium 1.02 (0.56) 137.22 (118.42)
Calcium 1.78 (1.72) 278.34 (273.46)
Magnesium 4.58 94.39) 883.85 (722.71)
Values in parentheses are for unburnt area
GRAZING EFFECT
Clay and soil moisture percentages. Total dry matter production and nutrient contents
were showed in table.2. Compared with control the grazed site showed 25% reduction in clay
percentage. Soil moisture showed 24.9% reduction and 14.5% increase at 0-10 and 20-30cm
of soil depth respectively. Total dry matter production showed 54.6% reduction in grazed
area. Plant and soil nutrients were decreased in the grazed area. Over grazing reduced soil
stability (Waren et al 1986) and fertility (Dormmarn & willms 1998). Higher soil moisture at
deeper layers may be due to low photosynthetic rates obtained in grazed area as the water loss
through transpiration was minimized. Ground cover of the site might also be partly
responsible for moisture loss in the surface soil. In that area solar radiation directly affected
the soil moisture. Higher clay percentage was observed in the ungrazed area. This may be
because of rich vegetation cover and surface soil moisture in that area. These findings
indicated that protection of land from indiscriminate removal of vegetation is necessary to
develop the degraded lands. Similar findings were also observed by Lanlivingstone (1991). In
grazed site clay percentage decreased with increased soil moisture depletion. These two
factors play a vital role in soil fertility and productivity. Soil nutrients which were studied in
the present investigation were low in the grazed are which lead to low nutrient input to the
plant system. The output from the plant system to the soil was also low in grazed area.

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TABLE 2. GRAZING EFFECT ON LAND DEGRADATION
Total dry matter Production (gm2 yr1) 1045 (2399)
Clay (%) 0.51 (0.68)
Soil Moisture (%)
0-10cm depth 2.93 (3.90)
20-30 cm 4.81 (4.20)
AVAILABLE NUTRIENTS (gm-2/yr-1)
Soil Nutrients Plant Nutrients
Up take Release
Nitrogen 595.75 (681.21) 11.02 (15.65) 5.00 (5.86)
Phosphorus 101.33 (108.41) 0.81 (1.79) 0.88 (1.40)
Potassium 705.62 (835.03) 17.94 (18.21) 7.43 (10.76)
Sodium 57.82 (57.13) 0.29 (0.65) 0.21 (0.47)
Calcium 111.86 (121.14) 0.45 (0.91) 0.34(0.78)
Magnesium 906.60 (910.72) 1.58 (1.99) 1.44 (2.16)
Values in parentheses are for ungrazed area
CONCLUSION
Misused fire and grazing are very much affected the grazing land ecosystem and its
productivity in this region.

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REFENENCE
1. Chen Z and LiX(1999) Degradation of the grassland ecosystem in china and its
biological processes. In people and range building feature (Eds.D.Eldridge and
D.Freuden berges) VI International rageland congress. Australlia 1 105-107
2. Christensen. N.L. and Muller C.M.(1975) Effect of fire in factors controlling plant
growth in Adenosioma Chaparral. Ecol. Monogr. 45.29-45.
3. Dormaar J.F. and Willims W.D.(1998) /effect of forty four years of grazing on fescue
grassland soils. J.Range Management 51.122.126.
4. Grodho A.B.(1999) Effects of cattle and goals grazing and of buring. On Shrub-
grassland vegetation of kenya rageland (Eds.D.Eldridge and D.Freuden berges) VI
international range land congress. Australia2,465-466.
5. Herrick.J.E. and Whitford W.G.(1999) intergrating soil processes into management:
from microaggregates to macrocalchements (Eds.D.Eldridge and D.Pretiden berges)
International rangeland congress. Australia 1 91-95.
6. Lawton.J.H.(1995) Ecological experiments with modal systems. Science vol 269,328-
331.
7. Manoharan K. Thiyagaraja D. Umadevi S. and Balathandapan M. (1999) Effect of
grazing on a semi and rangeland at Alwarkuruchi. Western Ghata of Tamil Nadu.
South India during heavy winds. People and range building feature (Eds D.Eldridge
and D.Freuden bergest VI International rang land congress. Australia 1.518-519
8. Milner. C and Hughes E.R.(1968) Methods for the Measurement of the primary
productivity of Grassland. IBB Hand book No. 6. Blackwell scientific publication.
Oxford.
9. Naughton. MC.S.J (1985) Ecology of a grazing ecosystem. Serengell Ecol. Monogr.
55.259-294.
10. Seasiedt T.R.(1995) Soil systems and nutrient cycler of the North American
Grasslands (Ed 3 of Joern K.H.Kecier). pp 157-174. Oxford university Press. Oxford.
11. Singh J.S. and Yadava. P.S.(1974) Seasonal variation in composition. Plant biomass
and net primary productivity of a tropical grassland at Kurushetra, India. Ecol.Monogr
44, 351-376
12. Terry L.R. and Stepben H.S. (1995) Ecology and climate: Research strategies and
implications science 269, 834-339.
13. Warren S.D., Nevil M.B., Blackburn W.H. and Garja N.E. (1986) soil response to
trampling under intensive rotation grazing soil se=cl. Soc. America j. 50, 1336-1341.

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Paper-11
DISTRIBUTION AND ECOLOGY OF THE MANGROVE FOREST IN

THE GULF OF MANNAR REGION, SOUTH EAST COAST OF
TAMILNADU, SOUTH INDIA
Suresh kumar R and Meena K and K. Manoharan
IPG & Research Department of Botany, Raja Dorasingam Govt.Arts college,
Sivagangai 630561
E-mail: manosoc@yahoo.com
INTRODUCTION
Mangrove forest plays a vital role to increase the productivity and to maintain a healthy
coastal ecosystem. They form “Forest of the sea” and are highly valued for their strong
timber, firewood, charcoal, tanbark and pulp. Mangrove leaf litter has special importance,
because it serves as basis for food chain. In general they have a net input of nutrients fresh
water and sediment from terrestrial environment and a net out flow of organic matter and
water to marine and esturine water. Mangrove species are animals and birds. They thrive in a
stressful, intertidal environment characterized by fluctuating salinities also important
regulators of water quality. Ecologically mangrove contributes to estuarine and terrestrial
food chain and to the maintenance of coastal geomorphology. Being a living resource,
mangrove species are self maintaining and renewable. They constitute a unique habitat for
wild and water loggings. Despite these harsh conditions, survival and dominance of
mangrove are not compromised. Several studies indicated that mangrove species have
different salinity optima for growth (Ball 1988). Which may influence distributional patterns
(Naidoo 1985 and Clough & Sim 1989). Mangrove vegetation and reproductive penology
was studied by Duke (1988,1990).
About a third of the world mangrove is located in Asia. The total area of mangrove in
India is estimated to be 6740km2, which is about 7% of the world’s mangrove. The total area
along the Indian coast was 7,00,000 ha.(Sindha 1963) and the area estimated by Blasco
(1975) was 3,55,500ha. The East coast contributes about 82% while the west coast has only
18% of mangrove. Studies of some of the ecological processes are available on mangrove of
Andaman and Nicobar, Run of Cutch, Sunderbands, Muthupet and Pitchavaram (Chand
basha 1992 & Elangovan 1993). Very little information is available on mangrove in the Gulf
of Mannar region. Hence the present study focused on the distribution and ecology of
mangrove in the Gulf of Mannar region.
MATERIALS AND METHODS.
The Gulf of Mannar (Mandabam) region lies between 8° 47’ &9° 15’ N latitude and 78°
12’&79°14’ E longitude along the south east coast of India. Mangrove forest has been
observed in Kurusadi, Singela, Pomarichan, Pullivasal and Manoliputtu islands

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The study area comes under the spell of both south west and north east monsoon. The
total rainfall is moderate to heavy during October to mid December. The mean annual
rainfall varies from 762 to 1270 mm while mean monthly temperature various from 25 to
31°C (Maximum in May and minimum in January). Salinity of seawater ranges from 22 to
35% dominated mangrove tree species are Avicennia marina and Rhizophora mucronata. The
soil is muddy in mangrove –dominated area.
Zonation pattern of mangrove of this region shows three distinct zones namely proximal
zone, Middle zone and distal zone. Proximal is served zone where the frequency and duration
of inundation is maximum. The principal compound of this zone is Rhizophora mucronata
while the open rocky and coral reef areas are largely occupied by pure Avicennia stands.
Middle zone is towards interior may be called as mixed mangrove zone. Which consists of
Bruguiera gymnorrhiza, Ceriops tagal and Lumintzer racemose. The other major species
found in this zone are Helitropium sp., Salicornia brachiate and Suavada maritina. Distal
zone is towards landward fringe, where mainly occupied by shruby plams.
Climatic parameters were collected from the meteorological station at Mandapam. Phenology
and ecological data were observed and collected at monthly intervals. C3 and C4 mangrove
species present in the Gulf of Mannar region was classified based on the studies of Joshi et al.
(1980),
Matured mangrove plants were selected to study the leafing and shedding of mangrove
species. Marking technique was used of phonological study (Christensen and Wium
Andersen 1977). On selected shoots a ring of thin wire was placed between two pairs of
leaves and the number of leaves above and below the ring was noted for a year. Formation of
leaves and the litter fall calculated as the number of new leaves produced or lost in
observation period, divided by the number of leaves present at the beginning of the period.
The over rate (Wium Andersen and Chirstensen, 1978). Leaf area was measured with the help
of area meter. Salinity, pH and conductivity were measured by salino meter, pH meter and
conductivity meter 304 respectively.

Salinity, pH and conductivity were measured in the deep-sea water, and at mangrove
zone during high tide and low tide. Maximum water salinity (33.01%), pH (8.04) and
conductivity (25.50 millimolar) were observed during high tide and minimum salinity
(29.75), pH(7.56) and conductivity (23.50) were observed in the deep sea water (table.1)

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Table1.Annual salinity,pH and conductivity of water in the Gulf of Mannar region, South
East coast of India.
Place Salinity pH
Conductivity(millimor)
Deep sea water 29.75±6.60 7.56±0.36 23.50±1.42
Back water(Low 31.50±8.28 7.81±0.28 24.00±1.56

tide)
Water at mangrove 33.01±7.78 8.04±0.33 26.50±1.89

zone (High tide)
Leafing and shedding of mangrove leaves were calculated. Daily leafing rate was observed
maximum in Avicennia marina (0.319) and minimum in Ceriops tagal (0.160). Daily
shedding rate was also in the same order, Avicennia marina had the maximum of 0.279 and
Ceriops tagal had the minimum of 0.144. Leaf- shedding turnover rate was maximum in
Avicennia marina (0.10) and it was followed by Bruguiera gymnorrhiza (0.081), Rhizophora
mucronata (0.066) and Ceriops tagal (0.053) respectively. Life time of leaf was maximum in
Ceriops tagal (18.9months) and it was followed by Rhizophora mucronata (15.2), Bruguiera
gymnorrhiza (12.3) and Avicennia marina(10 months) table 2.
Table2.Leafing and shedding of Mangroves in the Gulf of Mannar region, South East coast of
India
Speceies Name Leafing Shedding Turn over Life time of

Rate Leaf
(Daily rate) (Daily rate)
(months)
Rhizophora 0.223±0.007 0.180±0.007 0.066 15.2

mucronata
Ceriops tagal 0.160±0.002 0.144±0.009 0.053 18.9
Avicennia 0.319±0.005 0.279±0.006 0.100 10.0

marnia
Bruguiera 0.266±0.008 0.223±0.004 0.081 12.3
gymnorrhiza
Mangrove leaf area and leaf biomass in the Gulf of Mannar region were calculated.
Rhizophora mucronata has shown the maximum leaf biomass (1.02g) and leaf area
(49.3cm2). Minimum leaf biomass was observed in Bruguiera gymnorrhiza (0.326) and
Ceriops tagal showed the minimum leaf area (12.21). Good correlation was observed
between leaf biomass and leaf area (Table 3).

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Table3. Mangrove leaf area and leaf biomass in the Gulf of Mannar region, south East coast
of India
Leaf biomass(g leaf-1) Lear area(cm2) R

Species Name
Rhizophora mucronata 1.20±0.090 49.30±0.050 0.995
Ceriops tagal 0.441±0.042 12.21±0.815 0.987
Avicennia marina 0.330±0.015 17.71±0.080 0.966
Bruguiera gymnorrhiza 0.326±0.009 13.00±0.610 0.920
Mangrove communities, which occupy the zone in tropical and sub-tropical regions of the
world often exhibited distinct pattern of species distribution (smith 1992 & karan1993). They
are able to grow at salinities ranging from sea water level to fresh water. Various views have
been expressed by different authors with regards to salinity and mangrove distribution (Ball
1988; Lind&Stemberg 1992).
They are able to tolerate saline environment and water logging condition. Salinity is one
of the most outstanding environment feature of mangrove swamp an long been recognized as
an important factor regulating physiological process, growth, height survival and zonation of
mangrove. Principal vegetation of the Gulf of Mannar at Mandabam region is Rhizophora
mucronata lamk. Avicennia marina (Forsk.) vierh. Ceriops tagal var. australis c.t. white,
Lumnitzera racemose willd and Bruguiera gymnorrhiza. According to Walter (1961)
classification Avicennia marina is salt excreting type, Lumnitzera racemose is salt
accumulation type the remaining three species are salt excluding type. They survive in
differing soil salinity, water quality, tidal dynamics etc. through their adaptation. Mangrove
forest in the islands of this region form distinct zonation pattern from seaward to landward
with varying salinity condition. Rhizophora mucronata and Avicennia marina showing c3
photosynthetic pathway and are located in the proximal zone with higher photosynthetic rate.
Similar observation was made in Rhizophora mangle in southern go (Lin& Sternberg 1992).
These changes are mainly due to salinity of the substratum of the plant growing area.
According to Ball (1988) plants grown at the high salinity was shorter but healthier with
smaller and thicker leaves. Reduced growth at higher salinity was attributed to the higher
carbon cost of water uptake, salt secretion and osmoregulation. Fruiting of all mangrove
species present in this region occur during wet season, which enhanced germination during
this favorable period, is may be due to low salinity present during that time.
High leafing and shedding of Avicennia marina and low leafing and shedding of Ceriops
tagal reflect in their turnover rate. A dormancy period of six months in leafing of Ceriops
tagal was observed by Duck et al. (1984) in North Eastern Australia. This character may
increase the life time of Ceriops tagal. Mangrove leaf biomass of this region has positive
correlation with leaf area. Leaf size of mangrove varies with salinity. Leaf size is very small

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in most of the salt tolerant species and increased with decreasing salinity (Ball 1988).
Similarly, in this region mangrove leaves that dominated in the low salinity wetlands
(Rhizophora mucronata) are much bigger than those species high saline environment
(Ceriops tagal.)
Salinity, pH and conductivity were higher in the high tide period. During low tide period,
the area covered by high tide period was exposed to direct sun light and salt formation
occurs. So such tidal changes increase the water salinity during high tide. Increase in pH and
conductivity of water in the mangrove zone (high tide), may be due to the mangrove litterfall
and decomposition.
REFERENCE
1. Ball, M.C. 1988. Ecophysiology of Mangroves. Trees 2:129-142
2. Bhosale,L.J. 1974. Physiology of salt tolerance of plants. Ph.D. thesis, Shivaji
University, Kolhapur.
3. Blasco,F. 1975 Leg Mangroves de L (The Mangroves of India) Institute Francais De
Pondicherry, Travan de la Scientifique et Technique 14. All India Press Pondicherry
PP 1-175
4. Christensen, B. & S.Wium Anderson 1977. Seasonal growth in Mangrove trees in
Southern Thailand .I The phenology of Rhizophora apiculate. Aquatic Botany 3:281-
286
5. Duke, N.C. 1988 Phenologies and litterfall of two mangrove trees, Sonneratia alba
and S.caselaris and their putative hybride. Australian Journal of Botany 36:473-482
6. Duke N.C. 1990. Phenological trends with latitude in the mangrove tree Avicennia
maina. Journal of Ecology, 78:113-133
7. Mall, L.P., V.P.Singh & A.Garge. 1991 studey of biomass, litteerfall, litter
decompostitionn and soil respiration in monogenetic mangrove and mixed mangrove
forests of Andaman islands. Tropical Ecology 32: 144-152
8. Smith, T.J. 1992 Forest structure.pp 101-136 In: A.Robertson & D.Alongi (eds.)
Tropical mangrove ecosystems. American Geophysical Union.

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Paper-12
MANGROVE LITTER FALL AND LITTER DECOMPOSITION IN THE

GULF OF MANNAR REGION, INDIA
Meena K, Meenal K and K. Manoharan
Raja Dorasingam Govt.Arts c ollege, Sivagangai 630561, INDIA
E-mail:manosoc@yahoo.com
INTRODUCTION
Mangrove forest in the tropical and subtropical regions show a higher rate of primary
production and litter decomposition than the temperate forest ecosystems. In the past,
branches and twigs of mangrove were used as fuel and leaves as fodder for animals.
Rhizophora mucronata form the seaward zone and play an important role in stabilizing the
coastline with the help of stilt and prop roots and contributing to the food web by producing
litter. Daily decomposition in the mangrove environment the organic substance are broken
down into fine particles.
Particle called destritus, which form the food for aquatic organisms. Temperature and
moisture play a major role in litter decomposition in terrestrial environment. But moisture
play a major role in litter decomposition in terrestrial environment. But in mangrove
ecosystem these two factors are almost constant for all season, thus variability occurs only
through salinity, which is responsible in governing the rate of litter decomposition. (Fell and
Master 1980, Dagar and sharma 1991), work on litter decomposition in the Gulf of Mannar
region of India is not available. The present study is focused on the rate of litter fall,
decomposition and salinity on mangrove ecosystem in the Gulf of Mannar region.
MATEIRAL AND METHODS

Litter was collected in traps (100X100cm) made up of nylon net, which were suspended
above the tidal level beneath the forest canopy. Ten traps were placed randomly at each site
in the centre of the swamps. Litter was collected and oven dried at 70°c till constant dry
weight obtained. Observation was made for a year from November 1994 to November 95.
The decomposition of mangrove leaf litter was studied using the litterbag technique
reported by Goulter and Allway (1979). Decomposition studies were undertaken in Kurusadi
and Manoli islands. Sample of mangrove leaves weighed 5g were placed in 16X16 cm
serlonclothe bag of 2mm mesh size. At each site twenty-five litterbag were threaded on to
nylon line and tied with wooden post. The litterbags were rested on the substrate, which were
able to float on the seawater and fresh water with different concentration of Nail. Another set
of bags was buried in soil near the mangrove tree. Rate of decomposition was calculated by
weight loss of the mangrove litter at a given period.

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RESULTS & DISCUSSION

Litter fall of mangrove trees differ between species. In the present investigation maximum
litter fall was observed in Rhizhophora mucronata (999.21 gm-2) and minimum was noted in
Ceriops Afollowed by Avicennia marina (1.96gm-2) Bruguria gymnarrhiza (1.57gm-
2).,Lumnitzera rasemosa (1.12gm-2) and Ceriops tagal (1.00gm-2) Table1.
Table1. Annual Mangrove litter fall and litter decomposition in the soil seawater at Gulf of
Mannar region, south East coast of India. Values are mean of five replicates.
Mangrove species Litter fall (g m -2) Litter decomposition (mg

g-1)
Annual
Daily Daily rate
daily rate at
At soil sea
water
Rhizophoramucronata 999.21±74.46 1.2 ± 0.120

2.73 15.0±0.780
Ceriops tagal 366.20±32.94 1.00 0.9±0.043

12.9±0.430
Avicennia marina 714.17±23.47 0.3±0.004

1.96 6.6±0.600
Bruguirea gymnorrhiza 574.17±32.58 1.7±0.098

1.57 1.54±0.930
Luminitzera racemosa 408.56±28.03 0.6±0.013

1.12 11.8±0.330
Daily litter decomposition rate in mangrove soil for Rhizophora mucronata was 1.20mg g-
1
. Corresponding value for Ceriops tagal was 0.90mg g-1, Avicennia marina 1.70 and
Lumnitzera rasemosa was 60mg g-1. Same trend was followed in the sweater at mangrove
zone, where the decomposition rate was higher in Bruguira gymnarrhiza (15.4mg.g-1) and it
was followed by Rhizhophora mucronata 915.0mg g-1, Ceriops tagal (12.9mg g-1),
Lumnitzera rasemosa (11.8mg g-1) and Avicennia marina (6.6mg g-1) Table2.

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Table2. Effect of salinity on mangrove leaf litter decomposition (mg-1g-1d-1) values are mean
of five replicates.
Treatment Salinity Rhizophora Ceriops Avicennia Bruguieria Luminitzera

% mucronata tagal marine gymnorrhiza racemosa
Fresh 0 4.17±0.09 13.70±0.07 8.84±0.07 21.50±0.13 10.00±0.11
water
Sea water 35 8.17±0.08 9.35±0.13 4.50±0.07 15.00±0.11 4.17±0.09
Nacl 15 12.00±0.12 12.33±0.09 6.70±0.11 18.85±0.13 7.35±0.12
solution
Nacl 30 9.17±0.08 15.50±0.10 5.35±0.07 15.67±0.09 11.00±0.09
solution
Nacl 45 73.±0.07 8.80±0.06 4.00±0.05 13.11±0.10 3.00±0.06
solution
R 0.99 0.99 0.99 0.89 0.99
Salinity plays a major role in litter decomposition. Increase in salinity decreases the
decomposition rate. Decomposition was very low at 45%. Salinity, which only showed the
daily decomposition rate of 7.33, 8.80, 4.00, 13.11 and 3.00 mg g-1 in Rhizhophora
mucronata, Ceriops tagal, Avicennia marina, Bruguira gymnarrhiza and lumnitzera
rasemosa, respectively. Decomposition rate was higher In fresh water, which showed
maximum of 21.50mg g-1 in Bruguira gymnarrhiza and it was followed by Rhizhophora
mucronata (14.17mg g-1),Ceriops tagal (17.70mg g-1), Lumnitzera rasemosa (10.0mg g-1) and
Avicennia marina (8.84mg g-1)
It is common sight to see the feshly fallen leaves of Rhizhophora mucronata in water.
Where as leaves of Avicennia marina are rarely seen in the seawater and the remaining
mangrove leaves are not seen on water during the investigation period. Similar observation
made by pool et al. (1975) at Florida. This may be due to periopheral position occupied by
these species. Most of these species litter falls in the water and decomposition of their litter
occurs in the water ultimateluy contributing to the food chain their. Higher litter fall of
Rhizhophora mucronata and Avicennia marina were the result of higher productivity. Which
was enhanced by the higher photosynthetic rate of these of higher productivity. Which was
enhance synthetied by the higher photosynthetic rate of these species. Litter fall of
Rhizhophora mucronata was higher than Avicennia marina. But if we consider the mangrove
forest as a whole the litter contribution of Avicennia marina will be more pronounced
because of their large area occupied by this species.
In mangrove eco system the rate of litter decompotition is mainly governed by the nature
of substrate, soil oxygen availability, soil salinity and micro organisms (Hesse 1961, Mall et
al 1991). The differing decomposition rates of the leaflitter in Rhizhophora mucronata,
Ceriops tagal, Bruguira gymnarrhiza, Avicennia marina and lumnitzera rasemosa under
similar condition and also in the similar habitat may be attributed to the differences in organic
composition of the leaf litter of the above plants. Higher lignin and composition of the leaves

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will also result in slow decomposition (Melillo et al. 1982, Wieder et al. 1983). Plants having
more fibrous tissue decompose slowly than those having more soft paranchyma tissue
(Godshalk and Welzel 1978). The great decomposition rates in water than on the soil may be
due to the low salinity in water. Leaves in the forest decomposed much more slowly than
sub-merged leaves (Robertson, 1988). Rate of decomposition were more when continuous
wetting and drying of leaves (Hassa, 1961). Carter et al. (1973) and Heald (1971) found
higher decomposition in mangrove zone than the leaves were exposed to the seawater.
Similarly the decomposition of above- mentioned species was low in higher salinity and high
in low salinity water. Increasing salinity reduced the rate of decomposition was due to low
microbial activity.
REFERENCES
1. Cartor,M.R.,Burns,L.A.,cavinder,T.R, Digger,K.R.,Forward,P.L.,
Hicks,H,B.,Reveals,H.L., Schmidt,T.M : Ecosystem analysis of the Big cypress
swamp and Estuaries.U.s. Environment protection Agency, Region IV Atlanda
Georgia -EPA 904/0-74-002,1973.
2. Dagar,J.c.,Singh,N.T.,Mongia.A.D.:characteristics of mangrove vegetation of Bay
island in India. Paper in international conference on High salinity Tolerant plants in
Arid Region.Al Ain, United Arab Emirates, Dec.8-15,1981.
3. Fell,J.W.,Master. I.M.:The association and potential role of fungi in mangrove detrital
systems. Not-Mar-23 257-263,1980
4. Flores-verdugo,F.J., Day,J.W., Brieseno-Duenas,R.: Structure,
litterfall,decomposition and detritus dynamics of mangrove in Mexican coastal
lagoon with an ephemeral inlet. Mar.Ecol.program.Ser.,35:83_90,1987.
5. Godshalk ,G.L.,Wetzel,R.G.: Decomposition in the different Zones of lakes.In: Good
,R.E.,Whigham .D.F.. Simpson. R.L.(Eds): Fresh water wetlands Pp.131-
143.Acad.press,New York, 1978.
6. Heals ,EJ.: The production of organic detritus in a south Florida estuary Sea Grant
Tech .Bull.6 Pp.110,Univ.,Miami, 1971.
7. Hesse,P.R,: The decomposition of organic matter in swamp soil.plant and soil 14:249-
263,1961.
8. Mall,L.P., Singh V.P.,Garage,a,: study of bio mass ,litterfall,litter decomposition and
soil respiration in monogenetic mangrove and mixed mangrove forests of Andaman
islands.Trip ECOL.,32(1):144-152,1991
9. Melillo,J.M., Aber,J.D.,Mutate.,J.F .: Nitrogen lignin control of hardwood leaf litter
decomposition dynamics Ecology ,63: 621 - 626 ,1982
10. Newell ,S.T., Fell,J.F.: statzell - Tall man,A.,Miller C., Cefalu ,R .: carbon and
nitrogen dynamics in decomposing leaves of three coastal marine vascular plants of
the sub tropicals .Aquat .Bot.,19: 183-192,1984.
11. Pool,D.J Luck ,A.E., snedakker,S.C.: Litter production in mangrove Forests in
Florida, Puerto,Rico,Mexico and Coasarica.Bio tropica 9 (3):195-212,1975
12. Robert son ,A.L.: Decomposition of mangrove leaf litter in tropical Australia
J.Exp.Mar.Biol.Ecol.,116:235-247,1988.

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Paper-13
HONEY BEE PROPOLIS AND ITS BIOACTIVE

COMPONENTS: A PROMISING ADJUVANT APPROACH FOR
CANCER
Shashikala A1,3; B.P.Harini2; K.Renukadevi1 And M.S.Reddy1
1, 3
Centre for Apiculture Studies, Department of Zoology, Bangalore University,
Bengaluru-560056, India
2
Department of Zoology, Bangalore University, Bengaluru-560056, India
3
Maharani Lakshmi Ammanni College, Malleswaram, Bengaluru-560053, India
E-mail : shashi_4014@rediffmail.com
INTRODUCTION
Bees have been in existence for over 100 million years, and have become a perennial
species that can exploit virtually all habitats in the world. This evolutionary success is due to
their sophisticated social organization, but it is due also to the remarkable properties of the
bee products. Honeybees produce high quality foods, building materials and unprecedented
chemical weapons. Propolis is one of the most fascinating bee product, both building material
and defensive substance. Bees make use of the mechanical properties of this resinous
substance by applying it for blocking holes and cracks, repairing combs, strengthening the
thin borders of the comb. On the other hand, they make use of its biological action: bee glue
contains the putrefaction of “embalmed” intruders, killed in the hive and too large to be
carried out, and it is responsible for the lower incidence of microorganisms within the hive
than in the atmosphere outside [1]. The action against infections is an essential characteristic
of propolis and this fact has been recognized and used by humans since ancient times.
Modern science focused on propolis after the 1960’s, inspired by the general interest in
natural products. In the last 50 years, numerous studies have revealed versatile biological
activities of propolis: antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, cytotoxic, antioxidant, anti-
inflammatory, immunomodulatory among others [2-4]. Chemical studies were also
performed, including studies on the essential oils and volatiles of propolis. It turned out that
propolis composition is complex and very much variable in different regions[5]. Meanwhile,
commercial interest to propolis is growing continuously, it is used as a component of food
additives, cosmetics and over-the-counter preparations.
Propolis is a bee product of plant origin, thus at different geographic locations the
source plants might vary with respect to the local flora. To produce propolis, bees collect
vegetable material and mix it with wax. It is now generally accepted that bees collect resinous
plant materials, produced by a variety of botanical processes, in different parts of plants:
lipophilic materials on leaves and leaf buds, mucilages, gums, resins, latices, etc. [6]. In some
cases, bees also may cut fragments of vegetative tissues to release the substances used in

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propolis production [7]. Of course, the specificity of the flora at the site of collection
determines the chemical composition of propolis, including volatile compounds. In different
ecosystems, bees collect propolis from different source plants, choosing appropriate
representatives of the local flora. Thus, the term “propolis” does not have any specific
chemical connotation unlike the scientific name of a plant species. Propolis contains
secondary plant metabolites, including volatiles, but they are produced by different plant
species and are not the same all over the world. In this overview we are going to focus on the
volatiles of different propolis types according to their plant origin.
Chemical Composition
Propolis is a complex resinous mixture which contains approximately 50% of resin

and balsam, 30% of wax, 10% of essential and aromatic oils, 5% of pollen, and 5% of
impurities [9]. The chemical composition of propolis is highly variable mainly due to the
variability of plant species growing around the hive, from which the bees collect the exudates
[8,10–13]. Additionally, propolis composition can vary depending on the seasonality,
illumination, altitude, collector type, and food availability and activity developed during
propolis exploitation [14-17].
Propolis obtained from honeybee hives has been widely used in medicine, cosmetics,
and industry due to its versatile biological activities (antioxidant, antimicrobial, fungicidal,
antiviral, antiulcer, immunostimulating, and cytostatic). These activities are mainly attributed
to the presence of flavonoids in propolis, which points out the interest in quantifying these
constituents in propolis preparations, as well as validation of analytical methodologies.
High‐performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) methods have been reported to quantify
isolated flavonoids or these compounds in complex biological matrices, such as herbal raw
materials and extractive preparations. An efficient, precise, and reliable method was
developed for quantification of propolis extractive solution using HPLC with UV detection.
MATERIALS AND METHOD
Collection of the Sample: Twelve Samples of propolis produced by Apis mellifera, Apis
cerana and Stingless bee species were obtained from Apiry centers situated on four different
locations in Karnataka .The collected propolis samples were kept desiccated in the dark until
analysis.
Preparation of Extract: 10gms plant powder was extracted with 50ml methanol at 50oC for
4 hours. The methanolic extracts were filtered through Whatmann No. 1 filter paper and
filtrate was evaporated to dryness. Methanolic extract (10mg/ml) was used for HPLC
analysis.
Statistical Analysis: The values corresponding each parameter were obtained using three
observations. Further Analysis of Variance technique was employed to test the SD difference
in the parameters studied (F- test) measured at 5% level of significance

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RESULT
The extracts were analysed for various parameters like physical characteristics, total
flavonoids content and quantification of flavonoids by HPLC
Physical characteristic
Physical nature like texture and colour was observed as shown in Table 1
Total Flavonoid Contents

Total flavonoid contents were determined by the aluminum chloride method. Calibration
curves were made using quercetin (aluminium chloride method) as reference . Analyses were
performed in triplicates. The flavonoids content is shown in Table 1.
HPLC Analysis
The HPLC analysis was performed on a Shimadzu LC-20AT liquid chromatograph, equipped
with an on-line degasser, a prominence UV detector (SPD-20A), a binary pump, a column
compartment, and an automatic injection system. All the data were processed using Shimadzu
LC Solution Empower Software.Chromatographic separation was carried out on a Shimadzu
Shim-pack VP-ODS C18 column (250 mm x 4.6 mm, 5μm) was used under 40 °C and
protected by a pre-column Restek C18®(10 mm × 4 mm, 5 mm). The standards and samples
were eluted using a gradient mobile phase consisting of phosphoric acid: water 0.02% (pH
2.5) (A) and acetonitrile (B). The gradient conditions were: 0-5 min 85% A, 5-30 min 70% A,
30-32 min 80% A, 32-35 min 85% A, followed by wash up with 100% of B for 15 min. The
flow was 0.6 ml/min and injection volume of 5ul/10mg .
The computer program Excel (Microsoft®) was used to adjust the regression curve and
calculate the corresponding determination coefficient. All samples and standards were
filtered through membranes with porosity of 0.22μm and injected in triplicate for all three
samples.

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Table 1: Physical characteristics and flavonoid concentration in raw propolis sample

from Karnataka
Total Flavonoids
Sample Texture Color
Mg/ml
Apis Mellifera Waxy Brown 3.4

Stingless bees Solid Dark Brown 1.4
Apis Mellifera Waxy Black 2.32

Stingless bees Solid Yellowish Brown 1.2
Apis cerana Flakes Brown 0.73
Apis Mellifera Gummy Greenish Brown 2.61
Stingless bees Solid Brown 1.8
Stingless bees Solid Yellowish Brown 2.0
Apis mellifera Waxy Dark brown 3.3
Apis Cerana Thin flakes Light brown 0.61
Apis cerana Thin flakes Light brown 0.32
Apis cerana Solid flakes Brown 1.1
Table 2: HPLC Analysis of Flavonoids
Sample Caffeic P.Coumaric Ferulic Epicatechin Quercetin Gallic

acid µg/g acid µg/g acid µg/g µg/g µg/g acid
µg/g
Apis 0.0042 0.22245 - 0.0049 6.805 0.06
Mellifera
Apis 0.0004 - - 0.0025 0.013 -
Cerana
Stingless 0.012 0.0052 - 0.0028 0.97 0.001
bee
F-test 19.45* 190.54* - 14.49* 110.04* 26.11*
SEm± 0.001 0.0004 - 0.004 0.035 0.008
CD at 5% 0.002 0.001 - 0.010 0.086 0.022
*Significant at 5% level

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Figure 1: HPLC chromatogram of Caffeic acid, P-coumaric acid and Ferulic acid.
Figure 2: HPLC chromatogram of S1 plant extract
Figure 3:HPLC chromatogram of S2 plant extract

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Figure 4 :HPLC chromatogram of S3 plant extract
Figure 5 :HPLC chromatogram of Epicatechin
Figure 6 : HPLC chromatogram of S1 extract

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Figure 7 : HPLC chromatogram of S2 plant extract.
Figure 8 : HPLC chromatogram of S3 extract.
Figure 9: HPLC chromatogram of Quercetin and Gallic acid.

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Figure 10:HPLC chromatogram of S1 plant extract
Figure 11: HPLC chromatogram of S2 plant extract.
Figure 12: HPLC chromatogram of S3 plant extract.

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DISCUSSION:
Propolis samples contain almost five important bioactive compounds which are considered to
be the potential source for cancer therapy.
Apis mellifera showed high concentration of all the compounds, while Apis cerana had the
least concentration and stingless bees had moderate amount. The difference in concentration
is due to geographical location of the hive and the different plant source and also the
behaviour of the bee species. Although there is a variation in the concentration of flavonoids
in different samples, all samples showed the presence of bioactive compounds irrespective of
the location.The compounds present were Caffeic acid, p-Coumaric acid, Epicatechin
Quercetin and Gallic acid. Ferulic acid was absent in all the samples
Literature survey reveals that the bioactive compounds present were a good source for the
treatment of cancer.
Caffeic acid is thought to have many effects in the body including antioxidant and anti-
inflammatory effects. Test tube studies show that it might decrease the growth of cancer cell
and viruses[17]. p-Coumaric acid has antioxidant properties and is believed to reduce the risk
of stomach cancer by reducing the formation of carcinogenic nitrosamines[18] p-Coumaric
acid in honey also demonstrate in vitro anti-inflammatory activity[19] Ferulic acid, like many
natural phenols, is an antioxidant in vitro in the sense that it is reactive toward free radicals
such as reactive oxygen species (ROS). Animal studies and in vitro studies suggest that
ferulic acid may have direct antitumor activity against breast cancer [2] and liver
cancer[3].Ferulic acid may be effective at preventing cancer.[20] Epicatechin is a strong
antioxidant, has insulin mimic action and improves heart health. Quercetin supplements have
been promoted for prevention and treatment of cancer,.Quercetin plays an important part in
fighting free radical damage, the effects of aging and inflammation[22]. Gallic acid acts as an
antioxidant and helps to protect the cells against oxidative damage. Gallic acid was found to
show cytotoxicity against cancer cells, without harming healthy cells[23].
CONCLUSION:
Our results showed varied concentrations of flavonoids. Significant differences in the
concentration of flavonoids between localities and differences in specific groups of
flavonoids will affect biological activities. Nevertheless, each sample contained significant
amounts of at least four of the biologically active compounds tested, which confirms that
propolis remains a valuable source of antitumor compounds irrespective of their location.
Future Scope: Potential compound for antitumor activity can be isolated and used by the
Pharamaceutical Industry as a promising drug for Cancer.

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2. Burdock GA. Review of the biological properties and toxicity of bee propolis
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“Antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral activity of propolis of different geographic
origin,” Journal of Ethnopharmacology, vol. 64, no. 3, pp. 235–240, 1999.
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various geographic origins,” Food Chemistry, vol. 84, no. 3, pp. 329–339, 2004.
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15. J. M. Sforcin, E. L. Novelli, and S. R. C. Funari, “Seasonal effect of Brazilian
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Including Tropical Diseases, vol. 8, pp. 244–254, 2000.
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Ethnopharmacology, vol. 99, no. 1, pp. 69–73, 2005.
17. Lee KW, Kang NJ, Kim JH, Lee KM, Lee DE, Hur HJ, Lee HJ. Caffeic acid
phenethyl ester inhibits invasion and expression of matrix metalloproteinase in SK-
Hep1 human hepatocellular carcinoma cells by targeting nuclear factor kappaB.
Genes Nutr. 2008;2:319–322.

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18. .Lachumy S. J., Oon C. E., Deivanai S., et al. Herbal remedies for combating
irradiation: a green anti-irradiation approach. Asian Pac J Cancer Prev. 2013; 14:
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19. Lao Y., Wan G., Liu Z., et al. The natural compound oblongifolin C inhibits
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Mahmood T, Ali L. Acacia Nilotica: a plant of multipurpose medicinal uses. J Med
Plant Res. 2012;6:1492–6

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Paper- 14
A REPORT ON THE SPECIES AND NUMBERS OF URBAN WILDLIFE

REHABILITATED AT WRRC, BANNERGHATTA DURING THE
YEAR 2015-16 AND THEIR CAUSES
Roopa Satish, Veterinarian, Bannerghatta Rehabilitation Centre (BRC)
Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre (WRRC)
INTRODUCTION
Urban Wildlife which includes Mammals, Birds and reptiles are thriving well in and around
Bangalore city which maybe attributed to a number of reasons including
1. Good green cover in form of large parks in centre of city like Cubbon park, Lal bagh and
Protected forest reserves and national parks in the outskirts like Bannerghatta National
Park, Bannerghatta Biological Park, Turahalli forest.
2. Parks and Trees lining roads in well planned residential layouts like Koramangala,
Jayanagar, Indiranagar.
3. Large governmental organizations with sprawling green campuses like Raman Research
Institute, Indian Institute of Science, DRDO, ISRO, NAL, MEG Centre, ASC Centre.
4. Plenty of water bodies all over the city.
5. Aware sensitive public.
BRC, WRRC situated inside Bannerghatta Biological park is a rehabilitation centre meant
exclusively for the rescue, care and treatment with eventual rehabilitation of urban wildlife
back into the wild. The centre was set up by an NGO WRRC in collaboration with the
Karnataka forest department and deals with all manner of urban wildlife cases from small
mammals, birds, reptiles rarely insects and amphibians also.
We routinely rehabilitate important schedule I species of mammals like Slender Loris, Asian
Palm Civet cat, Jungle cat, bird species like Indian Peafowl, Brahminy kite, and reptiles like
Indian Tent turtle, Indian Rock Python, Bengal monitor lizard as well as least protected
Schedule V species like House Crow and Giant Indian Fruit bat.
The duration between April 2015 to April 2016 saw the following cases and numbers of
urban wildlife rescued and rehabilitated at BRC,WRRC.
Mammals
Sl.No Species Schedule Admitted Released Death In

stock
1. Bonnet Macaque (Macaca II 30 12 08 10
nduse)
2. Slender Loris (Loris I 01 01 - -
tardigrades)

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3. Common Langur (Presbytis II 01 01 - -

entellus)
4. Asian Palm Civet cat II 01 - 01 -
(Paradoxurus
hermaphrodites)
5. Indian Hare (Lepus IV 01 01 - -
nigricollis)
6. Three lined Palm Squirrel V 12 12 - -
(Funambulus palmaram)
7. Giant Indian Fruit Bat V 01 01 - -
(Pterocarpus giganteus)
8. Short Nosed Fruit Bat V 02 02 - -
(Cynopterus brachyotis)
Total 49 30 09 10
Birds
Sl. Species Schedule Admitted Released Death In

No stock
1. Black kite (Milvus migrans IV 133 110 - 23
govinda)
2. Rose ring Parakeet (Psittacula IV 90 28 - 62
krameri)
3. Alexandrine Parakeet IV 32 07 14 11
(Psittacula eupatria)
4. Barn Owl (Tylo alba) IV 12 07 - 05
5. Asian Koel (Eudynamys IV 05 04 01 -
scolopacea)
6. White Cheeked Barbet IV 05 04 01 -
(Megalaima viridis)
7. Brahminy Kite (Halisatur I 02 01 - 01
ndus)
8. Large Billed Crow (Corvus V 02 02 - -
macrorhynchus)
9. House Crow (Corvus V 02 02 - -
splendens)
10. Brown Fish Owl (Bubo IV 01 - 01 -
zeylonensis)
11. Oriental Scops Owl (Otus IV 01 - - 01
sunis)
12. Spotted Owlet (Athene brama) IV 01 01 - -
13. Peregrin Falcon (Peregrinus I 01 - - 01

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falconi)
14 Shikra (Accipiter badius) IV 01 01 - -
15 Night Heron (Nycticorax IV 01 01 - -
nycticorax)
16. Indian Pond Heron (Ardeola IV 01 01 - -
grayii)
17. Indian Peafowl (Pavo I 01 - - 01
cristatus)
Total 291 169 17 105
Reptiles
Sl.No Species Schedule Admitted Released Death In

stock
1. Indian Spectacled Cobra II 19 13 3 3
(Naja naja)
2. Indian Star Tortoise IV 10 10 - -
(Geochelone elegans)
3. Indian Pond Terrapin IV 6 4 2 -
(Melanochelys trijuga)
4. Red Earth Boa (Eryx johnii) IV 05 05 - -
5. Indian Rat Snake (Ptyas II 04 04 - -
mucosus)
6. Large Bengal Monitor Lizard I 04 - - 04
(Varanus bengalensis)
7. Russel`s Viper (Daboia II 03 03 - -
ruselli)
8. Indian Flap shell Turtle I 03 03 - -
(Lissemys punctata)
9. Indian Rock Python (Python I 01 01 - -
molurus)
10. Checkered Keelback II 01 01 - -
(Xenochrophis piscator)
11. Stripped Keelback IV 01 01 - -
(Amphiesma stolatum)
12. Common Green Vine snake IV 01 01 - -
(Ahaetulla nasuta)
Total 58 46 5 7

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Cause of Capture of Urban Wildlife
1. Intentional injuries inflicted by humans- Usually snakes are subjected to brutal

injuries done using metallic objects in order to kill the snake found in premises
(homes, gardens, farms, garage) due to fear as they are perceived as a threat.
Spectacled cobra 06 cases, Russel`s viper- 01 case, Rat snake- 03 cases, Indian Rock
Python- 01 case.
2. Vehicular injuries- being runover by vehicles either accidentally or in most cases
intentionally while animal is trying to cross the road. Snakes routinely bask on the
warm surface of roads especially in the early morning hour which is when they are
run over by vehicles. Spectacled Cobra- 03 cases, Short nosed fruit bat- 01, Black
kite- 02 cases, Bonnet macaques- 01 case.
3. Poisoning due to consumption of poisoned and/or polluted food & water- water birds
and rodent eating birds are especially found to succumb as pollution in water bodies
affects the fish which in term are consumed by fish eating birds like herons,
cormorants and pelicans. The smaller sized birds die while the larger adult birds suffer
serious digestive disturbances. Poisoned rodents pose a serious threat to Barn owls
which will innocently consume a poisoned and confused rodent which comes out into
the open before dying. Barn owls- 08 cases, Black kite- 4 cases, Brown fish owl- 01
case, Night heron -01 case.
4. Pet trade- involving several species of local wildlife is an industry thriving well in
spite of the Wildlife Protection Act due to the loophole where Exotic wild animals
may be traded. The unscrupulous pet traders confuse the uninformed Police and get
away with the illegal trade.
Alexandrine Parakeets are popular pets at homes as ignorant people believe they can
“talk”, 32 cases received at our centre.
Bonnet Macaques are very popular pets especially in rural areas, where young
orphans may be reared at home – 06 cases. Once they attain puberty, the pets’
behaviour is unacceptable as they may become unpredictable and aggressive at which
point they are given up to centres like ours. We then have a difficult task of slowly
distancing the pet from human interaction and integrating into Macaque society and
learn macaque etiquettes.
Three lined Palm Squirrel- 01 case. Rescued and hand reared till maturity. At which
point a soft release was done in the forest.
5. Local beliefs and Practices- many local beliefs involve use of wild animals as they are
believed to be magical or having powers.
a. Black magic rituals involve use of Slender loris (01 case) and Barn Owl (01 case).
The nature of lesions on the animal is highly suggestive of this but there is no way to confirm
unless investigated by the police.
b. Rose ring Parakeets (64 cases) are kept by fortune tellers in small cages with their
wing and tail feathers clipped and mutilated badly. Such feathers take upto 6-9 months to
grow back if and only if the root of feather is not damaged. This is a slow rehabilitation
process and hence our main in patients are these birds.

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c. Display items- Vaastu and other local beliefs use chelonians as display items at homes
to ward off the evil eye and bring in good luck. Star tortoises (09 cases), Pond Terrapins (05
cases) and Indian Flapshell turtles (01 case) are the usual victims. They are fed wrong foods
and kept in badly designed indoor enclosures causing serious digestive and metabolic
disturbances’ in the animal.
Red Earth Boa also called ‘Two headed snake’ is mutilated at its tail end to
resemble a face and displayed at local fairs for entertainment. Also considered a
good luck charm and displayed at homes. They are sold based on body weights, so
metal ball bearings are forced down the hapless boas’ throat just before sale to
increase weight. The throat lining is usually ruptured and the snake dies a painful
death in a couple of days. We received 05 cases of confiscated boas.
d. Decoration- Peafowl feathers are plucked for decoration which not
only traumatises the bird but also makes it incapable of flying. They are then
chased and attacked by dogs. Peafowl with dog bite case- 01.
e. Medicine or meat purpose- Large Bengal monitor lizards are used for their meat and
fat in local medicine. Kept bound confined and starving for months before sale is made, these
lizards suffer silently and die of starvation unless recued.04 cases were recued and recovering
at present at our centre.
6. Electrocution injuries- are very common as many birds use electric wires as perches
and macaques use wires to cross the roads in absence of trees. These are mostly fatal injuries
but few have slight shocks which make them handicap as one or more limbs are burnt off.
Bonnet macaque- 03 cases, Shikra- 01 case, Asian Koel- 01 case, Giant Indian Fruit Bat- 01
case, Black kite- 03 cases.
7. Construction related injuries- earth movers used to excavate for the rampant
construction activities often go through reptiles deep inside the ground causing grievous
injuries. Spectacled Cobra- 02 cases, Russel`s viper- 01 case.
8. Chinese Manja injuries- The hobby of kite flying especially using thread coated with
glass shards (chinese manja) has plenty of innocent bird victims. While in flight the birds
wings get caught and entangled in the glass coated thread . It leads to severe tears, fractures
and even death of a large number of Black kites (29 cases)and Brahminy kites (01 case) and
Barn owl (01 case).
9. Dog bite cases- Dogs which are also thriving well in our cities do contribute to a large
number of conflict cases involving urban wildlife. Bonnets macaques caught unawares on the
ground are easy target and are viciously and fatally attacked by dogs (02 cases of Bonnet
macaques). Snakes also are targeted especially spectacled cobras which don’t quickly slither
away but stand their ground by hooding and hissing. Fast clever dogs attack from the rear in
packs causing severe spinal injuries and multiple fatal bites. In many cases dogs also die such
encounters. 02 cases of Spectacled cobra.
10. Pellet gun shot injuries- locals shoot birds with country pellet guns for sport and food.
01 Pond heron and 01 Black kite with pellet wounds.
11. Glue traps- special traps set up by local hunters. Some meat with glue is placed on
trees to trap wildlife like birds. Snakes also get trapped with glue all over body. Unable to fly

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or move the animal struggles to exhaustion. Spectacled Cobra- 02 cases, Crow- 01 case, Rat
snake- 01 case.
12. Head injury due to flying into stationary transparent surface like glass- white cheeked
Barbet 01 case, Asian koel- 01 case.
13. Fish hook injury- Fishing in water bodies has other innocent victims like turtles. 02
Flap shell turtles were recued while ingesting the fish hook with bait. They were operated to
remove metal fish hook lodged in their throat and released inside a protected forest water
body.
14. Natural causes of capture
a. Dehydration- in summer due to acute heat and shortage of water, many animals
succumb to dehydration and are brought to our centre. Immediate parentral dehydration helps
most of the cases to get back to the wild. Black kite 18 cases in March 2016.
b. Rescued safely from human premises and rehabilitated in a safe area- Spectacled
Cobra- 02 case, Stripped Keelback-01 case, Russel`s viper- 01 case.
c. Rescued while showing normal migratory behaviour- Several adult chelonians move
from one water body to another in search of mate. 01 Pond terrapin and 01 Star tortoise
rescued from busy roads by the side of water bodies.
d. Orphaned young or poor flight in fledglings practising flight- we hand rear several
species of orphaned mammals and chicks as well as fledglings which have fallen off the nest
either due to bad weather, tree chopping, some internal problems or death of parents. White
cheeked Barbet-01, Asian Koel- 02, House crow- 02, Black kite- 03, Short nosed fruit bat-
01, Barn owl- 03, Scops owl- 01, Squirrel- 07, Bonnet macaque- 03.
e. Infectious causes- Large Billed Crow- 01 case, Black kite 01 case of bacterial
infection which responded well to treatment and were released.
f. Trapped by accident inside aviary in zoo- one Brahminy kite was trapped and
successfully rescued from inside an aviary in the zoo.
Among the numerous cases of urban wildlife, many of them are safely and successfully
rehabilitated back from where they were rescued. Whenever the area of recue is found to be
too commercial or densely populated the wildlife is released in a suitable protected forest
area.
Urban wildlife not only helps to make our urban setting more beautiful and varied but does
great silent service in form of pest control like rodents, mosquitoes, insects, garbage
clearance and pollination. Therefore it is imperative for us to become aware of our fellow
wildlife denizens, protect and preserve the green open spaces and water bodies in our city for
the benefit of not only urban humans but also urban wildlife.

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REFERENCES
1. Avian Medicine, Edited By Jamie Samour. Mosby, Harcourt Publishers,

London, 2000.
2. Reptile Medicine and Surgery, II edition, Edited by Douglas R Madder.
Elsevier Publishing, Missouri, 1996.
3. Exotic Animal Formulary, Edited By James W Carpenter, Ted Y Mashima,
David J Rupiper. WB Saunders Company, Philadelphia, 2001.
4. The Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, Professional Book Publishers, Wildlife
Protection Society India, 2009.
5. India`s Forests, Forestry and Wildlife, II edition, S.S Negi. Indus Publishing
Company, Delhi, 2006.
6. Infectious Diseases Of Wild Mammals, III edition, Edited By Elizabeth S
Williams and Ian K Barker, Blackwell Publishing, Iowa, 2001.
7. Behavioral Ecology and Conservation Biology, Edited By Tim Caro, Oxford
University Press, New York, 1998.
8. Practical Wildlife Care, II Edition, Les Stocker, Blackwell Publishing, USA,
2005.
9. A Photographic Guide to the Birds of India, Grewal, Harvey, Pfisher. Periplus
Editions, Hongkong, 2002.
10. The Book of Indian Reptiles and Amphibians, J. C Daniel, Oxford University
Press, 2002.
11. Snakes of India The Field Guide, Romulus Whitaker and Ashok Captain,
Draco Books, Chennai, 2008.

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Paper-15
NEST DIVERSITY AND NEST CHARACTERISTICS OF STINGLESS

BEE Tetragonula SPECIES IN BANGALORE
B.Manjunatha, Renuka Devi. K and M.S.Reddy
Center for Apiculture Studies,Department of Zoology

Bangalore University, Bangalore-560056, Karnataka, India.
E-mail: manjunatha.b01@gmail.com
INTRODUCTION
Stingless bee beekeeping is known as meliponiculture. This activity, which is generally

undertaken by traditional communities, has local characteristics according to regional and
traditional knowledge. In India, interest in production and marketing of Indian honey is
expanding. Although the total annual honey production in India is currently small (i.e., with
probably less than 50kg), there is potential for rapid growth. In Asia, stingless bee
beekeeping for pollination purpose is only beginning to take root in southern Asia, India and
in SE Asia. Stingless bee farmers in the state of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala,
commercialize three types of stingless bee products, namely honey, bee bread and propolis.
At the moment, however, the stingless bee species of economic value and its external nest
characteristics in India remain unexplored. Hence, this paper explores the subject matter
mentioned and provides measurements of the extracted tree trunks from the forest with
stingless bee colony in it.
Sampling was done at a bee farm located in the state of Bangalore, Karnataka (06°07’N,
102°19’E). Measurements of the height of tree trunks, height of the entrance tube from
bottom, size and shape of the entrance tube were documented. In this study, five to ten
specimens of stingless bees were caught in individual plastic bag [25.5cm] (h) x 18.1cm (w)]
for each colony and they were brought back to Biology Laboratory, Bangalore University,
Bangalore. At the laboratory, the bee specimens were killed using chloroform, pinned and
oven dried at 35°C overnight. Once preserved, the specimens were identified with the
taxonomy keys provided by Schwatz (1939), Sakagami et al. (1990) and taxonomic revisions
by Rasmussen (2008).

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A total of 84 colonies of stingless bees were measured and documented (Fig.1). Five
species of stingless bee and an unidentified species were collected during the sampling. The
five species T.clypearis, T.iridipennis, T.hockings, T.mellipes, T.sapiens. In particular,
T.clypearis were highly preferred by bee farmers and this species contributed 66.6% of the
total colonies in the farm, followed by T.iridipennis (19.0%) (Table 1). The two species
contributed 66.6% of the total stingless bee species in the farm. Stingless bees could be found
throughout the world with more than 500 species estimated (Heard, 1988; Ruttner, 1988). In
India, the number of stingless bee species varies between 17 to 32 species depending on the
study areas (Norowi, 2010; Salim, et al., 2012; Schwarz, 1939). However, within the diverse
species in India, only two species were highly sought after by bee farmers for meliponiculture
purposes.
TABLE 1 Diversity of stingless bees in the farm
Species Colonies
(n) (%)
Tetragonula clypearis 56(66.6)
Tetragonula iridipennis 16(19.0)
Tetragonula hockings 6(7.0)
Tetragonula mellipes 1 (1.7)
Tetragonula sapiens 3 (3.5)
Unidentified 2(2.2)
Total 84 (100)
Bee farmers extracted wild colonies nesting in the tree trunks before they transferred the
colony into a bee box and subsequently sold. Each species of the stingless bees has specific
nest requirements according to their sizes, population and habitat quality (Fonseca, 2012).
Thus, the tree trunks represent the preferences of the species towards specific nesting site. It
was recorded that T. clypearis and T.iridipennis preferred tree trunk circumferences ranging
from 82 cm to 129 cm, whereas T.hockings and T.mellipes preferred tree trunk
circumferences ranging between 71 cm and to 164 cm (Table 2). Majority of the tree trunks
are of tamarind trees with a few forest hardwood trees. Extraction of the wild colonies
requires experience and a good estimation of the location of the brood within the tree trunks
to avoid damages to the brood. To avoid damages to the brood during extraction, data on nest
entrance and height of tree trunk from this study could be used as a reference point to cut or
fell the tree trunk (Table 2). In this study, the nest entrance of the stingless bee was
found to be different according to the genus (Fig.2). The functions of the nest entrances are
related to defense, foraging (Biesmeijer et al., 2005) and physio-chemical regulation (Roubik,
2006). The narrow tube can be closed with resin or cerumen or externally coated with

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droplets of fresh resin where invaders like ants may be halted (Wittmann, 1989; Camargo,
1984). Among the five species, T.clypearis was found to form mount-shape entrance with the
widest entrance compared to all other species. However, the structure of the nest entrance or
the thickness of the resin enclosing the internal nest are influenced by the age of nest, bee
genetics and micro environment including predators, parasites, symbionts, rain, wind and sun
(Roubik, 2006).
TABLE 2 External nest characteristics of stingless bees by species
Mean ± s.d (cm)

Species Height of tree Circumference of Circumference of Height of
the entrance
trunk the tree trunk tree trunk (bottom) from bottom
(top)
T. clypearis 108.7±43.7 105.3±23.7 111.6±17.5 54.7±29.8
T. 86.2±20.2 96.3±24.9 100.4±27.1 45.8±21.1
iridipennis
T. hockings 102.3±22.1 108.5±34.4 125±39.3 44.8±34.6
T. mellipes 45 69 110 45
T/.sapiens 70.3±42.2 84.3±1.52 101.7±18.9 37.7±37.8
CONCLUSION
From this study, five species of stingless bees and two unidentified bee species were sampled.
The species were T.clypearis, T.iridipennis, T.hockings, T.mellipes, T.sapiens.
Meliponiculture in Bangalore, India is limited to two species of stingless bees, namely
T.clypearis and T.iridipennis. Although the extraction of wild is not sustainable in the long
term, it is the authors’ hope that in the future, colony propagation will be a good alternative
with the expansion of the knowledge and research on the biology of stingless bees.
REFERENCES
1. Biesmeijer, J . C . , Giurfa, M . , Koedam, D., Potts, S. G., Joel, D. M., & Dafni, A.
2. (2005). Convergent evolution: floral guides, stingless bee nest entrances, and
insectivorous pitchers. Naturwissenschaften, 92, 444-450.
3. Camargo, J. M. F. (1984). Notas sobre habitos de nidificação de Scaura (Scaura)

latitarsis (Friese) (Hymenoptera, Apidae, Meliponinae). Boletim do Museu Paraense
Emílio Goeldi, 1, 89–95.

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4. Cortopassi-Laurino, M., Imperatriz-Fonseca, V. L., Roubik, D. W., Dollin, A., Heard,

T., Aguilar, I. B., Venturieri, G. C., Eardley, C., & Neto, P. N. (2006). Global
Meliponiculture: challenges and opportunities. Apidologie, 37, 1-18.
5. Fonseca, V. L. I. (2012). Best management practices in agriculture for sustainable

use and conservation of pollinators. Retrieved from
http://www.internationalpollinatorsinitiative.org/ uploads/6-010.pdf
6. Heard, A. E. (1988). Propagation of hives of Trigona carbonaria Smith

(Hymenoptera: Apidae).Journal of the Australian Entomological Society,27, 303-304.
7. Norowi, M. H. (2010). Conservation and sustainable utilization of stingless bees for

pollination services in agricultural ecosystems in Malaysia.Retrieved from
http://www.niaes.affrc.go.jp/ sinfo/sympo/h22/1109/paper_04.pdf
8. Rasmussen, C. (2008). Catalog of the Indo-Malayan/Australasian stingless bees

(Hymenoptera:Apidae: Meliponini). Zootaxa, 1–80.
9. Ruttner, F. (1988). Biography and taxonomy of honey bees. Berlin: Springer-

Verlag.Roubik, D. W. (2006). Stingless bee nesting biology.Apidologie, 37, 124-143.
10. Salim, H. M. W., Dzulkiply, A. D., Harrison, R. D., Fletcher, C., Kassim, A. R., &
Potts, M. D. (2012). Stingless bee (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Meliponinae) diversity in
dipterocarp forest reserves in Peninsular Malaysia. The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology,
60(1), 213-219.
11. Sakagami, S. F., Ohgushi, R. I., & Roubik, D. W. (1990). Natural history of social
wasps and bees in equatorial Sumatra: Hokkaido University Press.
12. Schwarz, H. F. (1939). The Indo-Malayan species of Trigona. Bulletin of the

American Museum Natural History, LXXVI, 83-141.
13. Wille, A., & Michener, C. D. (1973). The nest architecture of stingless bees with
special reference to those of Costa Rica. Revista de biologia tropical, 21, 1-278.
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Plebeia wittmanni (Moure and Camargo, 1989) in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil (Apidae:
Meliponinae). Studies on Neotropical Fauna and Environment, 24, 17–23.

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Paper-16
BEE FLORA AND FLORAL CALENDAR OF BUMBLE BEES

IN BENGALURU AND ITS ENVIRONS
Renukadevi .K1., A. Shashikala1,2, B.P.Harini3 and M.S.Reddy1
1, 2
Centre for Apiculture Studies, Department of Zoology, Bangalore University,
Bengaluru-560056, Indiae-mail: renukaraj2k9@gmail.com jenureddy@gmail.com
2
Department of Zoology, Maharani Lakshmi Ammanni College of Science,
Malleswaram, Bengaluru-560053, India E-mail: shashi_4014@rediffmail.com
3
Department of Zoology, Bangalore University, Bengaluru-560056, India
E-mail: bpharini@yahoo.co.in
INTRODUCTION
The present investigation was conducted to study the diversity of nectariferous and
polleniferous bee flora and to develop a floral calendar for Bumble bees of Bengaluru and its
environs. The Bumble bees visiting flowering plants were observed and its foraging activities
has been documented during 2015-16. Plants were scored as bee foraging species when at
least three Bumblebees hadvisited to the flowers withinthe period of 10 minutes.The
identified bee flora comprises visited by worker bees of different plant groups viz.,
vegetablecrops, fruit crops, field crops, plantation, flower and ornamentalplantsetcHoney
bees are highly evolved social insects gaining greater importance as efficient pollinators in
thepresent times. Honeybees are social insects with which man has established a
harmoniouscoexistence. . When foraging for nectar, they prefer flowers with characteristics
suited to their biology.Bumble bees are important pollinators of crops and native plants. Most
of them are excellent polinators of a wide variety of crops.. Bumble bees are known
important pollinators in their natural habitats
The identified flora was identified and further grouped into pollen, nectar and both pollen
and nectar yielding plants out of 55 crops, nectar (12), pollen (11), both pollen and nectar
(32) and out of 61 crops, nectar (11), pollen (13), both pollen and nectar (37) yielding plants
in Bengaluru and its surrounding areas.Mid-December to February and mid-July to
September were identified as honey flow periods and mid -April to mid- June were the
critical dearth periods during the year.Based on the availability, utility status and flowering
duration of flora, floral calendar was developed for the study area.Some of the common and
important bee forage plantsare, the species ofSyzygium, Cassia, Citrus, Pongamia,
Azadirachta, Brassica, Areca, Cocos, Guizotia, Hilianthus, Albezia, Lagerstroemia,
Polinathus, Sapindus, Tecoma etc

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RESULTS
Table:1 Nectariferous / polleniferous bee flora and floral calendar in fruit crops at
Bengaluru district
Common name Botanical name Family Flowering period Source

Oct – Jan,
Citrus Citrus limon Rutaceae N2P1
July – Sep.
Mango Mangifera indica Anacardiaceae Dec- Jan N2
Ber Ziziphus jujuba Rhamnaceae July – Oct. N2P2
Custard apple Annona squamosa Annonaceae Aug – Oct. N1P2
Papaya Carica papaya Caricaceae May-June N2P1
Caronda (Kavale) Carissa carandas Apocynaceae Mar-Apr P2N2
Water melon Citrullus lanatus Cucurbitaceae Sep-Oct P1
Banana Musa sp. Musaceae Jan-Dec P2N2
Guava Psidium guajava Myrtaceae Mar-Jun P2N1
Rose apple Syzygium jambos Myrtaceae Mar-Jun P2N1
Sapota Manilkara zapota Sapotaceae Mar-Jun P1N1
Amla Phyllanthus emblica Phyllanthaceae April-may N1P2
Fig Ficus carica Moraceae March-april, sept- oct N1P1
Table 2 Nectariferous / polleniferous bee flora and floral calendar in vegetable
crops at Bengaluru district

Jan to March, June to
Brinjal Solanum melongena Solanaceae P2
July.
Lycopercicon
Tomato Solanaceae Jul-Sep P1
esculentum
Chilli Capsicum sp. Solanaceae Jul-Feb P2
Abelmoschus
Bhendi Malvaceae Aug – Nov P1N2
esculentus
Beans Phaseolus vulgaris Fabaceae Dec-Feb N2
Bottle gourd Lagenaria siceraria Cucurbitaceae Oct – Feb. N2P2
Cucumber Cucumis sativus Cucurbitaceae Aug – Oct. P1
Musk melon Cucumis melo Cucurbitaceae March – May. P1
Pumpkin Cucurbita pepo Cucurbitaceae Aug – Oct. N2P2
Water melon Citrullus lanatus Cucurbitaceae July – Aug. P1
Onion Allium cepa Liliaceae Jun– Aug. P1N2
Drumstick Moringa oleifera Moringaceae Nov – Feb. N1P2

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Ridge gourd Luffa acutangula Cucurbitaceae, July – Oct. N1P1

Mung bean Vigna radiata Fabaceae Aug – Sep. N2
Pea Pisum sativum Fabaceae Aug- Sep. N1P1
Cyamopsis
Cluster bean Leguminosae Jun - Aug. N2
tetragonolobus
Rajgiri/
Amaranthus gracilus Amaranthaceae Feb-Mar P1
Amaranthus
Bitter gourd Momordica charantia Cucurbitaceae Aug-Oct N2
Snake gourd Trichosanthes anguina Cucurbitaceae Jan-Mar P2N2
Table:3 Nectariferous / polleniferous bee flora and floral calendar in field crops at
Bengaluru district

Sunflower Helianthus annuus Compositae March – April.
Black gram Vigna mungo Fabaceae Aug – Sep. N2
Chickpea Cicer arietinum Fabaceae Dec – March. N2
Ground nut Arachis hypogaea Fabaceae July - Oct, April – June. P2
Pigeon pea Cajanus cajan Fabaceae July – Sep. N2
Sesame Sesamum indicum Pedaliaceae July – Aug. N1P2
Maize Zea mays Poaceae Aug – Sep, Feb – March. P2
Mustard Brassica rapa Brassicaceae Jan – March. N1
Mesta Hibiscus sutrattensis Malvaceae Aug-Nov P2
Niger Guizotia abyssinica Asteraceae Sep-Nov P1N1
Paddy Oryza sativa Poaceae Aug-Sep P2N1-
Castor Ricinus comunis Euphorbiaceae Feb-Apr P2N2
Lab lab
Lablab purpureus Fabaceae Jul - September N1
( Dolichos bean)

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Table 4 Nectariferous / polleniferous bee flora and floral calendar in plantation,

flower and ornamental crops at Bengaluru district
Plantation crops
Flowering
Common name Botanical name Family Source
period
Coconut Cocos nucifera Arecaceae Jan-Dec P1
-
Tamarind
Tamarindus indicus Fabaceae Apr-Jun P2N1
Pongemia Pongamia pinnata Fabaceae Feb-Apr N1
Neem Azardirhacta indica Meliaceae Mar-Apr N2
Cashew nut Anacardium occidentale Anacardiaceae Dec-Jan P2N1
Flower and ornamental plants
Antigonum Antigonum leptopes Polygonaceae Apr- May P1N2
Jasmine Jasminum sp. Oleaceae July-Aug N1
Rose Rossa spp Rosaceae April-june N1P1
Gladiolus Gladiolus communis Iridaceae Nov-Dec N1
Marigold Tagitus sp Asteraceae Oct-Nov N1P2
Chrysantimum
Chrysanthimum Asteraceae August-Oct N1P1
sinararifolium
N1P1
Tuberose Polianthes tuberosa Asparagaceae Sept- Oct
-
N1P1
Gaillardia Gaillardia aristata Asteraceae Sept- Oct
-
Nandi Battlu/ crape Tabernaemontana
Apocynaceae Sept- Oct N1
jasmine coronaria
Kantaphala/ brahma N1P1
Echinops echinatus Asteraceae Throught year
dande -
N1 = Low nectar yield N2 = High nectar yield “ -“ = absent P1 =Low

pollen yield
P2 = High pollen yield
The result revealed that in Bengaluru district, 51 plant species were useful to honeybees,
out of which vegetables (19), fruits (15), field crops (13) and plantation, flower and
ornamental crops (12) identified and found in the study area.
The identified flora was further grouped into pollen, nectar and both pollen and nectar
yielding plants out of 61 crops, nectar (10), pollen (13) and both pollen and nectar (36)
yielding plants.

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The knowledge of bee flora of Bumble bees at Bengaluru region enable beekeepers to
utilize them at the maximum level, so that they can harvest a good yield of honey and
effective pollinators which enhances crop yields. Such knowledge on bee flora help in
the effective management of bee colonies during such periods Based on available flora,
major characteristics of these plant species, pollen and nectar availability and flowering
duration, a bee floral calendar as per the season were developed.
To conserve these floras, attention must be given to maintain and multiply the existing
flora.Considering these facts, the present study is carried out to prepare an inventory of
existing bee flora and develop floral calendar for that particular region.
Worldwide an estimated 35% of crop pollination is dependent on insects which are

bringing pollination for 70 to 108 major crops (McGregor, 1976 and Klein et al .,
2007)Itis due to bee pollination that the crop yield increases and improves in quality and
quantity of seed and fruit yield. Therefore, beekeeping can play a vital role in improving
crop yields besides resulting in to an additional source of income through honey and bee-
wax (Sharmahet al. 2015). Significance of insect pollinators in increasing the crop
productivity in self - fertile and self-incompatible varieties of fruit crops grown under
different agro climatic conditions is an established fact.
Conserve bumble bees for sustainable ecosystem service and biodiversity conservation
at large and increase in crop productivity
REFERENCES
1. Michener, C. D. 1974. The Social Behavior of Bees. Har- vard University Press;
Cambridge, xii+ Crepet, W. L., 1983. The role of insect pollination in the evolution of
the angiosperms. In : L. A. Real [ed.] Pollination Biology , Academic Press. p. 29-50.
2. Crepet, W. L., 1979. Insect pollination : A paleontological perspective.Bio Science29
(2) : 102- 108.
3. Proctor, M., P. Yeo, and A. Lack, 1996. The Natural History of Pollination . Timber
Press, Portland, Oregon. 479 pp404pp
4. Leppik, E. E. 1977. Floral Evolution in Relation to Pollination Ecology. Today and
Tomorrow's Printers and Publishers, New Delhi.
5. Free, J. B. 1993. Insect Pollination of Crops (2nd Ed.). Academic Press, New York.
6. Torchio, P. F. 1990. Diversification of pollination strategies for U.S. crops.
Enviornmental Entomology 19 (6) :1649-1656
7. Ackerman, J. D. 2000. Abiotic pollen and pollination: ecological, functional, and
evolutionary perspectives. Plant Syst. Evol. 222 : 167-185
8. . Buchmann, S. L. and Ascher J. S. 2005.The Plight of Pollinating Bees. Bee World 86
: 71-74. Faegri, K. and van der pijl, L. 1979. The principles of pollination ecology .
3rd edition. Pergamon Press, Oxford, U.K.
9. Michener, C. D. 2007. The floral relationship of bees . Pp. 13-18. In: The Bees of The
World. John Hopkins university press, Baltimore, Maryland, London.

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10. Muchhala, N. 2003. Exploring the boundary between pollination syndromes: bats and
hummingbirds as pollinators of Burmeistera cyclostigmata and B. tenuiflora
(Campanulaceae). Oecologia 134 : 373-380.
11. Sihag, R. C. and Kaur, G. 1997. Pollination maechanisms and syndromes. In :
Pollina- tion Biology, Basic and Applied Principles (Ed Sihag R.C.). Rajendra
Scientific Publishers, Hisar. Pp 19-38.
12. Abrol, D. P. 2009. Bees and Beekeeping in India . Kalayani Publishers,
Ludhiana.719 pp.
13. Bhattacharya, A. 2010. Conservation of pollinator resources in botanic gardens.
OurNature 8 : 322-335
14. Cameron, S. A., Lozier, J. D., Strangeb, J. P., Koch, J. B., Cordes, N., Solter, L. F.
and Griswold, T. L. 2011. Patterns of widespread decline in North American bumble
bees. PNAS , doi:10.1073/pnas.1014743108
15. Harrison, S. and Bruna, E. 1999. Habitat fragmentation and large-scale
conservation: what do we know for sure? Ecography , 22 : 225-232.
16. Murren, C. J. 2002. Effects of habitat fragmentation on pollination: pollinators,
pollinia viability and reproductive success. Journal of Ecology , 90 : 100-107.
17. Potts, S., Biesmeijer, J., Kremen, C., Neumann, P., Schweiger, O., and Kunin, W.
2010. Global pollinator declines: trends, impacts and drivers. Trends in Ecology &
Evolution, DOI : 10.1016/j.tree.2010.01.007.
18. Rathcke, B. J. and Jules, E. S. 1993. Habitat fragmentation and plant pollinator
interactions. Current Science , 65 (3) : 273-277.
19. Weibull, A. C., Ostman, O. and Granqvist, A. 2003. Species richness in
agroecosystems: the effect of landscape, habitat and farm management. Biodiversity
and Conservation , 12 : 1335-1355.
20. Abrol, D. P. (downloaded 2012). Applied pollination : Present scenario.
PollinationBiology . Springer, Netherland, pp. 55-83.
21. Batra, S. W. T. 1985. Bees and pollination in our changing environment. Apidology
,26 : 361-370.

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Paper-17
ASSESSMENT OF DEGRADATION OF PARAVUR KAYAL USING GIS

AND GEOENVIRONMENTAL TOOLS - STRATEGIES FOR
RESTORATION AND MANAGEMENT
Shiekha E. John, Rajimol T. R., Maya K. and Padmalal D.

National Centre for Earth Science Studies, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala
E-mail: *shiekha07@gmail.com
INTRODUCTION
Coastal aquatic systems are one of the most biologically rich and productive habitats
on Earth. Kerala State in the south western coast of India is endowed with many such aquatic
habitats in its 590 km long coastal stretch, known for outstanding natural beauty, economic
development and occurrence of strategically significant beach placer resources (Baba et al.
1986). The aquatic systems in the area include a spectrum of water bodies - lakes, lagoons,
estuaries, fluvial channels, etc. Unfortunately, many of these nature’s gifts are at the verge of
severe deterioration due to economic pressures to develop them for various purposes.
Although many development projects are implemented for enhancing quality of life of the
people of the area, most of them did not yield the desired benefits (some of them are even
counter-productive), in the post-project period due to various reasons. Lack of environmental
auditing for enhancing / evaluating the targeted benefits vis-à-vis the real time achievement is
a major lacuna challenging conservation of these coastal life sustaining systems. Here, we
address an example from southern Kerala, the Paravur kayal (also called as Paravur lake) in
Kollam district, which is on the verge of severe deterioration due to human interventions in
the past few decades.
Geo-environmental setting of the study area
Paravur kayal is one of the coast transverse, bar-built estuarine basins in southern Kerala
(Fig. 1 here). The kayal receives a small, mountainous river- Ithikkara river - at its eastern
end which imparts the lake an estuarine condition throughout the year. The kayal is
replenished by surface water inflow of 489 Mm3 per year from the River Ithikkara (length 56
km; catchment area 660 km2); (CWRDM, 1995) and groundwater discharge (unestimated)
from Quaternary and Neogene aquifers. The kayal was opened (naturally) to the Arabian Sea
only during monsoon. The basin is developed over the Neogene sediments comprising the
Warkalli and Quilon formations. The seaward side of the kayal has sandy beaches often
backed by lateritised Neogene cliffs. The landward side is fringed by paddy lands - the once
rice bowl of the region. In order to protect the paddy lands from flooding and reduce
problems in the timely channelisation of floodwaters into the sea, a Flood Water Outlet
System (FWOS), with provisions for opening and closure, was constructed near the
Pozhikkara temple in 1968. The shutters of the FWOS were operational till 1992, but later it
got non-functional due to poor management. This made the estuary an open one till the
installation of a new shutter for the FWOS in 2013. The period (1992-2013) witnessed a

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myriad of changes leading to severe degradation of the kayal. The degradation as well as
changes in energy regimes of the kayal is well reflected in its peculiar pattern of sediment
blanket (Fig. 1) which deviates considerably from a naturally evolved under water sediment
mosaic.
Extensive field surveys were conducted in the Paravur kayal and adjoining coastal
lands for collection of primary and secondary data. Information on sand and clay mining was
obtained through questionnaire surveys and also from the available secondary data of Mining
and Geology Department, National Centre for Earth Science Studies (NCESS), etc. Time
series maps of landuse / land cover changes were prepared using Survey of India Topo base
maps of 1920 and 1974, imagery of Indian Remote Sensing Satellite IRS-1C (1999) and
Google images for the periods 2003, 2011 and 2014. The changes in various land cover
components were assessed using overlay analysis in Arc GIS 10.1. In addition, a total of 29
sediment samples from beach, estuary and adjoining areas, and 13 cores of 1 m length from
the flood tide island (FTI) were collected to know the hydrodynamic regime and sediment
transport and entrainment (following Passega, 1964) processes that are in operation. The
method suggested by Lewis (1984) was used for sediment analysis and the diagram of Picard
(1971) for sediment classification.
Alluvial mining
A total of 8 local bodies located on either side of the Ithikkara river– overbank areas
of the Paravur kayal are engaged in sand extraction. As per records, the total quantity of sand
mining amounts to 0.49 million tonnes per year (ty-1), a major proportion (ie.,0.43 million ty-
1
) of which comes from the local bodies located close to the Paravur kayal. As a result of
indiscriminate sand mining, the riverbed in the storage zone has lowered alarmingly over the
years. Certain stretches reach upto 9m from the original river bed level. Apart from sand
mining, indiscriminate scooping for brick clays is also widespread in the floodplain areas of
the Ithikkara river near its confluence zones. The brick kilns operating in the midland and
lowland regions of the river utilize clay for making bricks and tiles. On an average, 0.22
million ty-1 of clay is extracted by brick kiln units in the area.
Rampant extraction activities over the years have resulted in marked changes in the
landform / land cover of the Paravur kayal and its adjoining coastal lands. Major changes
were noticed in the upper estuary and the river networks in the alluvial deposit (Fig. 2 here).
As per the available records, the kayal has had a water spread of about 5.46 km2 in the year
1974 (Table 1 here). Thereafter, the area of water spread has increased at the expense of
alluvial / floodplain deposits around the river confluence zone. A major part of the river
channel that drained the alluvial deposit once, has vanished considerably, leaving the area
water logged due to pit excavation and pitlake widening (Fig. 1). It is estimated that the
alluvial deposit was drained by a channel network of 10.5 km in 1974. It is unfortunate that,
at present, only a small portion (~2.8 km) of river channel is left unaffected. The remaining
channel network has either vanished (5.45 km) or is partially degraded (2.25 km) due to

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indiscriminate sand and clay extraction. The corresponding gain in water spread was about
2.39 km2 during the period 1974- 2014. Time series analysis reveals that maximum landform
change of 1.41 km2 was noticed during the period 1974-1999, which was followed by 0.36
km2 during 1999-2003 and 0.52 km2 during 2003-2011 (Fig. 2; Table 1). The landform
change due to mining was minimal (0.1 km2) during the period 2011-2014.
Engineering interventions
Unlike the upstream, the downstream reach of the Paravur kayal especially around the
landward end of the canal is getting silted up due to deposition of coastal sands brought by
tidal waters, through the poorly managed FWOS. Although the construction of FWOS was
initiated in 1958, the system was commissioned only in 1968. However, in early 1990, the
system was rendered inoperative and was kept open to the sea owing to the formation of sand
deposit at its entrance. The imposed changes of a naturally bar built estuary to an open one
has resulted in permanent salt water ingression in the estuary. The higher salinity was
instrumental in bringing a series of physico-chemical and biological changes in the basin. The
Villorita cyprinoides–a bivalent thriving in the freshwater end of the estuary–retreated further
upstream and a hypersaline bivalve Meretrix casta invaded the system (Sheeba and Padmalal,
2007). The inoperative FWOS had also led to increased input of sand, forming sand buildup,
in the estuarine mouth region from near shore environment. The sand buildup reached an area
of 0.10 km2 in 2014 with a maximum thickness of 4m at the exposed central part of the flood
tide island. Figure 3 (here) clearly shows the spread of sand towards the landward end of the
FWOS which act as a conduit for transportation of fine and very fine sand from the nearby
littoral environments. Further, the sand loaded water reduces productivity in the areas
adjoining the canal to significant levels. In short, the construction of the canal and the FWOS,
its poor maintenance and management, were one of the important drivers of degradation of
Paravur estuary, especially at its marine end.
Coastal hydrodynamics and responses
The imposed changes in the littoral drift of sediments due to canal construction was
responsible for selective entrainment and transportation of fine and very fine sand categories
from the beach sediment population and its subsequent deposition in the kayal as FTI.
Sediment size spectral analysis reveal that the beach environment is composed generally of
coarser particles (Mean size 1.31 Φ) compared to the FTI (2.79 Φ); (Fig. 4 here). Sand
percentage in the surface sediments of the island ranges from 78.1% to 98.14% (av. 92.05%).
Granulometric characteristics of the sediment cores of FTI shows that > 90% of samples fall
within fine and very fine sand categories while the rest within medium sand and mud. The
sands in the southern side of the beach (ie., south of the FWOS) contain low proportions of
fine and very fine sand SScompared to medium and coarse sands. Further, the sediments are
generally coarse skewed indicating the efficiency of selective winnowing of sediment
fractions in the finer entities. The selectively winnowed fine and medium sands are carried as
graded suspension and transported through the damaged and opened up canal and finally
deposited in the estuary as FTI. The beach sediments in the northern side of FWOS show
only marginal differences in granulometric composition compared to the southern
counterparts. In other words, the granulometric image discloses the fact that southern side of

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the Pozhikkara beach is exposed to high energy wave action and increased cliff erosion
primarily because of the inadequate availability of sands in the finer entities for bringing
down the hungry water effects of the coastal waters. All these environmental responses, in
one way or the other, are linked to the altered hydrodynamic conditions resulted from canal
construction and subsequent developments.
Restoration and management
The Paravur kayal and the adjoining beach / nearshore environments have been
subjected to dramatic changes, over the years, due to human interventions like sand and clay
mining from the estuarine basin and its drainage networks, construction of engineering
structures and their poor management, etc. The alluvial deposits at the upper estuary have
been degraded drastically due to pit excavation for construction grade sand and alluvial clay.
As the area around the Paravur kayal hosts many development centres, the demand of
building materials is also high. Fig. 5 (here) is an example of the increasing trend of building
constructions noticed in one of the local bodies in the catchments of Paravur kayal – the
Chathannoor Grama Panchayath. As seen from this figure, it is evident that the total number
of buildings exhibits an increase since the beginning of the century which coincides with the
increased rate of extraction of sand and brick clay from the kayal basin. Within a time span of
15 years, almost 56 % of the alluvial deposit in the upstream end has transformed into a
cluster of pit lakes, some of which are captured by the distributary channels. Apart from the
above changes in the physical environment, the activity also imposes drastic changes in the
biological richness and aquatic diversity (Padmalal and Maya, 2014). The imposed changes
in the depositional pattern due to canal construction are also an indicator of the anthropogenic
stresses to which the system has been subjected to over the years. Sand buildup has worsened
the flooding in the adjoining low lying areas and agricultural fields, failing the whole purpose
of the FWOS. Expensive protective structures was constructed in order to protect this fragile
environmental system, and to overcome some of the adverse impacts of these human
interventions. Under the above observations and findings, the following recommendations are
made for restoration/management of the Paravur kayal.
a. Any development project in coastal aquatic systems should be scrutinized thoroughly
using EIA studies.
b. Regular and periodic environmental auditing should form part of the post-project
period. The shutters of the spillway / FWOS have to be made operational to rescue the system
from further degradation of Paravur kayal.
c. Alluvial mining should be allowed only after environmental auditing by a competent
authority.
d. Revival of the original network of the distributary system in the alluvial zone may be
achieved using a combination of soft and hard engineering measures together with
appropriate bio-fencing using native riparian vegetation and / or mangroves.
e. The remaining area from the coalesced pitlakes left after mining can be used for
pisciculture.

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f. A ‘fly over’ type bridge that ensure minimum damage to the coastal lands and retain
the ecosystem connectivity has to be constructed to link the Paravur-Mayyanad towns for
enhancing the quality of life of the people.
g. Awareness campaign should be conducted at various levels about the significance of
preservation of coastal ecosystems and their environmental services.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank Director, National Centre of Earth Science Studies (NCESS),
Thiruvananthapuram for his encouragement.
REFERENCES
1. Baba M (1986). Kerala's coastal zone-a management proposal, Technical Report,
CESS, 47: 27.
2. CWRDM (1995). Water Atlas of Kerala. Centre for Water Resources Development
and Management, Kozhikode, 82pp.
3. Lewis D W (1984). Practical sedimentology. Hutchinson Ross Publishing Company,
Pensylvania.
4. Padmalal D and Maya K (2014). Sand mining: Environmental impacts and selected
case studies, Springer, London, 162pp.
5. Passega R (1964). Grain size representation by CM patterns as a geological tool. J.
Sed. Petr., 34: 830-837.
6. Picard M D (1971). Classification of fine grained sedimentary rocks. J. Sed. Pet., 41:
179-195.
7. Sheeba S and Padmalal D (2007). Impact of environmental degradation on clam
resources in the Paravur lake (Kerala), South west coast of India. Kerala
Environment Congress, 288-294.
Total area (km2)

Land features
1920 1974 1999 2003 2011 2014
Water body 6.31 5.46 6.87 7.23 7.75 7.85
Alluvial / Flood plain deposit 4.95 5.70 3.74 2.61 2.16 2.12
Reclaimed area NA 0.10 0.65 1.42 1.35 1.29
Table 1 Time series variation of water spread area vis-à-vis alluvial
/floodplain deposit of Paravur kayal and adjoining areas.

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Paper- 18
The Effect of Climate and Weather Conditions on Avian Species in
Guddegere, Tirthhalli Karnataka and its Implications
Karan Dubey, Sanjay. S, and Prathiba R.D

Department of Zoology, St. Joseph’s College (Autonomous), Bangalore -560027
E-mail: prathiba.r.d@yahoo.com , karan_dubey@yahoo.com
INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this research assignment was to analyse the effect changing weather
conditions such as temperature, humidity, precipitation, etc have on avian species. We were
to look at a particular geographic region and study it during different seasons in a year using
“point counts” via area searches. This is done repeatedly over a period of days in the same
area so as to get more conclusive observations for analysis. Following which we could
analyse the data and a find a correlation between changing weather conditions and behavior
of birds. We could also analyse their distribution and reasons for migration based on
changing weather conditions and a “favorable weather” generally for birds or specific
species. In case of non-migratory birds, we could analyse the reason for staying in the same
location as the year progresses unaffected by changing weather conditions. We can also find
out whether the reason for migration or stagnation from/at a particular area is linked to
prey/food, predators, physical properties or looking for mates/raising young ones. But to do
so we have to study an area of at least 100 Km2 to make sure were not studying the same
birds/bird clutches and to get enough pertinent readings in the area.
Analysis of this data can be used to understand avian behavior better, understand the need
or lack of migration from a particular area, more successful rehabilitation of birds or
favorabl\-+
* environments for birds to thrive, etc. From the viewpoint of conservation there could be
manifold implications. The study could be general or species specific.
STUDY AREA
The study area is off a small town in Karnataka called Guddegere near Tirthhalli; it is a
research centre called Kalinga Mane run by Kalinga Centre for Rainforest Ecology. The
site8/7 is flanked by reserved forests on all sites and has a thriving animal population. It has a
lot of endemic bird species that are very commonly seen like the Heart spotted woodpecker
(Hemicircus canente), Flame-throated Bulbul (Pycnonotus gularis), Malabar Trogon
(Harpactes fasciatus), etc. In general, the area of study has tropical monsoon climate (Am

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climate). The driest month is February (1mm) and wettest is july (2647mm). The mean
annual rainfall is 7620mm. Maximum temperature ranges between 24.4-31.5ºC and minimum
between 16.2-21.4ºC. The annual average temperature is about 24.5ºC. April is the hottest
month and December the coolest. Humidity is about 60% throughout the year.
We observed the region during two specific sessions: a) 3rd-8th November 2015 (winter
session) b)16th-21nd May 2016
(summer session)
During the winter session the temperature was as less as 21.1ºC and as much as 32ºC with a
humidity roughly ranging between 70-99% over the course of that session. In the summer
session, temperature was between 22.1ºC and 26.1ºC and humidity was between 88-97%.
During the summer session, there was a great amount of rainfall and it rained over periods of
6-8 hours a day as compared to the winter session where except for 2-3 hours on the first day,
it did not rain at all.
The circled region is the region in study it is roughly about 5 km2; owing to time
constraints and lack of assistance to cover such a large area, we couldn't complete the
desired location to study. In addition to this, we also observed a region in Bengaluru so as
to provide contrast to the Guddegere sightings but these were done only via point counts
and without noting down the weather conditions.

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The regions lie on Kanakpura main road in south Bengaluru and a small reserved forest
called Turahalli forest was also a part of it. Each region was about 1.5-2.5 Km2.
On each day we spent at KCRE, we tried to go out at the same time everyday and stayed on
field for about 2-3 hours. Every time we went out we checked temperature and humidity
values and noted it down. We used “point count” methods which basically meant we looked
or listened to bird calls and then identified the birds seen. We did this roughly around 0600-
0900 hours and 1530-1830 hours everyday however we did extend or reduce the time
depending on activity and on days that it rained, we only looked around the camp site as
moving out in the rain would've been tough and unproductive as birds would've taken evasive
cover from the rainfall.
s
Sl No.
Common Name Scientific Name
1. Malabar Whistling Thrush Myophonus horsfieldii
2. Lesser Goldenback Dinopium benghalense
3. Malabar Pied Hornbill Anthracocerous coronatus
4. Green-Bee Eater Imeroops orientalis
5. Purple-Rumped Sunbird Leptocoma zeylonica
6. Cattle Egret Bubulcus ibis
7. Spotted dove Stigmatopelia chinensis
8. Orange Minivet ♂ Pericrocotus flammeus
9. Asian Fairy Bluebird ♂ Irena puella
10. Red-whiskered Bulbul Pycnonotus jocosus
11. Spangled Drongo Dicrurus hottentottus
12. Purple Sunbird Cynnyris asiaticus
13. Crimson-backed Sunbird Leptocoma minima
14. Malabar Grey Hornbill Ocycerous griseus
15. White rumped Munia Lonchura striata
16. White-cheeked Barbet Megalaima viridis
17. Brahminy Kite Haliastur Indus
18. Malabar Trogon♂ Harpactes fasciatus
19. Greater racket-tailed drongo Dicrurer paradiseus
20. Rufous treepie Dendrocita vagabunda
21. White-bellied treepie Dendrocitta leucogastra
22. Rose-ringed parakeet Psittacula krameri

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23. Square-tailed Bulbul Hypsipetes ganeesa

24. Jungle Fowl Gallus domesticus
25. Southern Coucal Centropus parroti
26. Heart spotted woodpecker ♀ Hemicircus canente
27. Grey-fronted green pigeon Treron affinis
28. Racket-tailed drongo Dicrurer paradiseus
29. Indian Peafowl ♀ Pavo cristatus
30. White-bellied Woodpecker Dryocopus javensis
31. Coppersmith Barbet Megalaima haemacephala
32. Plum headed Parakeet Psittacula cyanocephala
33. Oriental Magpie robin Copsychus saularis
34. Yellow wattled Lapwing Vanellus malabaricus
35. Puff-throated Babbler Pellorneum ruficeps
36. Vernal Hanging Parrot Loriculus vernalis
37. Little swift Apus affinis
38. Red-wattled lapwing Vanellus indicus
39. Scaly-breasted Munia Lonctura punctulata
40. Jungle Babbler Turdoides striata
41. Woodpecker -
42. Nightjar -
43. Kingfisher -
44. Sunbirds -
Cattle Egret Spotted Dove Racket-Tailed Drongo

(Bubulcus ibis) (Stigmatopelia chinensis) (Dicrurer paradiseus)

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Asian Fairy Bluebird ♂ White-Cheeked Barbet Green-Bee Eater

(Irena puella) (Megalaima viridis) (Imeroops orientalis)
Heart-spotted woodpecker♀ Grey-fronted Green pigeon

(Hemicircus canente) (Treronaffinis)
Orange Minivet (Pericrocotus flammeus): ♂-(L); ♀-(R)

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Malabar Grey Hornbill (Ocycerous Griseus): ♂-(L); ♀-(R)
Rose-ringed Parakeet White-bellied Treepie

(Psittacula krameri) (Dendrocitta leucogastra)
Brahminy Kite Rufous Treepie

(Haliastur indus) (Dendrocitta vaganunda)

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Square-tailed Bulbul Spangled Drongo

(Hypsipetes ganeesa) (Dicrurus hottentotus)
Malabar Trogon (Herpactes fasciatus)-♂-(L); ♀-(R)
Crimson-backed Sunbird (Leptocoma minima): ♂-(L); ♀-(R)

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White-bellied Woodpecker ♀ Southern Coucal

(Dryocopus javensis) (Centropus parroti)
Purple-Rumped Sunbird ♀ Indian Peafowl ♀

(Leptocoma zeylonica) (Pavo cristatus)
Yellow-wattled Lapwing Grey-headed Bulbul

(Vanellus malabaricus) (Pycnonotus Priocephalus)

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Flame-throated Bulbul Red-whiskered Bulbul

(Pycnonotus gularis) (Pycnonotus jocosus)
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION
There was large contrast between weather and specific bird occurrences between the winter
and summer sessions. Firstly, the temperature ranged between 21ºC in the early mornings (on
average) to about 29-32ºC during peak noon in the winter session as opposed to the summer
session where it was about 22-24ºC in the morning and didn't change as much until peak
noon (1-2ºC increase). Humidity changed as the day progressed very aggressively; morning
had high humidity (80% and above) and afternoons had relatively lower humidity (50-80%)
in the winter session; the summer session had high humidity throughout the day and did not
fall below 75-80%. During the winter session there was very little rainfall as opposed to the
summer session. We observed that rainfall the previous night or early morning meant that
there would be no sharp changes in temperature and temperature and humidity would remain
fairly constant. Therefore, the summer session (3-6ºC) had a much smaller diurnal range as
opposed to the winter session (7-11ºC). Overall, the summer session had much more stable
weather conditions when compared to the sinter session.
There was also a large influx of birds that we didn't see the last time as well as
disappearances or reduced sightings of a few fairly common birds. But we couldn't get
conclusive results due to the obvious lack of time and the physical inability to cover an area
such as 100km2 regularly. However, we did manage to make some key observations and
tried to draw inference from them.
We did not see any of the Bulbuls in the winter session but they were very common in the
summer session. We saw the endemic: Grey-headed bulbul (Pycnonotus priocephalus) and
Flame-throated Bulbul (Pycnonotus gularis), that are endemic to the western ghat region,

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only. Along with frequent occurrences of red-whiskered bulbuls (Pycnonotus jocosus).

Reason for this is still in question for us as even though we saw them regularly, their
numbers were too small to draw conclusion and the small area of study wouldn't have given
a meaningful inference, as well. But we presume that the stable weather conditions allowed
them to be more active; we arrived at this by comparing Bulbul sightings in another region
with relatively stable weather conditions (second region in Bengaluru highlighted in the
second map in the study area section). Here, P. Jocosus and P. Cafer (red-vented bulbuls)
are very easily seen. Birds such as the Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis) that depended on cattle
for their survival: feeding on their ticks and lice, were not affected at all by changing
physical conditions. This could be due to the fact that their prey remained unaffected by it
and nothing harmed their mutualistic relationship with the cattle. Other birds that seemed
unaffected were the Malabar Whistling Thrush (Myophonus horsfieldii), PR sunbird
(Leptocoma zeylonica), MG Hornbill (Ocycerous griseus) and other species whose sightings
remained healthy over the two sessions which can be concluded from the data
aforementioned; reason could be the same as B. ibis.
In the summer session, we even got to observe O. griseus during breeding season.
We got to observe young immature species regularly. Another massive change was
the M. Orientalis or Green Bee-eater numbers. In the winter session, we saw at least
15-20 specimens every time we went out. In the summer session however, these
numbers fell to zero. It was the same case in Bangalore where M. Orientalis was very
easily found. On research, we found out that the species migrates to nothern india
(rajastan-J&K regions) to breed and hence we could not see even one of them
anywhere else. Now, the weather conditions in the two regions weren't really that
different.
This is the statistics for the Guddegere region taken on average:
Session Temperature (ºC) Humidity (%)Occurrence of rain

Winter session 21-33 >70 Not often
Summer session 22-24.9 >88 Very frequently
July-august 24-31 60-80 Frequent
This is the same for the rajasthan region taken on average:
Session Temperature (ºC)Humidity (%)Occurrence of rain

Winter session 19-33 <10 No rain
Summer session 30-46 <60 Frequent
July-august 24-36 >60 Very Frequent

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Although the two regions have more or less the same weather (while Rajasthan does have a
higher temperature), the reason for them picking their summer visiting region over their
habitual region for breeding is uncertain. It is not prey dependent as their prey is more of less
of the sub-phyllum Insecta and these are relatively unaffected by weather conditions and
they are always in large numbers year-round. At the moment, there are a lot of barriers that
have to be overcome for us to determine the actual reason for their highly significant
migration.
In conclusion, we saw that temperature didn't really play a major role in bird activity while
humidity did; the more humid a region was, the more activity was seen. When the high
temperatures of the noon reduced the humidity, activity was much lesser. This was also
dependent on the time of the day, i.e. morning, night, etc. If the mornings were less humid, it
didn't curtail their activity as much.
REFERENCES
1. Book of Indian Birds- Salim Ali

2. Birds of the indian Subcontinent- Grimmett, Inskipp and Inskipp
3. “The Effects of Supplementary Food on the Breeding Performance of
Eurasian Reed Warblers Acrocephalus scirpaceus; Implications for Climate
Change Impacts” ByVafidis JO1, Vaughan IP1, Jones TH1, Facey RJ1, Parry
R2, Thomas RJ1.
4. “Temporal distribution and behaviour of sand flies (Diptera: Psychodidae) in a
cutaneous leishmaniasis focus of the Kani Tribe settlements in the Western
Ghats, India” BySrinivasan R1, Jambulingam P2, Kumar NP1, Selvakumar M1,
Edwin B1, Kumar TD3
5. “Potential impacts of global warming on the diversity and distribution of
stream insects in South Korea” By Li F1, Kwon YS, Bae MJ, Chung N, Kwon
TS, Park YS
6. “Winter predation by insectivorous birds and consequences for arthropods
and plants in summer” By Barber NA1, Wouk J.

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Paper-19
IMPACT OF INDISCRIMINATE USE OF PESTICIDE ON MALE
FERTILITY AND ITS MITIGATION WITH MEDICINAL PLANT
EXTRACTS
Priyanka Sinha, M.S Reddy and A. Nath
Department of Zoology, Centre for Applied Genetics, Bangalore University, Jnana Bharathi,
Bangalore.
E-mail:psinhazoology@gmail.com
INTRODUCTION
The rapid growth in the global population continues to challenge the world’s ability to
provide enough food, thus increasing the pressure on the agricultural land. Therefore, to
augment the yield of cereals, coffee, tea, cotton, oilseeds, fruits and vegetables, various
pesticides are being indiscriminately used by the farmers worldwide. This indiscriminate use
of chemical pesticides has proved harmful for the ecosystem causing several potential health
hazards. Pesticides residue in food and water results in various maladies in animal
populations.
Over the last several decades the rise in male infertility rates has prompted the scientific
community to look for causes as well as their remedies. Studies confirm that the pesticides
are one of the most significant environmental factors that negatively impact the male fertility
causing various metabolic and physiological dysfunctions in the reproductive system. A
number of animal studies as well as human epidemiological studies have demonstrated that
exposure of males to pesticides could result in reproductive toxicity (Sinha &Nath, 2014).
Endosulfan is an organochlorine pesticide, which, through biomagnifications keeps on
accumulating as toxin and getting concentrated in the tissues of higher organisms through the
food chain.
Medicinal plants have enormous potential as curative agents in pesticide induced

reproductive toxicity with minimal side effects (Sinha et al., 2012). The root extract of
Ashwagandha induces a marked improvement in libido, sexual performance, vigour and
penile erective dysfunction (Ilyaperuma et al., 2002). It shows anticarcinogenic effects in
animal cell culture by decreasing expression of nuclear factor- Kappa B, supressing
intercellular tumor necrosis factor and potentiating apoptotic signaling in cancerous cell-lines
(Ichikawa H. et al 2006). Emblica officinalis is a potent source of antioxidants (Bhattacharya
et al., 2000). It has been found to play a significant role in antibody dependent cytotoxicity in
tumor bearing mice (Chakraborty & Verma, 2009). The present investigation focuses on the
effect of pesticidal toxicity on the male reproductive system at cellular, sub-cellular,
histopathological and hormonal levels and its probable mitigation utilizing these two
medicinal plants.

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In present study sexually matured male Swiss albino mice [Mus musculus], weighing 30±2g,
were used as the animal model. The medicinal plant extracts used were the root extract of
Withania somnifera [Ashwagandha] and fruit extract of Emblica officinalis [Amla] The mice
were administered endosulfan [3mg/kg] daily for 8 weeks via gavage. The oral LD 50 value of
endosulfan, ashwagandha and amla was calculated using the standard interpolation method.
Further the maximum permissible dose of ashwagandha and amla for mice was estimated.
Equal number of the treated and vehicle administered control group of mice were sacrificed
on 28th, 42nd and 56th day respectively to investigate the effect of the pesticide on testosterone
levels, sperm count, sperm motility, the ultrastructure of spermatozoa and histopathology of
testes. Further, 8 weeks of endosulfan treated mice were given root extract of Withania
somnifera [Ashwagandha][1000mg/kg] or fruit extract of Emblica officinalis
[Amla][100mg/kg] for 4 weeks to observe their mitigating effects.
Epididymal sperm count and sperm motility: After separating the cauda epididymis,
sperm numbers per epididymis were determined by haemocytometer. Dilute sperm
suspension was prepared with phosphate buffered saline and introduced into a counting
chamber. The total sperm count in 8 squares of 1 mm 2 each was determined and multiplied
by 5x104 to calculate the number of sperms per epididymis. Sperm motility was also counted
in same eight squares and percentage of motile sperm was recorded (Vega et al., 1988).
Estimation of testosterone by ELISA method: Blood samples were collected after each
sacrifice and serum was isolated. Testosterone kit of LILAC Medicare (P) Ltd. Mumbai was
utilized for the experiment.
Light Microscopic Study: The Testis was dissected and fixed in 10% formalin and
embedded in paraffin. 4-5 µm thick sections were cut and stained with Haemotoxylin and
Eosin. The sections were examined under light microscope.
Electron Microscopic Study: The Testis was dissected and fixed in 2.5% glutaraldehyde
with post-fixation in 1% osmic acid. The ultra-thin sections were observed under the
Transmission Electron Microscope (MORGAGINI-268D, Fei Company, Netherland).
Statistical Analysis: Data obtained from the experiments were correlated and analyzed by one
way ANOVA and values of P<0.05 were considered as statistically significant.
RESULTS
Effect on testosterone: Endosulfan exposure caused significant decrease in the testosterone
levels across the experimental groups from 4.7ng/dl in control group(A) to 2.4, 1.1
and0.2ng/dl in 4, 6 and 8 weeks pesticide exposed animals (groups B, Cand D)respectively
[Table 1]. Ashwagandha and amla treatment statistically increased the testosterone levels to
2.8 and 2.7ng/dl in groups E and F respectively.
Effect on sperm count: Endosulfan exposure caused significant decrease in the sperm count
across the experimental groups from 5.6 millions/ml in control group(A) to 1.9, 1.1 and 0.9

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million/ml in 4, 6 and 8 weeks pesticide exposed animals (groups B, Cand D)respectively

[Table 2]. Ashwagandha and amla treatment statistically increased the testosterone levels to
3.9 and 3.3millions/ml in groups E and F respectively.
Effect on sperm motility: Endosulfan exposure caused significant decrease in the sperm
motility across the experimental groups from 72%motile spermatozoa in control group(A) to
46, 21 and 5%motile spermatozoa in 4, 6 and 8 weeks pesticide exposed animals (groups B,
Cand D)respectively [Table 3]. Ashwagandha and amla treatment statistically increased the
sperm motility to 53 and 42% in groups E and F respectively.
Light Microscopy: Control mice seminiferous tubule show spermatogonia, spermatocytes,

spermatids and developing spermatozoa in normal stages of spermatogenesis. 4 weeks
endosulfan exposed mice seminiferous tubule show disruption in spermatogenesis. 6 weeks
endosulfan exposed mice seminiferous tubules show obliteration in lumen with apoptotic
testicular cells and degeneration of seminiferous epithelium. 8 weeks endosulfan exposed
mice seminiferous tubule show complete degeneration of testicular cells[Plate I] . 4 weeks
ashwagandha treatment after 8 weeks endosulfan exposure restored normal spermatogenic
cells in seminiferous tubules with decreased inter-tubular spaces and restoration of Leydig
cells. 4 weeks amla treatment after 8 weeks endosulfan exposure showed restoration of
germinal epithelium and testicular cells along with a few Leydig cells[Plate II].
Electron Microscopy: The electron micrographs of control mice spermatozoon showed

normal acrosome, homogenous chromatin with regular plasma and nuclear membranes. 4
weeks endosulfan exposure caused disrupted acrosomic cap with patchy chromatin and
appearance of vacuoles. 6 weeks endosulfan exposure caused malformed acrosome with
irregular plasma and nuclear membranes. 8 weeks endosulfan exposed spermatozoon showed
complete degeneration in acrosome, nucleus and plasma membrane with loss of lipids from
plasma membrane [PlateIII]. In 8weeks endosulfan exposed mice, 4 weeks of ashwagandha
extract treatment resulted in restoration of acrosomal cap, normal microtubule and regular
nuclear and plasma membrane. 4 weeks of amla extract treatment also restored acrosomal cap
and regular nuclear and plasma membranes [PlateIV].

Pesticides of organochlorine group such as endosulfan is considered to be highly toxic and
classified as “Moderately Hazardous Pesticide” by WHO (Class-II) based mainly on its LD50
value (Grace et al., 2010), (ATSDR, 2003). It is highly toxic to mammals including humans.
Poisoning from endosulfan affects the CNS, cardiovascular, digestive as well as reproductive
organs. It has been reported to cause testicular degeneration (Nath & Kumar, 2007). In the
present study, the pesticide toxicity affected almost all the cell of seminiferous tubules the
spermatozoa well as the Leydig cells causing vacuolization in the cytoplasm and damage to
the nucleus plasma membrane, Golgi complex, the microtubules, the mitochondria and the
acrosome and the sperm chromatin. The pesticidal toxicity leads to cessation of
spermatogenesis and spermiogenesis in the exposed mice testes. There is reduction or
absence of cells of Leydig in the interstitium of pesticide exposed mice seminiferous tubules

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leading to significantly decreased testosterone levels. There is a significant decrease in the

sperm count in the pesticide exposed mice, epididymis.
The root extract of Ashwagandha induces a marked improvement in libido, sexual
performance, vigour and penile erective dysfunction (Ilyaperuma et al., 2002). It shows
anticarcinogenic effects in animal cell culture by decreasing expression of nuclear factor-
Kappa B, supressing intercellular tumor necrosis factor and potentiating apoptotic signaling
in cancerous cell-lines (Ichikawa H. et al 2006). Emblica officinalis is a potent source of
antioxidants (Bhattacharya et al., 2000). It has been found to play a significant role in
antibody dependent cytotoxicity in tumor bearing mice (Chakraborty & Verma, 2010).
In the present study, Withania somnifera root extract mitigated the endosulfan induced
reproductive toxicity by providing the maximum restoration on ultrastructural,
histopathological, hormonal as well as genetic parameters. Its administration led to
restoration of spermatogenesis and spermiogenesis in pesticide exposed in mice testes,
statistically significant increase in the serum testosterone levels and restoration of Leydig cell
populations, and reduced heterochromatization of nuclear chromatin of the spermatozoa and
the testicular cells along with significantly increase in sperm count and motility in the test
animals, thus restoring the fertility potential in every respect. Emblica officinalis fruit extract
administration also showed significant restorative effect on pesticide exposed mice on the
various spermatological parameters studied, including the histopathological and
ultrastructural amelioration, increased serum testosterone, as well as enhanced sperm count
and motility.
In conclusion, Indian medicinal plants Ashwagandha and Amla can mitigate the pesticide
induced reproductive toxicity in males by providing cytoprotection and enhancing sperm
count, motility and serum testosterone levels. Thus the potential of these medicinal plants as
natural tools against male infertility should be definitely explored.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors are thankful to:
• Sophisticated Analytical Instrumentation Facility, Dept. Of Anatomy, AIIMS, New
Delhi
• Indian Council of Medical Research, New Delhi.
• S.S Hospital and Research Centre, Patna.
• Dept. of Zoology, Centre for Applied Genetics, Bangalore University.

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REFERENCES
1. ATSDR. 2003. Toxicological profile of endosulfan (revised). United States Agency
for toxic substances and disease Registry, Atlant, GA. Available from NT’s,
Springfield, VA PB-93-182558.
2. Bhattacharya SK, Bhattacharya A, Sairam K& Ghosal S. 2000. Anxiolytic-
antidepressant activity of Withania somnifera glycowithanoides: an experimental
study. Phytomedicine 7(6): 463-469.
3. Chakraborty D & Verma R. 2009. Spermatoxic effect of ochratoxin and its
amelioration by Emblica officinalis aqueous extract. Acta Pol Pharm. (Nov-Dec.)
4. Chakraborty D & Verma R. 2010. Amelirative effect of Emblica officinalis aqueous
extract on ochratoxin-induced lipid peroxidation in the kidney and liver of mice. Int J
Occup Med Environ Health ; 23 (1) : 63-73.
5. Grace Chitra A, Muraleedharan VR, Swaminathan T & Veeraraghavan D. 2010. Use
of pesticides and its impact on human health : a case of farmers in south India. Toxiol
(6) : 211-223.
6. Ichikawa H, Takada Y& Shishodia S. 2006. Withanolides potentiate apoptosis, inhibit
invasion, and abolish osteoclastogenesis through suppression of nuclear factor-
kappaB (NF-kappaB) activation and NF-kappaB-regulated gene expression. Mol
Cancer Ther; 5 : 1434-1445.
7. Ilayperuma I, Ratnasooriya WD& Weerasooriya TR. 2002. Effect of Withania
somnifera root extract on the sexual behaviour of male rats. Asian J. Androl. 4(4) :
295-298.
8. Sinha P, Nath A, Singh CK, Verma PK& Singh JK. 2012. Indian medicinal plants and
potential therapeutic agents against pesticide induced reproductive toxicity in male
mice. Proceedings of International Conference on Reproductive Health with Emphasis
on Strategies of Family Planning. Division of Reproductive Health and
Nutrition.ICMR.New Delhi – 29.India: 215-216.
9. Sinha P & Nath A. 2014. Alterations in Spermatological Parameters due to
Endosulfan Toxicity in Swiss Albino Mice. Elixir Appl Biololgy, vol 70;p24126-
24129.
10. Vega, S.G.; Guzman, P.; Gracia, Espinosa J. & de Nava, C.C. 1988. Sperm shape
abnormality and urine mutagenicity in mice treated with niclosamide. Mutat. Res.
20(4) :269-276.

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TABLES&PLATES
TABLE-1
TABLE-2
TABLE-3

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Plate III : Transmission Electron Micrographs of Mice Spermatozoa
1. Control mice spermatozoon with normal acrosome, homogenous chromatin with regular plasma and nuclear membranes. X71000
2. 4 weeks endosulfan exposure causes disrupted acrosomic cap with patchy chromatin and appearance of vacuoles. X71000
3. 6 weeks endosulfan exposure causes malformed acrosome with irregular plasma and nuclear membranes. X71000
4. 8 weeks endosulfan exposed spermatozoon showing complete degeneration in acrosome, nucleus and plasma membrane with loss of lipids
from PM. X71000

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Paper-20
DIVERSITY OF SPIDERS AT KALINGA CENTRE FOR RAINFOREST

ECOLOGY (KCRE) IN AGUMBE
Syed Ismail. A
St Joseph’s College (Autonomous) Bengaluru-27
INTRODUCTION
Arachnaological studies in India started late in the 19th century with some of the pioneers
like Blackwall, Stolicka, Thorell, Cambridge, Simon, Pocock, and sheriffs, but majority of
the contributions to Indian arachanology were by B.K Tikader and Pocock. The spider
checklist given by Keswani of SGB Amravathi University of Arachnology laboratory showed
1686 species from 438 genera and 60 families. What make spiders really unique is their silk
producing spinnerets which is situated at the hind end of their abdomen. The spiders are
found all over the world except Antarctica and are capable of surviving in almost all habitats.
As of August 22, 2016 there are currently 114 Families, 3988 Genera and 46058 species of
spiders according to the world spider catalogue.
The Western Ghats also called the Shayadri has diverse population of flora and fauna. It is
one of the world’s top ten “Hottest biodiversity hotspots”. It is very likely that many species
are yet to be discovered, this being the up-most importance as there are around 325 globally
threatened spider species in the Western Ghats which if lost could affect the natural balance
eventually and create a loss of varied diversity. Agumbe is a village located in Shivamoga
district, Thirthahalli taluk in the Malnad region of Karanataka, India, Also called "The
Cherrapunji of the South" after Cherrapunji, in Northeast India. Therefore, studying and
documenting the biodiversity is a hotspot such as the Western Ghats is of the at most
importance in this era of globalization where forest lands are fragmenting.
The Kalinga Centre of Rainforest Ecology(KCRE) area at Agumbe is composed of around 5

acres of land which is nestled right in the heart of the rainforest of Agumbe with a few
Arecanut plantations, the area around has lush forests, streams leading the Tunga river,
grasslands and hills. These different environments hold good for a number of diverse species
of spider respectively.

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MATERIALS AND METHOD

The method used to find and identify the spiders were through observation and comparing the
morphological features to published literature and field guides, the spiders which could not be
identified on spot were photographed for later identification. On an average 6hrs a day were
spent on each sampling site. The study was conducted on the month of September and May
2015. All micro habitats like forest floor, foliage, ferns, tree trunks grasslands, waterbodies
etc where spiders are probable were analyzed. The identifications were done with reference to
(Tikader, 1987; Sebastian and Peter, 2008) To avoid misidentifications only the mature
spiders were taken into consideration. The spiders were photographed when possible for
documentation.
CHECKLIST
1.Araneidae (Orb weavers)

Araneus sp. Orb Weaver
Arachnura angora Orb Weaver
Araneus diadematus Orb Weaver
Argiope sp. Orb Weaver
Argiope aemula Orb Weaver
Argiope anusuja Orb Weaver
Argiope pulchella Orb Weaver
Cyclosa sp. Orb Weaver
Cyclosa confraga Orb Weaver
Cyclosa hexatuberculata Orb Weaver

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Cyclosa bifida Orb Weaver

Larinia sp. Orb Weaver
Gasteracantha sp. Orb Weaver
Gasteracantha geminata Orb Weaver
Gasteracantha hasselti Orb Weaver
Gasteracantha kuhli Orb Weaver
Gasteracantha dalyi Orb Weaver
Neoscona sp. Orb Weaver
Neoscona bengalensis Orb Weaver
Neoscona mukerji Orb Weaver
Poltys sp. Orb Weaver
Parawixia sp. Orb Weaver
Parawixia dehaani Orb Weaver
Mecracantha sp Orb Weaver
Cytrophora sp Orb Weaver
Crytophora cicatrosa Orb Weaver
Crytophora citricola Orb Weaver
Crytophora molucceniss Orb Weaver
2.Clubionidae (sac spiders)

Clubiona drassodes Foliage Runner
3.Lycosidae- (wolf spiders)

Lycosa sp Ground Runners
Hippasa sp. Ground Runners
Pardosa sp. Ground Runners
4.Saticidae- (Jumping spiders)

Asemonea tenuipes Stalker
Phintella Vittata Stalker
Plexippus paykuli Stalker
Epeus sp. Stalker
Hyllus sp. Stalker
Marpissa sp. Stalker
Telamonia sp. Stalker
Myrmarachne sp. Stalker
Beata sp. Stalker
Cheliferoides sp. Stalker
Leptofreya sp. Stalker
Lyssomanes sp. Stalker
5.Sparassidae- (Giant crab spiders)

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Heteropoda sp. Ground Runners

Olios sp Ground Runners
6.Tetragnathidae (Long jaw orbweavers)

Leucauge decorata Orb Weaver
Tetragnatha sp. Orb Weaver
Tetragnatha javana Orb Weaver
Opadometa fastigata Orb Weaver
7.Theridiidae
Latrodectus sp. Tangle Web Builder
Steatoda sp. Tangle Web Builder
Argyrodes flavences Tangle Web Builder
Argyrodes sp Tangle Web Builder
8.Thomisidae- (crab spiders)

Thomisus sp. Ambushers
Xysticus sp. Ambushers
9.Pisauridae- (Nursery web spider)
Pisaura sp. Ground Hunter

Nilus sp. Ground Hunter
Thalassius sp Ground Hunter
10.Pholcidae – (Cellar spiders)

Pholcus sp Foliage Weaver
11.Oxyopidae- (Lynx spiders)

Oxyopes sp. Foliage Hunter
Oxyopes shweta Foliage Hunter
Oxyopes javanus Foliage Hunter
Peucetia viridana Foliage Hunter
12.Nephlilidie- (Giant wood spider)
Herennia sp Foliage Hunter

Nephila kuhlii Foliage Weaver
Nephila pilipes Foliage Weaver
13.Hersilia- (Two tailed spiders)

Hersilia sp Foliage Hunter

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14.Deinopidae –(Net casting spider)

Deinopisis sp Foliage Hunter
15.Linyphiidae
Linyphiidae sp. Foliage weaver
16.Gnaphosidae
Drassodes sp. Ground hunter
Zelotes sp. Ground hunter
Scopoides sp. Ground hunter
17.Uloboridae
Uloborus sp. Foliage hunter
18.Eresidae
Stegodyphus sarasinorum Foliage weaver
RESULTS
From the checklist obtained there were around 80 species belongining to 18 families of 53
genera of spiders taken note of in two seasons, monsoon and summer. In comparison to the
monsoon season the number of spiders who weave orbs such as spiders found in the family
Araneidae were found in abundance in all habitats but their numbers decreased drastically
during the month of summer. The Lycosids were of constant number in both seasons, there
was an increase in the grass spiders in the summer season. During the monsoon season it was
observed that most spiders were either mating or were looking after their egg sacs and
offsprings.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS :
This paper wouldn’t be possible without the help and guidance of the following people :-
Viraj R Torsekar, M.B Krishna, Charles M, Gowri Shankar, Prashanth, Udit, Sharmila,
Zeeshan A Mirza,Sanjay S, Karan Dubey, Tejas R Rao, Nidhi. Girish , Dakshin.
I express my gratitude towards my family and friends for their co-operation and
encouragement which helped me in the completion of the project.

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REFERENCES
1. Biology of spiders / Rainer F. Foelix. — 3rd ed.
2. Spiders at DMOZ
3. Picture story about the jumping spider Aelurillus vinsignitus
4. New Mexico State University “The Spiders of the
5. Arid Southwest”
6. Online Videos of Jumping Spiders (Salticids) and other arachnids Spider at the
Encyclopedia of Life
7. List of field guides to spiders, from the International Field Guides database
8. A Manual for the study of the Spiders and theirRelatives by B. K. TIKADER
9. W. van Katwijk, Spinnen van Nederland, 1976, Balkema - Rotterdam - The
Netherlands, ISBN 90 6191 1028
10. D. Jones, Spinnen, 1983, Thieme - Baarn - The Netherlands, ISBN 90 5210 121 3
11. H. Pfletsinger, Spinnen, Thieme - Zutphen - The Netherlands, ISBN 9009 95020 2
12. F. Sauer, J.Wunderlich, Die schönsten Spinnen Europas, 1991, Eichenweg 8, 8047
Karlsfeld, Germany, ISBN 3 923010 03 6
13. B.&M. Baehr, Welche Spinne ist das?, 1987, Kosmos naturführer, Stuttgart,
Germany, ISBN 3 440 05798 4
14. H. Bellman, Spinnen beobachten, bestimmen, 1992, Naturbuch verlag, Augsburg,
Germany, ISBN 3 89440 064 1
15. E. Kullmann, H. Stern, Leben am seidenen Faden, Die rätselvolle welt der Spinnen,
1975, Verlagsgruppe Bertelsmann Verlag, Munchen, Germany, ISBN 90 222 0239 9
16. M.J. Roberts, Spiders of Britain & northern Europe, 1995, Harper Collins Publishers,
IBN 000 219981 5
17. M.J. Roberts, Spinnengids, 1998, Tirion, Baarn, ISBN 90 5210 268 6
18. R.&.K. Preston-Mafham, Spiders of the world, 1984, Blandford, ISBN 0 7137 2392 0
19. Journals published by the Werkgroep Inheemse Spinnen (WIS), Bollenbergen 45,
9052 Zwijnaarde, Belgium
20. H. Bellmann, Spinnentiere Europas, 1997, Kosmos, Stuttgart, Germany, ISBN 3-440-
07025-5
21. B. Simon - Brunett, The silken web, 1994, Reed books, Chatswood NSW, Australia,
ISBN 0 7301 0401 X
22. S. Heimer, Spinnen, 1997, Landbuch verlag, Hannover, Germany, ISBN 3 7842 0543
7
23. W.J. Gertsch, American spiders, 1949, D. van Nostrand company, USA
24. R. Mascord, Australian spiders, 1970, Reed, Artarmon, Australia, SBN 589 07065 7
25. K.C. McKeown, Australian spiders, 1962, Sirius books, Australia

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Paper-21
BIOEFFICACY OF OIL FORMULATIONS AGAINST FLEA

BEETLE, LUPEROMORPHA VITTATA (DUVIVIER) UNDER
LABORATORY AND FIELD CONDITIONS ON CABBAGE, BRASSICA
OLERACEAE
A.K. Chakravarthy, S. Onkar Naik*, V. Sridhar, S. Thippeswamy and M. Jayashankar
Division of Entomology and Nematology
ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Hessaraghatta Lake Post,
Bengaluru-560089
E-mail: onkar632@gmail.com
INTRODUCTION
Flea beetles are one of the most difficult-to-manage pests of eggplant and cole crops
and also are a problem on seedlings of tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, turnips, radishes, and
corn (Kuepper, 2003). Flea beetles are phytophagous in the larval and adult stage, feeding on
roots and stems (larvae), leaves, flowers and pollen (larvae and adults) (Giovanna and
Barbara, 2009). They are frequent pests in seedbeds and on new transplants and feeding
damage can kill seedlings and small transplants (Metcalf and Metcalf, 1993). Scars on a
variety of foliage from above-ground feeding may render produce unmarketable, sometimes
leading to total crop loss. Chewing damage on leaves results in a characteristic pitting or
shotholing. Severe damage to above-ground plant parts can kill seedlings and young
transplants, and in older plants can lead to crop stress, reduced growth, stunting, and eventual
death. Flea beetle, Luperomorpha vittata (Duvivier) (Coleoptera: Chrysomeloidea) is
reported as minor pest on many crops including pumpkin, lucerne, mulberry, ragi, grasses
and damages the flowers of ornamental
plants(http://www.nbair.res.in/insectpests/Luperomorpha-vittata.php, Sekhara, 1972,
Lingappa and Siddappaji, 1978; Santhakumari et al., 1979; Rajamma, 1982; Matthew and
Sivakumar, 2001).
Flea beetles are highly mobile and hence it is difficult to suppress them. The
development of resistance of flea beetles to synthetic insecticides on crucifers has also been
noted (Fan and Huang, 1991). Antifeedant and killing materials are applied to edges or whole
fields at the outset of infestation. There are several commercial insecticides labeled to control
flea beetles. The utility of biodegradable pesticides as safe option has often being
recommended for supplementation of synthetic insecticides. Thus, creating a renewed interest
in their development and use in integrated pest management of crops. The effectiveness of
synthetic organic insecticides (including neem, rotenone, pyrethrin, sabadilla) has been
reported in the control of flea beetles (Ellis and Bradley, 1992; Onunkun, 2012). Among the
problems of cabbage production in India are insect pest infestations. In view of sudden
destructive activities, the control of L. vittata became imperative.

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Oil formulations: Plant and animal based essential oil formulations (Neem oil, Pongemia oil,
Fish oil @ 3ml and 5 ml each and Fish oil 1ml + Pongemia oil 1ml + Neem oil 1 ml) were
developed and evaluated for their bioefficacy in comparison with synthetic chemicals
(Flubendamide 39.5 SC @ 0.3ml, Spinosad 45 SC @ 0.75ml and Indoxacarb 14.5 SC @
0.75ml) under laboratory and field conditions during kharif 2015
Field trials: Field trials were conducted during kharif 2014-15 at the ICAR- Indian Institute
of Horticultural Research, Bengaluru (Figure 1). The commercial variety Unnati was selected
and seeds were sown in trays. Twenty five days old cabbage seedlings were planted at 60 cm
X 60 cm. The experiment was laid out in a Randomized Block Design (RBD) with 12
treatments and 3 replications. The experimental plot was kept weed free throughout the
period of the trial. FYM, Fertilizer (N.P.K.) and other recommended nutrients were
incorporated timely and based crop need.
Laboratory assays: The experiment was conducted with same set of treatments at laboratory
using Petri dishes (0.4 m diameter), the petri dishes bottom covered with water soaked
germination papers to maintain the moisture of the cabbage leaves. Each of the essential oils /
insecticides was applied separately onto the cabbage leaves at the rate of 1 ml. After
application, the treated cabbage leaves kept in the Petri dishes were exposed to the air for
about 30 min to allow dry. Then, 1ml of distilled water was added to each treated cabbage
leaves to facilitate the transfer of the compounds from cabbage leaves to the insect body. For
control, cabbage leaves were treated with distilled water at the same level, separately. After
treatment application, 10 adult beetles were introduced separately into the treated and control
cabbage leaves in the Petri dishes. Treatments were arranged in a completely randomized
design with four replications. Percentage mortality was recorded h after treatment. The
experiment was repeated twice.
Data collection and statistical analysis: Sampling of the beetles was by visual count and
this commenced 5 weeks after planting. Data collection on flea beetles took place in the
morning between 9-11 am. There were 5 plants per plot consisting of 15 plants per treatment
with the mean numbers of the insects recorded in each case. Reduction in number of flea
beetles was converted to percent reduction and arc sine transformed values were subjected to
one- way analysis of variance (ANOVA). Differences in treatment means were separated by
Duncan’s Multiple Range Test (DMRT) test at 5% level of significance. All statistical
analyses were done by SAS version for windows.

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The results (Figure 2) indicated that the synergist combination of oils (@ 1ml) was in
par with the Spinosad both under laboratory and field conditions with a marginal difference
of 4-5 %. The synergist combination of the oil formulation exhibited high level (90 % under
field condition and 80 % under laboratory condition) (Tables 1 & 2) of insecticidal activity in
effectively reducing flea beetle population and proved significantly different from the
untreated. Joshi and Paneru (1999) have shown that the plant extracts of A. calamus, A.
conyzoides, A. indica and U. dioca demonstrated potent insecticidal properties against the
flea beetle, Podagrica nemoru. Only scanty information is available on the biology of
Luperomorpha spp. Matthew and Sivakumar (2001) have reported that adults of L.
nigripennis attack dry seeds of an arboreal leguminous plant, Leucaena leucocephala (Lam.)
deWit in both the field and in seed storage areas in India. Other species of Luperomorpha are
known to inflict various types of damage on cultivated plants. Luperomorpha bombayensis
(Jacoby) attacks flowers of eggplant (Santhakumari et al., 1979) and sweet potato (Rajamma,
1982).
Oils disrupt feeding by insects and have few residual effects, so their impact on
beneficial insects is minimal. Toxicity is minimal compared to alternative pesticides, and oils
quickly dissipate through evaporation, leaving little residue. Oils also are easy to apply with
existing spray equipment and can be mixed with many other pesticides to extend their
performance. This is the first report of a formulation of oils and their evaluation against on L.
vittata. Once cole crops reach the five-leaf stage, they generally become able to tolerate a
moderate level of damage; older plants are even more tolerant as earlier reported (Gorge
Kuepper, 2003). The findings in these trials showed the potentials of the oils in controlling L.
vittata incidence in field. The development and use of oils is recommended. However further
research work on the mode of action of and rates of application should be investigated.
REFERENCES
1. Ellis BW & Bradley FM (1992). The Organic Gardenerís Handbook Of Natural Insect
and Disease Control. Rodale Press, Emmaus, PA. 534 p.
2. Fan KY & Huang IJ (1991). Occurrence and control of major insect pests on
vegetables in Taiwan. Chinese Journal of Entomology, 4 1-13.
3. Giovanna DB & Barbara C (2009). Notes on the biology and ethology of
Luperomorpha xanthodera, a flea beetle recently introduced into Europe. Bulletin of
Insectology 62 (1) 61-68.
4. Joshi SL & Paneru RB (1999). Botanicals against insect pests of agricultural
importance in Nepal. Paper presented on Regional training program in chemistry of
natural products and related fields. Central Department of Chemistry, Tribhuvan
University

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5. Kuepper G (2003). Flea Beetle: Organic Control.

http://www.carolinafarmstewards.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/6-ATTRA-Flea-
Beetles.pdf
6. Matthew D & Sivakumar KC (2001). Outbreak of minor seed weevil (Luperomorpha
nigripennis Duv.) in leucern. Plant Protection Bulletin, Faridabad, 53 (3/4) 18.
7. Metcalf RL & Metcalf RA (1993). Destructive and useful Insects, 5th edition.
McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York, NY. p. 14.6ñ14.9.
8. Onunkun O (2012). Evaluation of aqueous extracts of five plants in the control of flea
beetles on okra (Abelmoschus esculentus (L.) Moench). J Biopest, 5 62 – 67.
9. Rajamma P (1982). New records of insect pests of sweet potato in Kerala.
Agricultural Journal of Kerala, 20 (1) 84-88.
10. Santhakumari K, Nalinakumari T & Nair MRGK (1979). New record of a pest of
brinjal. Entomon, 4 (2) 215-216.
Table 1: Effect of different oil formulations and insecticides on population of L. vitatta

under Field condition.
Per cent flea beetle mortality

Treatments 3 DAT 7 DAT 10 14 Mean
DAT DAT
77.78 86.11 80.56

Neem oil @ 3ml 55.56 75.00
(62.16) (68.32) (63.91)
(48.18) (60.64)
50.00 75.00 72.22

Pongemia oil @ 3 ml 44.44 60.42
(44.98) (60.19) (58.22)
(41.79) (51.29)
84.03 91.67 91.67

Fish oil @ 3 ml 58.33 81.42
(66.43) (73.19) (73.19)
(49.78) (65.65)
83.33 91.67 92.50

Neem oil @ 5 ml 66.67 83.54
(66.35) (73.19) (74.09)
(54.71) (67.09)
52.78 69.44 63.89

Pongemia oil @ 5 ml 44.44 57.64
(46.58) (56.47) (53.07)
(41.79) (49.48)
80.56 89.58 92.22

Fish oil @ 5 ml 69.44 82.95
(63.91) (71.52) (73.80)
(56.47) (66.42)
75.00 72.22 61.11
Neem oil @ 1ml + Pongemia oil 1ml
72.22 (60.19) (58.22) (51.42) 70.14

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(58.54) (57.09)
Fish oil 1ml + Pongemia oil 1ml + 89.58 93.75 95.97

Neem oil 1 ml 86.11 (71.52) (76.02) (78.62) 91.35
(68.32) (73.62)
88.89 86.81 90.28

Flubendamide 39.5 SC @ 0.3ml 77.78 85.94
(70.75) (69.08) (72.42)
(61.94) (68.55)
96.28 95.17 98.00

Spinosad 45 SC @ 0.75ml 91.67 95.28
(79.03) (77.74) (81.84)
(73.19) (77.95)
90.44 89.33 88.00

Indoxacarb 14.5 SC @ 0.75ml 80.56 87.08
(72.03) (71.02) (69.70)
(63.91) (69.17)
1.43 2.32 1.95

Control/ Check 1.13 1.71
(6.76) (8.64) (7.77)
(4.97) (7.04)
LSD ( p=0.05) 5.96 6.32 6.20 4.70 5.80
CV (%) 6.78 6.30 5.76 4.40 5.81
SEM (±) 2.03 2.16 2.11 1.60 1.98
Mean of three replicates
Figures in parenthesis are square root transformed values.
Table 2: Effect of different oil formulations and insecticides on population of L. vitatta

under laboratory condition.
Per cent flea beetle mortality

Treatments 24 hr 48 hr 72 hr AT Mean
AT AT
46.67 50.00 63.33 53.33
Neem oil @ 3ml
(43.06) (44.98) (52.84) (46.96)
33.33 43.33 46.67 41.11
Pongemia oil @ 3 ml
(35.20) (41.14) (43.06) (39.80)
56.67 63.33 66.67 62.22
Fish oil @ 3 ml
(48.83) (52.75) (54.76) (52.11)
56.67 63.33 63.33 61.11
Neem oil @ 5 ml
(48.83) (52.75) (52.75) (51.44)
43.33 53.33 60.00 52.22
Pongemia oil @ 5 ml
(41.14) (46.90) (50.83) (46.29)

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63.33 66.67 73.33 67.78

Fish oil @ 5 ml
(52.75) (54.76) (58.98) (55.50)
60.00 70.00 66.67 65.56
Neem oil @ 5 ml
(50.83) (56.97) (54.76) (54.19)
Fish oil 1ml + Pongemia oil 1ml + Neem oil 78.33 86.67 90.00 85.00
1 ml (62.26) (69.44) (73.37) (68.36)
50.00 73.33 83.33 68.89
Flubendamide 39.5 SC @ 0.3ml
(44.98) (58.98) (66.12) (56.69)
78.33 93.33 96.67 89.44
Spinosad 45 SC @ 0.75ml
(62.26) (76.15) (77.60) (72.01)
60.00 76.67 80.00 72.22
Indoxacarb 14.5 SC @ 0.75ml
(50.83) (61.20) (68.13) (60.05)
3.33 3.33 6.67 4.44
Control/ Check
(3.07) (6.14) (9.21) (6.14)
LSD (0.05) 7.00 9.52 10.94 9.15
CV (%) 9.17 10.89 11.76 10.61
SEM (±) 2.40 3.26 3.75 3.14
Mean of four replicates
Figures in parenthesis are arc sine transformed values
Figure 1: Cabbage experimental plot at IIHR Figure 2: Feeding injury on cabbage

caused by L. vittata

Conservation
Paper-22
Identification of genes in the Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL) of

IR64/Azucena QTL-NILs.
Grace Sharon Arul Selvi1,2* , B. Shilpa Reddy1,3 and Shailaja Hittalmani1
1: MASLAB, Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, UAS, Bangalore.
2: Department of Biotechnology, St. Joseph’s College, Bangalore.
3: Department of Biotechnology, Karpagam University, Coimbatore.
*: Author for Correspondence – grace@sjc.ac.in
Abstract
Rice, an important cereal crop of the world is constrained by a variety of factors in exhibiting its full
yield potential, especially in the rainfed growing regions. One of the important factors limiting its
growth is drought, to mitigate which, several strategies that efficiently employ a gamut of QTL that
control root morphology has been identified. In the present study, 4 such QTL from a NIL population
of IR64/Azucena have been identified. The genes that could reside in these regions have been
analysed through ePCR as well as through BLAST. Several house keeping genes as well as those that
directly contribute to drought tolerance and or resistance have been identified.
Introduction
As one of the world’s most important cereal, rice (Oryza sativa L.) demands a productive growth
environment. However, with the rampant and imminent climate change coupled with a horde of
constraints that limit water availability (Krishna and Hittalmani, 2009, Naresh Babu, 2011,
Keshavamurthy, 2011) in the rice growing belts, it becomes imperative to breed varieties that perform
consistently under stress and under non-traditional aerobic environments, especially since rice suffers
heavily during its critical reproductive growth stage (Lanceras et. al., 2002, Lafitte et. al, 2003). The
manipulation of root systems is a well proven strategy in the development of tolerant genotypes
towards drought (Yoshida and Hasegawa, 1982; Ekanayake et. al., 1989; O’Toole and Bland, 1987;
Thanh et. al., 1999, Venuprasad et. al., 2012), with several QTL regions being identified across
breeding material (Price and Tomos, 1997; Yadav et. al., 1997; Courtois et. al., 2000; Kamoshita et.
al., 2002, Vaishali, 2003) in rice.
Identification of the genes underlying QTLs is yet another aspect of identifying useful
combinations of QTLs in breeding exercises. Given the abundant QTLs that have been identified
across species and traits, identifying genes present in the QTL regions offers precision in analyzing
and understanding its effects. Genes underlying QTLs for abiotic stress resistance/ tolerance such as
cold stress (Rabbani et. al. 2003), salt stress (Oztur et. al., 2002; Rabbani et. al., 2003) and drought
stress (Garg et. al., 2002; Malatasri et. al., 2002; Agarwal et. al., 2002; Wang et. al., 2005,) have been
elucidated.

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Material and Methods

Plant Material
A hundred and thirty-five lines of a doubled haploid (DHLs) population derived from
a cross between IR64, a high yielding, lowland, indica variety and Azucena, a traditional
upland, aromatic japonica variety was developed by Guiderdoni et. al. (1988) at IRRI. From
out of these lines, Shen et. al. (2001) developed a set of twenty nine near isogenic lines
(NILs) based on the molecular information developed by Yadav et. al. (1997) on root
morphology. Twenty-nine near-isogenic lines of IR64 (indica, high yielding) with QTL
introgressions from Azucena (japonica, drought tolerant) controlling root morphology (QTL
Introgressed Lines (QILs)) developed by Shen et. al. (2001) and fine mapped by Vaishali
(2003), was used for the study.
Identification of genes present in the QTL regions

‘Electronic Polymerase Chain Reaction’ approach (‘ePCR’; Schuler, 1997) using Perl
regular expression alignment of primer sequences with orientation and threshold distance
constraints to identify putative PCR amplicons in target sequences was used to arrive at the
genes that reside in each of the QTL region. The primers for analysis were obtained from the
Gramene database (Ware et. al., 2002; www.gramene.org). Markers were correlated with the
physical map by ePCR, run against the rice genome BAC sequences, retrieved from the
Gramene database and by BLAST (Altschul et. al., 1990) alignment searches of the rice BAC
sequences.
The genes were also identified by searching in the QTL2gene facility developed by
the Zhejiang University of Science, China (Wang et. al., 2005;
http://ibi.zju.edu.cn.qtl2gene/qtl2gene.htm). The genes were also identified after
downloading the information between the flanking markers found in Gen Bank
(www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) and from the rice databases of The Institute for Genomic Research
(TIGR; www.tigr.org). These annotations were assessed using the gbrowse sequence browser
from the Genetic Model Organism Database project (http://www.gmod.org; Stein et. al.,
2002; Lewis et. al.,2002).
Results and Discussion
BLAST algorithm is a basic search engine that aligns query sequences against sequences
stored in databases based on certain conserved/ consensus domains. In the present

Conservation
investigation, the sequences between the flanking markers on each of the four chromosomes:
1, 2, 7 and 9 were obtained from the Rice Genome Sequence that is available in the public
domain. The sequence was then subjected to BLAST analysis and the results are presented in
Table 1. Several house-keeping genes have been identified at all four chromosomal regions,
in addition to biotic stress resistance genes. Among the genes that contribute to drought
tolerance and or resistance, alpha-trehalose phosphate synthase (UDP-forming)123K chain
gene, a fragment of subtilisin like protease, heat shock protein 70 and cytosolic fructose-
bisphosphate aldolase were identified on chromosome1. 14-3-3 like protein, extension-like
protein, gamma-Tip protein, dnaj protein homolog 1 and thioredoxin reductase (NADPH)
were identified on chromosome 2. On chromosome 7, glutathione S-transferase and calcium
dependant protein kinase were identified, while on chromosome 9, POS18 protein were
identified. None of these stress specific genes showed overlap between chromosomal regions.
Results indicated the presence of several housekeeping genes that function in cell
maintenance and metabolism. Specific genes for stress resistance were found on chromosome
1, 2 and 7. None of the genes identified from the sequence obtained from chromosome 9 were
related to drought resistance.
References:
1. Agrawal, G.K., Rakwal, R. and Iwahashi, H., 2002, Isolation of novel rice (Oryza
sativa L.) multiple stress responsive map kinase gene, osmsrmk2, whose mRNA
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6. http://ibi.zju.edu.cn.qtl2gene/qtl2gene.htm
7. http://www.gmod.org
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2002, Effect of Phenotyping environment on identification of quantitative trait loci for rice
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rice (Oryza sativa L.) genotypes under aerobic conditions. Electronic J. Pl. Breed.,
2(2):194-199.

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10. Krishna T.V. and Shailaja Hittalmani, 2009, Genetic assessment of root morphology
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drought- tolerant genotypes. In: Fischer, K.S., Lafitte, R., Fukai, S., Atlin, G. and Hardy,
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K., Seki, M., Shinozaki, K. and Yamaguchi-Shinozaki, K., 2003, Monitoring expression
profiles of rice genes under cold, drought, and high salinity stresses and abscisic acid
application using cDNA microarray and RNA-gel blot analyses. Pl. Physiol., 133: 1755-
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isogenic lines of rice introgressed with QTLs for root depth through marker-aided
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24. www.gramene.org
25. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
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controlling root morphology and root distribution in a doubled haploid population of rice.
Theor. Appl. Genet., 94: 619 –632.

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28. Yoshida, S. and Hasegawa, S., 1982, The rice root system: Its development and
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Table1: List of genes identified by BLAST and in the QTL regions.

Sl Chro
No. No. Gene Organism identified in Probable Function
1 1 cop1 regulatory protein Arabidopsis thaliana photomorphogenesis-regulatory
2 1 histone H2B Zea mays structural protein
3 1 alpha,alpha-trehalose-phosphate synthase (UDP-forming) 123K chain Saccharomyces cerevisiae osmoregulation-regulatory
4 1 elongation factor 2 (EF-2) Chlorella kessleri protein synthesis
5 1 50S ribosomal protein L13 Mycobacterium leprae structural protein
6 1 histone H4 Lycopersicon esculentum structural protein
7 1 aspartate aminotransferase, cytoplasmic isozyme 2 Arabidopsis thaliana amino acid metabolism, Krebs cycle
8 1 subtilisin-like protease (fragment) Arabidopsis thaliana stress resistance
9 1 disease resistance protein kinase Pto Lycopersicon esculentum biotic stress responese
10 1 polygalacturonase inhibitor protein Solanum lycopersicum biotic stress responese
11 1 beta-6 tubulin Zea mays structural protein
12 1 multicatalytic endopeptidase complex chain C8 Homo sapiens structural protein
13 1 ribosomal protein L30 Gallus gallus structural protein
14 1 ADP-ribosylation factor Zea mays vescicle biosynthesis regulation
15 1 cytochrome-b5 reductase Saccharomyces cerevisiae lipid metabolism
16 1 phosphoglycerate mutase Zea mays carbohydrate metabolism
17 1 40S ribosomal protein S23 (S12) Fragaria ananassa structural protein
18 1 histone H2B Triticum aestivum structural protein
19 1 heat shock protein 70 (fragment) Trifolium repens stress resistance
20 1 (S)-tetrahydroberberine oxidase Coptis japonica alkaloid biosynthesis
21 1 glycogen phosphorylase, muscle form Homo sapiens carbohydarate metabolism
22 1 S-adenosylmethionine synthetase Oryza sativa carbon metabolism
23 1 hypothetical protein Solanum tuberosum
24 1 probable serine/threonine-specific protein kinase BSK2 Brassica napus non-specific regulation
aspartate aminotransferase, AatA, AspAT=symbiotic nitrogen fixation
25 1 protein Rhizobium meliloti nitrogen fixation
26 1 general negative regulator of transcription subunit 1 Saccharomyces cerevisiae transcription regulation
27 1 recA protein. Brucella abortus DNA repair and maintenance
28 1 fructose-bisphosphate aldolase ,cytosolic Oryza sativa stress response
29 1 hypothetical 200.6 KD protein B0228.2 in chromosome II Caenorhabditis elegans
30 1 FK506-binding protein precursor Homo sapiens protein folding
31 1 selenium-binding protein Mus musculus protein transport
32 1 hypothetical protein Lycopersicon esculentum
33 1 serine palmitoyltransferase 2 Schizosaccharomyces pombe lipid metabolism
34 1 Nascent polypeptide associated complex alpha chain Homo sapiens host-virus interaction, protein transport
35 1 hypothetical amino-acid permease C8A4.11 Schizosaccharomyces pombe
36 1 cysteine synthase ; cytACS1 Arabidopsis thaliana salt&metal stress response
Table 1contd.: List of genes identified by BLAST and in the QTL regions.
Sl Chro
37 2 diaminopimelate decarboxylase Pseudomonas aeruginosa lysine biosynthesis
38 2 putative vacuolar protein sorting-associated protein Schizosaccharomyces pombe sorting membrane associated proteins
39 2 ribosomal protein S7 Rattus norvegicus structural protein
40 2 riboflavin biosynthesis protein ribG Bacillus subtilis vitamin synthesis
41 2 growth factor-inducible zinc finger protein MPS-1 Homo sapiens tumor response
42 2 40S ribosomal protein S8 Oryza sativa structural protein
43 2 ribosomal protein L35 Rattus norvegicus structural protein
44 2 hypothetical protein Lycopersicon esculentum
45 2 ribosomal protein S10 Rattus norvegicus structural protein
46 2 RSD1 protein Saccharomyces cerevisiae splicing mechanism
47 2 RNA-binding protein RBP1 Saccharomyces cerevisiae splicing mechanism
48 2 14-3-3-like protein Zea mays stress response
49 2 set protein (HLA-DR associated protein II) Homo sapiens negative regulation of transciption, apoptosis
50 2 putative serine/threonine-protein kinase D1044.3 in chromosome III Caenorhabditis elegans zinc finger
51 2 Xe169 protein Homo sapiens
52 2 glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase Ranunculus acer carbon metabolism, induction of apoptosis
53 2 acetohydroxy acid synthase small chain Brevibacterium flavum amino acid biosynthesis
54 2 transmembrane protein Hordeum vulgare probable receptor
55 2 RNA-binding protein 1 Drosophila melanogaster post-transcriptional regulation
56 2 extensin-like protein Zea mays cell wall morphogenesis regulation
57 2 polyribonucleotide nucleotidyltransferase Photorhabdus luminescens mRNA degradation
58 2 phenylalanine ammonia-lyase Oryza sativa phenylpropanoid metabolism
59 2 S-adenosylmethionine synthetase Populus deltoides one carbon metabolism
60 2 nitrilase 4 Arabidopsis thaliana nitrogen detoxification
61 2 multicatalytic endopeptidase complex, chain C3 Homo sapiens proteasome complex
62 2 ypt family Zea mays vescicular and membrane transport
63 2 gamma-Tip protein Oryza sativa osmotic water permeability

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64 2 dnaj protein homolog 1 (fragment) Allium porrum stress response
65 2 transmembrane protein Zea mays probable receptor
66 2 clathrin coat assembly protein AP50 Rattus norvegicus intracellular protein transport
67 2 enolase 2 Zea mays glycolysis
68 2 thioredoxin reductase (NADPH) Saccharomyces cerevisiae electron donor, oxidative stress response
69 2 omega-6 fatty acid desaturase, endoplasmic reticulum isozyme 2 Glycine max lipid metabolism
70 2 ADP,ATP carrier protein precursor Oryza sativa transport across mitochondrial inner membrane
Table 1 contd: List of genes identified by BLAST and in the QTL regions.
Sl Chro
71 7 porphobilinogen synthase (fragment) Pisum sativum tetrapyrrole biosynthesis
72 7 GOS2 protein Oryza sativa interaction of ASF-1 transcription factor
73 7 beta-1,3-glucanase - tobacco (fragment) Nicotiana sp transcription enhancers
74 7 histone H2A.IV - Volvox carteri Volvox carteri structural protein
75 7 S-receptor kinase precursor Brassica campestris pollen recognition
76 7 probable glutathione S-transferase Oryza sativa heat shock stress response
77 7 histone H4 Pisum sativum structural protein
78 7 S-receptor kinase precursor Brassica campestris pollen recognition
79 7 calcium-dependent protein kinase Daucus carota oxidative stress response
80 7 ribG protein - Bacillus subtilis Bacillus subtilis riboflavin biosynthesis
81 7 hypothetical 37.1 kd protein in ram2-atp7 intergenic region Saccharomyces cerevisiae hypothetical protein
82 7 translation elongation factor eEF-1 beta chain (cv. WS) Arabidopsis thaliana transcription
83 7 adenylate kinase Dictyostelium discoideum cellular energy homeostasis
84 9 ubiquitin Lycopersicon esculentum protein tagging and sorting
85 9 ubiquitin / ribosomal protein CEP52 Oryza sativa ribosomal protein
86 9 beta-glucosidase Manihot esculenta carbohydarate catabolism
87 9 dihydroflavonol-4-reductase Antirrhinum majus flavonoid biosynthesis
88 9 beta-glucosidase A Bacillus polymyxa carbohydarate catabolism
89 9 ribosomal protein L32 Mus musculus structural protein
90 9 POS18 protein Saccharomyces cerevisiae stress response
Genes linked to drought resistance/ tolerance have been indicated in bold

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Paper-23
Graphical genotyping of inheritance of QTL regions in IR64/Azucena

pyramids in rice (Oryza sativa L.).
Grace Sharon Arul Selvi1,2* , B. Shilpa Reddy1,3 and Shailaja Hittalmani1
1: MASLAB, Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, UAS, Bangalore.
2: Department of Biotechnology, St. Joseph’s College, Bangalore.
3: Department of Biotechnology, Karpagam University, Coimbatore.
*: Author for Correspondence –grace@sjc.ac.in
Abstract
Rice, is plagued by a plethora of biotic and abiotic stresses. Among the abiotic factors
plaguing rice, drought is of prime importance. Exposure of rice to drought during the critical
growth periods deleteriously affects yield, especially during milking and grain filling stage.
The present study examines the inheritance of Azucena (drought resistant japonica)
introgressions in IR64 (drought susceptible indica).
Introduction
Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is the world’s second most important cereal, largely grown and consumed in
Asia. With the rampant climate changes, accompanied by a gamut of constraints that limit water
availability (Krishna and Hittalmani, 2009, Naresh Babu, 2011, Keshavamurthy, 2011) in the rice
growing belts, breeding varieties that perform well under stress and under non-traditional aerobic
environments is a welcome strategy, especially since rice suffers heavily during its critical
reproductive growth stage (Lanceras et. al., 2002, Lafitte et. al, 2003). The manipulation of root
systems is a well proven strategy in the development of tolerant genotypes towards drought (Yoshida
and Hasegawa, 1982; Ekanayake et. al., 1989; O’Toole and Bland, 1987; Thanh et. al., 1999,
Venuprasad et. al., 2012), with several QTL regions being identified across breeding material (Price
and Tomos, 1997; Yadav et. al., 1997; Courtois et. al., 2000; Kamoshita et. al., 2002, Vaishali, 2003)
in rice.
Since an ideal genotype for any stress situation would be one that possesses a wide repertoire
of genes/ QTLs that pertain to the stress under question, pyramiding of genes/ QTLs have been
attempted successfully in rice blast (Hittalmani et. al., 2000), rice blight (Singh et. al., 2001) and
against insect pests such as diamond back moth (Cao et. al., 2002). Apart from the enhanced
phenotype, pyramiding offers a common background to analyse the interactive effects of QTLs.
Subsequently QTL pyramiding was attempted by several researchers (Castro et. al., 2003, Grace et.
al., 2004; Steele et. al., 2006, Wang et. al., 2012) in rice.
Graphical genotyping was developed by Young and Tanksley (1989) to graphically

represent the parental origin and allele composition of genotypes using molecular data in
tomato with advantages over both numerical data and linkage maps. Consequently, whole

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genome selection in phylogenetic breeding was considered possible. Young (1991) developed
‘Hyper Gene’ a software package to generate graphical genotypes based on a Macintosh
programme which also aids to select the best target individuals from a population for future
breeding. Eathington (1997) stated that in addition to genotypic value, complementation of
parental genotypes as well as phenotypes was crucial for selection of parents in any cross.
‘Supergene’ a computer programme that generates coloured graphical genotypes and
pedigree for a single linkage group or the entire genome was developed by Boutin et. al.,
(1995). Subsequently, graphical genotyping was used by Fahr et. al. (1993) to investigate the
origin of chromosomal segments in maize inbred B86 from its parental inbreds, Kinoshita et.
al., (1993) in genetic analysis of cybrids in an asymmetric fusion between O. rufipogan and
O. sativa, Cantrell et. al., (1998) in introgressed cotton germplasm, Saito et. al. (1998) in
arriving at the chromosomal location of the stripe resistance gene stv-b in rice, Tamura et. al.
(1992) in identifying the regions associated with resistance to Nephotettix cincticeps across
indica donors in rice, Vaishali (2003) to locate the regions introgressed from the long rooted
japonica donor ‘Azucena’ in IR64 and by Li et. al., (2012) in wheat.
Material and Methods

Plant Material
Twenty-nine near-isogenic lines of IR64 (indica, high yielding) with QTL
introgressions from Azucena (japonica, drought tolerant) controlling root morphology (QTL
Introgressed Lines (QILs)) developed by Shen et. al. (2001) and fine mapped by Vaishali
(2003) Table 1 was used for the study. These QILs were crossed pairwise to develop 2 and 3
QTL pyramids. The QILs, the generated pyramids along with parents: IR64, Azucena and
checks: Budda and Moroberekan were studied in a RCBD design with 2 replications under
aerobic non-stress conditions in farmer’s field, Shettigere, Bangalore North.
Molecular Markers
Yadav et. al. (1997) identified the four target QTL regions between the markers
RZ19, RG690, RZ730 and RZ801 on chromosome 1, RM29, RG171, RG157 and RZ318 on
chromosome 2, RM234, CDO418, RZ978, CDO38, and RM248 on chromosome 7 and
RZ228 and RZ12 on chromosome 9. The markers were used by Shen et. al. (2001) to develop
Near-Isogenic Lines (NILs) of IR64 with Azucena alleles at the target loci through backcross
breeding, with selections based strictly on marker genotypes with the exception of RZ228 and
RZ12 on chromosome 9, which were replaced by RM201 and RM242 after the BC2

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generation. Vaishali (2003) added 25 rice microsatellite markers to the QTL regions spanning
51.8cM on chromosome 1, 88.7cM on chromosome 2, 19.7cM on chromosome 7 and 15.1cM
on chromosome 9.
Graphical Genotyping
A set of 29 NILs of IR64 for root traits (Shen et. al., 2001) along with parents, IR64
and Azucena, that was tested with 215 rice microsatellite markers and 250 RAPD markers
(Vaishali, 2003) was used and 50 markers were added to the locations.
The genotypes were analyzed using the markers enumerated in Tables 2 and 3 using
the same amplification conditions as mentioned and resolved as mentioned on 3.5% agarose.
The gels were then stained with ethidium bromide and visualized under uV light. The scoring
was as mentioned above: IR64 given a score of 1, Azucena: 3 while the heterozygous
genotypes were given a score of 2.
Graphical genotyping was done for the QILs using computer software ‘GGT32’
(http://www.spg.wau.nl/pv/pub/GGT) using molecular marker data. Locus data and Map
data were used and graphical genotypes were obtained for each linkage group separately.
Results
Graphical genotyping of the QTL regions
Graphical genotyping is a pictorial/ schematic representation of the blocks of
chromosomes inherited from either parent. It is especially useful in identifying and following
blocks of chromosomal segments through several generation based on marker genotypes.
Graphical genotyping was done for the QTL introgressed NILs and the generated pyramids at
the QTL regions only.
Graphical genotyping of QTL- introgressed NILs

The graphical genotypes of the QTL-NILs is presented in Fig 1. On chromosome 1,
qRT1-1 and qRT3-1 have inherited the QTL segment from RM5811 (139.40cM) to RM3681
(166.90cM), qRT2-1, qRT17-1+7 and qRT20-1+7 have the QTL segment from RM128
(126.5cM) to RM3681 (166.90cM), qRT16-1+7 has the QTL introgression from RM128
(126.5cM) to RM302 (135.80cM), qRT18-1+7 has the QTL introgression from RM212
(135.80cM) to RM 472 (146.40cM), qRT19-1+7 has the introgressed fragment from RM128
(126.5cM) to RM315 (143.70cM) and RM414 (161.50cM) to RM3681 (166.90cM), qRT21-
1+7 and qRT22-1 have the QTL introgression from RM6387 (134.70cM) to RM5811

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(139.40cM), while qRT23-1 has the QTL fragment from RM128 (126.5cM) to RM5781
(142.40cM).
On chromosome 2, qRT4-2 and qRT8-2 have the Azucena allele types from RM290
(50.30cM) and RM6933 (123.90cM), qRT5-2, qRT6-2 and qRT7-2 have the QTL fragment
from RM1234 (51.10cM) and RM6933 (123.90cM), qRT13-7 has the QTL fragment from
RM290 (50.30cM) to RM6843 (85.10cM), while qRT14-7 has the QTL introgression from
RM1234 (51.10cM) to RM1694 (81.40cM) and the Azucena genotype at marker locus
RM3688 (88.20cM).
qRT9-7, qRT10-7, qRT11-7, qRT12-7, qRT13-7, qRT14-7, qRT15-7, qRT16-1+7,
qRT17-1+7, qRT18-1+7, qRT19-1+7, qRT20-1+7 and qRT21-1+7 have the QTL
introgression from RM3691 (67.00cM) to RM248 (118.00cM) on chromosome 7. qRT24-9,
qRT25-9, qRT26-9, qRT27-9, qRT28-9 and qRT29-9 have the introgression fragment from
RM242 (72.10cM) to RM201 (78.00cM) on chromosome 9.
Graphical genotyping of the pyramid qRT11-7 x qRT18-1+7
The graphical genotype of the pyramid qRT11-7 x qRT18-1+7 is presented in Fig 2.
All the genotypes show the Azucena allele type from RM212 (135.80cM) onwards. Most
pyramids have retained the fragment at RM212 (135.80cM) to RM5811 (139.40cM) and
from RM529 (161.50cM) to RM3681 (166.90cM) on chromosome 1. On chromosome 7, all
the pyramids have retained the introgression from RM3691 (67.00cM) to RM248
(118.00cM).
Graphical genotyping of the pyramid qRT24-9 x qRT11-7
The graphical genotype of the pyramid qRT24-9 x qRT11-7 is presented in Fig 3.
Most pyramids have retained the fragment from RM3691 (67.00cM) to RM2789 (117.70cM)
on chromosome 7. Heterozygous alleles have been identified in some individuals from
RM3691 (67.00cM) to RM1048 (70.80cM) and between RM6050 (81.10cM) and RM234
(93.90cM) on chromosome 7. On chromosome 9, several genotypes have retained the
chromosome fragment from RM242 (72.10cM) and RM6491 (77.20cM), while few
individuals have recorded the Azucena allele type at RM201 (78.00).
on chromosome 2. On chromosome 7, recombinations throughout the region from RM3691
to RM248 (118.00cM) have been identified.

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and from RM414 (161.50) to RM3681 (166.90cM) on chromosome 1. On chromosome 7,
blocks of QTL regions have been retained.
Graphical genotyping of the pyramid qRT20-1+7 x qRT18-1+7
The graphical genotype of the pyramid qRT20-1+7 x qRT18-1+7 is presented in Fig
6. All individuals have retained the QTL introgression fragments from RM128 (126.50cM) to
RM3681 (166.90cM) on chromosome 1 and from RM3691 (67.00cM) to RM248 (118.00cM)
on chromosome 7.
Most individuals have retained the QTL region from RM1234 (51.10cM) to RM6933
(123.90cM) on chromosome 2, while on chromosome 7, blocks of QTL fragments have been
retained from RM3691 (67.00cM) to RM248 (118.00cM).
The graphical genotype of the pyramid qRT6-2 x qRT19-1+7 is presented in Fig 8.
Most individuals have retained the QTL introgression blocks from RM128 (126.5cM) to
RM315 (143.70cM) and from RM414 (161.50cM) to RM3681 (166.90cM) on chromosome
1, from RM1234 (51.10cM) to RM6933 (123.90cM) on chromosome 2, and from RM3691
(67.00cM) to RM248 (118.00cM) on chromosome 7.
Discussion
The QTL introgressed lines were grown under aerobic, non-stress conditions at Farmer’s
field, Shettigere. Significant differences among the genotypes were identified by analysis of
variance (data not shown) for all traits except for panicle length.
The introgression of any of the target QTL located on chromosomes 2, 7 and 9
significantly increased plant height of IR64, while the QTL located on chromosomes 1 and 9
significantly increased numbers of tillers in IR64. These results are in contrast to those
reported by Steele et. al. 2006. However, similar results were obtained by Shen et. al. 2001,
Mahesh 2007 and Priyadarshini 2009. However, most IR64/Azucena NILs introgressed with
Azucena alleles at root QTLs had no influence on tiller number (Shen et. al. 2001).
Near isogenic lines offer the possibility of phenotypic analysis of specific QTL as
these offer a common background to assess the differences in phenotype attributed to the

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presence of specific QTL. Shen et al. (2001) developed a set of twenty nine NILs of IR64
through MAS by introgressing Azucena QTL alleles for root morphological traits. Graphical
genotyping was developed by Young and Tanksley (1989). Using an algorithm, numerical
genotypic data can be expressed in a more useful graphical form. This would depict the
genetic constitution via parental origin of alleles of the material used in the study. In this
study, twenty nine root QTL introgressed lines of IR64, the two and three QTL pyramids
generated from the NILs were graphically genotyped using rice microsatellite markers at the
QTL regions only.
The graphical genotypes of the QTL-NILs indicated that on chromosome 1, qRT1-1
and qRT3-1 have inherited the QTL segment from RM5811 to RM3681, qRT2-1, qRT17-
1+7 and qRT20-1+7 have the QTL segment from RM128 to RM3681, qRT16-1+7 has the
QTL introgression from RM128 to RM302, qRT18-1+7 has the QTL introgression from
RM212 to RM 472, qRT19-1+7 has the introgressed fragment from RM128 to RM315 and
RM414 to RM3681, qRT21-1+7 and qRT22-1 have the QTL introgression from RM6387 to
RM5811, while qRT23-1 has the QTL fragment from RM128 to RM5781.
On chromosome 2, qRT4-2 and qRT8-2 have the Azucena allele types from RM290
and RM6933, qRT5-2, qRT6-2 and qRT7-2 have the QTL fragment from RM1234 and
RM6933, qRT13-7 has the QTL fragment from RM290 to RM6843, while qRT14-7 has the
QTL introgression from RM1234 to RM1694 and the Azucena genotype at marker locus
RM3688.
qRT9-7, qRT10-7, qRT11-7, qRT12-7, qRT13-7, qRT14-7, qRT15-7, qRT16-1+7,
qRT17-1+7, qRT18-1+7, qRT19-1+7, qRT20-1+7 and qRT21-1+7 have the QTL
introgression from RM3691 to RM248 on chromosome 7. qRT24-9, qRT25-9, qRT26-9,
qRT27-9, qRT28-9 and qRT29-9 have the introgression fragment from RM242 to RM201 on
chromosome 9. These results are in accordance with those obtained by Vaishali (2003).
The graphical genotype of the pyramid qRT11-7 x qRT18-1+7 indicate that all the
genotypes show the Azucena allele type from RM212 onwards. Most pyramids have retained
the fragment at RM212 to RM5811 and from RM529 to RM3681 on chromosome 1. On
chromosome 7, all the pyramids have retained the introgression from RM3691 to RM248.
The graphical genotype of the pyramid qRT24-9 x qRT11-7 indicated that most pyramids
have retained the fragment from RM3691 to RM2789 on chromosome 7. Heterozygous
alleles have been identified in some individuals from RM3691 to RM1048 and between
RM6050 and RM234 on chromosome 7. On chromosome 9, several genotypes have retained

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the chromosome fragment from RM242 and RM6491, while few individuals have recorded
the Azucena allele type at RM201. The graphical genotype of the pyramid qRT6-2 x qRT11-
7 indicated that most pyramids have retained the fragment from RM1234 to RM6933 on
chromosome 2. On chromosome 7, recombinations throughout the region from RM3691 to
RM248 have been identified. The graphical genotype of the pyramid qRT20-1+7 x qRT18-
1+7 indicated that all individuals have retained the QTL introgression fragments from
RM128 to RM3681 on chromosome 1 and from RM3691 to RM248 on chromosome 7. The
graphical genotype of the pyramid qRT11-7 x qRT6-2 indicated that most individuals have
retained the QTL region from RM1234 to RM6933 on chromosome 2, while on chromosome
7, blocks of QTL fragments have been retained from RM3691 to RM248. The graphical
genotype of the pyramid qRT6-2 x qRT19-1+7 indicated that most individuals have retained
the QTL introgression blocks from RM128 to RM315 and from RM414 to RM3681 on
chromosome 1, from RM1234 to RM6933 on chromosome 2, and from RM3691 to RM248
on chromosome 7.
These results indicate that sufficient recombination events have taken place within the
QTL region during the meiotic events and subsequent passage into progeny. Since there have
been double and or higher order crossovers, substantial proportion of the Azucena alleles
have passed on to the progeny. These recombination events however, do not alter the
increasing effect that the QTL as a whole possesses in enhancing drought tolerance via the
root morphological traits.
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assisted selection to introgress rice QTLs controlling root traits into an Indian upland
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evaluation of upland rice lines selected for QTLs controlling root traits. Field Crops
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Newsletter of USDA Plant Genome Res. Prog. 1(3-4): 18.

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Table 1: List of QTL Introgressed Lines (QILs) used to generate the two and three QTL
pyramids.
Sl. No. Genotype QTL Flanking markers
on CH 1 CH 2 CH 7 CH 9
1 qRT1-1 1 RM226-RM319
2 qRT2-1 1 RM128-RM165 RM27
3 qRT3-1 1 RM226-RM265
4 qRT4-2 2 RM27-RM341
5 qRT5-2 2 RM324-RM341
6 qRT6-2 2 RM324-RM341
7 qRT7-2 2 RM324-RM341
8 qRT8-2 2 RM27-RM341
9 qRT9-7 7
10 qRT10-7 7 RM102-RM265
11 qRT11-7 7 RM102-RM265
12 qRT12-7 7 RM118-RM148
13 qRT13-7 7 RM102-RM315 RM324-RM341 RM118-RM148
qRT16-
16 1+7 1+7 RM302 RM118-RM148
qRT17-
17 1+7 1+7 RM319 RM118-RM148
qRT18-
18 1+7 1+7 RM226-RM102,RM179-RM104 RM118-RM148
qRT19-
19 1+7 1+7 RM319-RM104 RM248 RM278-RM201
qRT20-
20 1+7 1+7 RM104 RM118-RM148
qRT21-
21 1+7 1+7 RM226-RM212,RM265-RM104 RM118-RM148 RM278-RM201
22 qRT22-1 1 RM104 RM288,RM201
23 qRT23-1 1 RM102-RM265 RM290-RM300,RM318-RM6 RM257-RM108
24 qRT24-9 9 RM288-RM201
25 qRT25-9 9 RM288-RM201
26 qRT26-9 9 RM278-RM201
27 qRT27-9 9 RM172 RM288-RM201
28 qRT28-9 9 RM248 RM288-RM201
29 qRT29-9 9 RM288-RM201

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Paper- 24
SEASONAL VARIATION IN SOIL MICROBIAL POPULATION IN THE AGRO-

FORESTRY ZONE OF WESTERN GHATS, WAYANAD; KERALA.
Sabitha Thomas*1, Ebenezer Wilson2, Antoney PU3.
*Research scholar, Research and Development Center, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore.
1. Department of Zoology, St. Joseph's College, Bangalore, Karnataka.
2. Department of Environmental Science, St. Joseph's College, Bangalore, Karnataka.
3. Department of Zoology, Christ University, Bangalore, Karnataka.
___________________________________________________________________________
__
*Corresponding Author: Sabitha Thomas, Assistant Professor, Department of Zoology,

St.Joseph's College, Bangalore, Karnataka, India-560027. E-mail:getsabitharose@gmail.com
Mobile: +91-9400685163.
ABSTRACT
Soil microbial communities are the key components of ecosystem functioning. Soil
bacteria and fungi are the major microbes which plays an important role in litter
decomposition and nutrient mineralization. Alterations in the microbial communities in agro-
ecosystems indicate the impact on soil quality and the resultant poor yield of the crops.
Hence, the present study was carried out to analyze the seasonal variation of bacterial and
fungal communities during the pre-monsoon and monsoon seasons in five different habitats
in the agro-forestry zone which include coffee, tea, rubber and plantain agro-ecosystems and
the undisturbed natural forest which is a part of Wayanad hill ranges in the Western Ghats as
control zone. The bacterial counts were expressed as colony forming units (CFU)/1g dry soil.
The study showed punctiform and circular bacterial colonies which represented Gram
negative Escherichia coli and Gram positive Bacillus subtilis respectively which were
consistent in the pre-monsoon and monsoon seasons. Soil fungal colonies showed
considerable seasonal changes. Fungal diversity was observed during the pre-monsoon
season which was represented by Aspergillus flavus, A. niger and Penicillium chrysogenum
colonies. There was no significant fungal growth during the monsoon season in the plantation
sites but only the colony of Monilia sitophila was found in the forest soil. The nitrogen fixer,
Azotobacter chroococcum was found abundant in the control forest soil but the agro-
ecosystems had lesser densities. The results showed that there is no considerable variation in
the soil microbial communities in the agro-ecosystems in relation to natural forest ecosystem
which indicates that there is sustainable agriculture in the transition zone of this biodiversity
hotspot.
Key words: Biodiversity, Western Ghats, soil microbes, agro-ecosystems, Wayanad.

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INTRODUCTION
Sustainable agriculture does not compromise on the quality of soil and hence both are
intimately interconnected. Soil quality does not depend on just the physical and chemical
properties of soil, but is related to the soil microbial component as well (Elliott et al., 1996).
They include algae, bacteria, cyanobacteria, fungi, yeasts, myxomycetes and actinomycetes
that are able to decompose almost any existing natural material. Micro-organisms transform
organic matter into plant nutrients that are assimilated by plants. Microorganisms play a key
role in variety of ecological processes such as soil structure formation due to decomposition
of organic matter and xenobiotics, recycling of essential elements (e.g., carbon, nitrogen,
phosphorous, and sulfur) and nutrients leading to mineralization (Nang 2016). They suppress
disease organisms and benefit plants by increasing nutrient availability. Soil microorganisms
have had another direct importance for humans—they are the source of most of the antibiotic
medicines which are used to fight diseases. Soil bacteria are key microbes in decomposition
and they are important because of their contribution to carbon cycle.
Soil fungi can be grouped into three general functional groups based on their source
of energy. Decomposers or saprophytic fungi – convert dead organic material into fungal
biomass, carbon dioxide (CO2), and small molecules, such as organic acids. These fungi
generally use complex substrates, such as the cellulose and lignin, in wood, and are essential
in decomposing the carbon ring structures in some pollutants. Mutualists or mycorrhizal
fungi – colonize plant roots. Mycorrhizal fungi help plants take up water and nutrients,
improve nitrogen fixation by legumes, and help to form and stabilize soil aggregates.
Mycorrhizal associations have been shown to stimulate the free-living nitrogen-fixing
bacteria azotobacter, which in turn also produce plant growth–stimulating chemicals. The
third group of fungi, pathogens or parasites, cause reduced production or death when they
colonize roots and other organisms (FAO, 2005).
Soil microbial activity and diversity have become fundamental aspects of sustainable
agriculture (Anderson 2003; Schloter et al., 2003; Li et al., 2005). Any change in the activity
and diversity of soil microbes may reflect changes in soil quality. Studies have shown that
variation in soil microbial communities can be attributed to change in land use patterns
(Philippot et al., 2009). Alteration in land management practices result in change of soil
nutrient levels which indicate changes in resource availability which impact the soil
microorganisms. Several studies have indicated that anthropogenic factors such as large scale
land conversion, slash and burn agriculture, grazing, bushfires, and mining have alterable
effects on the amount and spatial distribution of soil resources and soil biota, leading to
changes in productivity and nutrient cycling (Brussaard et al., 1997; Kandeler et al., 1997;
Schlesinger et al., 1990; Vitousek et al., 1997).
Hence the present study is focused to enumerate the biodiversity of soil
microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi in Wayanad region of Western Ghats with main
focus on the agro-forestry zone. The study aims at understanding the distribution of soil
microbes in the plantation areas in comparison with the natural forest and to draw a
correlation to the seasonal variations in its occurrence. Since agro-forestry is an intensive
land-management system that combines trees and/or shrubs with crops and/or livestock on a
landscape level to achieve optimum benefits from biological interactions, it is quite necessary
to understand whether these practices has any considerable impact to the soil ecology.

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A) Study Area
The sites selected for the present study are from the agro-forestry zones of the
Western Ghats region of Wayanad district, Kerala. The Western Ghats is a string of low-lying
mountains along the west coast of Indian subcontinent rising from a relatively narrow strip of
coast at the western border, reaching up to a height of 2800 m before they merge to the east
with the Deccan plateau at an altitude of 500-600 m (Bhatt and Magurraan 2006).
Biogeographically, the Wayanad region of Western Ghats is a transitional zone between the
moist forest of the South Western Ghats and the dry forests of the northern region, harbouring
habitat restricted endemic species as well as disjunct populations of species that are found in
both regions (Pascal 1988; WWF 2001). Wayanad with an area of 2,125 km2 is an elevated
plateau in the Western Ghats, lying between 11°58 N and 11°30 N and 75°45 E and 76°28 E.
It is an extension of the Deccan plateau to the west, bounded by Coorg and Mysore in the
north and east; Nilgiri in the south and Malappuram and Calicut in the south west. The Ghat
Section is separated by the Brahmagiri Dindimal ranges, running at right angles to the
Western Ghats with the Nilgiri Kunda ranges forming the south-eastern limit and the eastern
portion merging into the Karnataka table land. The average altitude of the plateau is 700 m,
but many peaks exceed 1500 m. The only river, the Kabani originates in the Western Ghats
and flows east. The climate on the plateau is quite different from that of the plains. The
temperature of the former ranges from 13°-33°C while at the foot of the ghats, the range is
from 21°-38oC. From November to January mist is common and following a few showers in
April and May, the south-east Monsoon brings 75% of the annual rainfall from June to
August.
B) Sampling and analysis
The study was conducted during two seasons; the pre-monsoon season and the
monsoon season at five different sampling sites which included a stretch of undisturbed
natural forest in the Western Ghats region of Wayanad and its adjacent agricultural plantation
areas which included rubber, coffee, tea and plantain in the agro-forestry zone. The rubber
plantation was located in Kaniyambetta panchayat for an area of around five acres wherein
regular tapping of rubber for latex was carried out. The plantations for coffee, tea and
plantain were located in the Muppainad Grama Panchayat in the Appalam area. Regular
maintenance and management practices were observed in all these agroecosystems due to the
agricultural practices. The natural forest selected for the study was located adjacent to these
plantation sites which was completely undisturbed and is a part of Wayanad hill ranges in the
Western Ghats.
Soil samples were collected from all the four cropping systems and the natural forest
through standard sampling procedure. The four agroecosystems which included site-1 coffee,
site-2 tea, site-3 rubber, site-4 plantain and site-5 was the undisturbed natural forest. The
composite samples collected were screened to get rid of roots and other debris and
homogenized by hand mixing and were air-dried for 3 days, ground with a wooden pestle and
mortar to loosen the aggregates. The samples were screened through a 2-mm mesh and mixed

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thoroughly. The prepared composite samples were then stored in labeled bags for necessary
analysis.
Microbial communities (bacteria and fungi) in soils were assessed using the viable
plate count method. A suspension was prepared by placing 1g of air dried soil in 99 ml of
sterile distilled water in a conical flask. The suspension was thoroughly shaken for 30
minutes. After settling, the suspension was diluted serially as follows: five test tubes, each
containing 9 ml of sterile water, were set in a test-tube stand. One milliliter of the suspension
was taken from the conical flask aseptically and added to the first test-tube containing 9 ml of
sterile distilled water. After shaking the test-tube vigorously, 1 ml of the suspension was
taken from this test-tube and added to the second test tube and shaken. This process was
repeated serially until the last test-tube. One milliliter aliquot of the diluted sample each were
poured into 10 Petri plates; 5 Petri plates for bacteria and 5 for fungi containing nutrient agar
medium and rose Bengal agar medium respectively. The Petri plates containing nutrient agar
medium were incubated at 37⁰C in an inverted position for bacteria for a period of 24 hours
and monitored for the appearance of colonies. The Petri plates containing Rose Bengal agar
medium were incubated at 32ºC for fungi in an inverted position for one week. This was
done to screen out the general bacterial and fungal colonies. The colonies of bacteria were
observed after 24 hrs, characterized and identified by Gram’s staining. The colonies were
counted and calculation for the number of bacteria and fungi was effected as follows:
Colony forming unit (CFU) per gram of soil = count ⁄ plate dilution used ( Motsara et. al.,
2008; Najmadeen et. al., 2010).
For the screening of specific microbes, Mannitol broth medium was prepared using
the standard techniques and 100 mcg of each soil samples were mixed and incubated at 30oc
for three days. The white biofilm developed due to microbial growth was characterized and
identified by Gram staining under an oil immersion microscope (LaboMed). Biochemical
tests were performed to identify the species. The colonies of fungi were observed after a
week, characterized and identified by Lacto-phenol cotton blue staining.
The study showed punctiform and circular bacterial colonies which represented Gram
negative Escherichia coli and Gram positive Bacillus subtilis respectively which were
consistent in the pre-monsoon and monsoon seasons. The abundance was found to be highest
for E. coli when compared to B. subtilis. E. coli was found to be highest in the plantain agro-
ecosystem which showed 260 colonies during the pre-monsoon season whereas it was highest
in the natural forest during the monsoon season forming 248 colonies. E. coli is capable of
survival at varying open environments such as soil, manure and water (Kudva et al., 1998;
Jiang et al., 2002; Vital et al., 2008). The availability of resources such as carbon substrates
probably is the main critical factor that affects the persistence of E. coli in open environments
such as soil and water (JD Van Elsas et. al., 2011). The commensal form of it is traditionally
considered as a harmless bacterium that lives in the intestinal system of mammals and assists
its host in the breakdown of particular carbon compounds (Touchon et al., 2009). The
presence of high densities of faecal bacteria, E. coli can be attributed to the application of
manures such as cow dung to the agroecosystems and for the natural forest; it can be because
of the excreta of the forest animals. Bacillus subtilis was found to be highest in the plantain
agro-ecosystem during the pre-monsoon season with 6 circular colonies and during the

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monsoon season, it was observed to be highest in the coffee plantation with 9 colonies. B.
subtilis is reported to be efficient in biological control against phytopathogenic fungi by the
production of diffusible and volatile antifungal compounds (Chaurasia et al., 2005). B.
subtilis often plays a role in replenishing soil nutrients by supplying the terrestrial carbon
cycle and the nitrogen cycle. B. subtilis strains can act as bio-fungicides for benefiting
agricultural crops and antibacterial agents (Morikawa 2006).
Seasonal variations in E. coli Seasonal variations in B. subtilis

colonies colonies
300 10
250 8
200
6 Pre-Monsoon
150 Pre-monsoon 4 Monsoon
100
50 Monsoon 2
0 0
Site Site Site Site Site Site Site Site Site Site
1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Figure 2&3: Graphs depicting the seasonal variation in E. coli and B. subtilis colonies in
various soil samples during pre-monsoon and monsoon seasons.
Mannitol broth medium culture resulted in production of high densities of nitrogen
fixing bacteria, Azotobacter chroococcum forming white biofilm on the surface of the media
in the pre-monsoon and monsoon seasons. The nitrogen fixer, A. chroococcum was found
abundant in the control forest soil but the agro-ecosystems had lesser densities. Azotobacter is
one of the most important plant-growth promoting microorganisms because its inoculation
benefits a wide variety of plants. It also helps to sustain the plant growth and yield even in
case of low phosphate content soil, as well as helps in uptake of macro and certain micro
nutrients which facilitates better utilization of plant root exudates itself (Moriri et al., 2015).
They can grow on N-free medium and utilize atmospheric nitrogen (N2) for cell protein
synthesis. Cell proteins are mineralized in soil after death of Azotobacter and contribute to N
availability to crop plants. It increases germination of seeds and is very effective in soils with
high organic matter content. The highest density of A. chroococcum observed in the natural
forest can be attributed to the high organic matter content of the forest soil.
Soil fungal colonies showed considerable seasonal changes. Fungal diversity was
observed during the pre-monsoon season which was represented by Aspergillus flavus, A.
niger and Penicillium chrysogenum colonies. Five colonies of A. flavus were found in the tea
plantation whereas it was not observed in any other soils. A. niger colonies were observed in
all the sites other than the coffee plantation. There were 1, 9, 5 and 6 colonies of A. niger
observed in tea, rubber, plantain agro-ecosystems and natural forest respectively. Two
colonies of Penicillium chrysogenum was observed in the plantain soil. A. flavus is
predominately a saprophyte and grows on dead plant and animal tissue in the soil.
Aflatoxigenic fungi are common components of soil mycobiota and are actively involved
in decomposition and nutrient cycling (Klich et al., 1992; White and Johnson, 1982). A.

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flavus produce a diversity of enzymes for degrading plant components such as cellulose,
pectin, lignin and lipids (Betts and Dart, 1989; Cotty et al., 1990; Long et al., 1998; Olutiola,
1976). Important soil phosphate solubilizing microorganisms include the fungi, A. niger.
Many fungi, bacteria, actinomycetes and cyanobacteria are potential solubilizers of bound
phosphate in soil (Banik and Dey, 1983; Singh and Kapoor, 1992; Vazques et. al., 2000).
According to Saha et.al., 2009, the most widely studied cellulolytic microorganisms include
A. niger.
Figure 1: Showing the growth of micro-organisms on the culture media in Petri plates during
pre-monsoon and monsoon seasons.
There was no significant fungal growth during the monsoon season in the plantation
sites but only one colony each of Penicillium chrysogenum and Monilia sitophila were found
in the forest soil. By nature Monilia sitophila exists as a saprophyte. Soil micro-organisms are
of great importance for plant nutrition as they interact directly in the biogeochemical cycles
of the nutrients. Increased production of biomass aboveground and belowground increases
the food source for the microbial population in the soil. The study shows that human
interaction and anthropogenic activities have no considerable alterable effects on the
populations of soil microbial community and nutrient cycling in the agroecosystems of the
Western Ghats region of Wayanad. Though the fungal populations showed seasonal changes,
it is negligible at a biodiversity standpoint. The high density of Azotobacter chroococcum
indicates that soils are rich in organic matter content wherein the highest density was
observed in the natural forest. Hence Azotobacter is acting as a broad spectrum bio-fertilizer
by fixing nitrogen to plant communities.
Many of the edaphic species involved in ecosystem functions that are regarded as
beneficial to humans (e.g. carbon sequestration, stabilization of soil) are very sensitive to
agricultural management (Wolters and Ekschmitt, 1997). Microbial diversity is essential for
agroecosystem functioning, and the conservation of this diversity has economic and
ecological relevance (Gardi et al., 2009; Kohl et al., 2014). A more complete knowledge of
soil fauna is needed for biodiversity conservation (Jeffrey et. al., 2010).

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CONCLUSION
The study of forest microbial communities and their relationship with agro-
ecosystems is of paramount importance to understand the ecosystem services rendered by soil
microorganisms. A better understanding of this could allow us to confer an economic value to
native habitats, thereby quantitatively promoting their conservation. This results in
maintenance of soil health for sustainable agriculture. In view of the important role played by
soil biological and chemical components in forest ecological processes and productivity,
management strategies have to be implemented against human ˗ driven ecosystem
degradations though it is substantially negligible at this juncture. Such measures would help
restore and maintain the complex soil˗plant˗microorganisms system and thereby ensure forest
ecosystem long term conservation and productivity and communities’ livelihoods sustenance.
A major conservation frontier is to understand the effect of change in land use on soil
microorganisms which actually contributes to a large proportion of total biodiversity and
perform important ecosystem functions.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Authors thank the Research and Development centre, Bharathiar University for the ideas in
developing the research theme.
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Conservation
Members National Advisory Committee

Patron - Rev. Father Victor Lobo S.J. 1.Dr. D. J. Bagyaraj INSA Hon. Scientist &
Chairman CNBRCD, Bangalore
Conference chairs
2.Dr.A.J.T. John Singh Former Dean,
Dr. Ebenezer Wilson Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun
Dept. of Environmental Science
3.Prof.T.Pullaiah Professor of Botany
Prof. Kiran Jeevan (Retd.), UGC BSR Faculty Fellow,
Asst. Prof. Dept.of Social Work Department of Botany, Sri Krishnadevaraya
University, Andhra Pradesh
Dr. M. Jayashankar
Asst. Prof. Dept. of Zoology 4.Dr.V.K.Gupta Chief Scientist, Indian
Institute of Integrative Medicine (CSIR),
Jammu
Organizing Committee
5.Dr. Abraham Verghese, Director, GPS
Institute of Agricultural Management,
Department of Zoology
Bangalore
Prof. Ivan Mary Parimala (HOD)
Prof. Thomas P Zachariah 6.Prof. M.S.Reddy, Professor and Head,
Prof. K.S.Shivakumar Dept. of Zoology and Applied Genetics,
Prof. Sabitha Thomas Bangalore University, Bangalore
Prof. John Paul. A
Prof. Prathibha R.D 7.Prof. Nandini N, Professor and Head, Dept.
Prof. Charles. M of Environmental Science, Bangalore
University, Bangalore
Department of Environmental Science
8.Prof. Rahmath Ataaz, Herpetologist and
Vice Principal, Al-Ameen Arts, Science and
Prof. Prabhakar B.S
Commerce College, Bangalore
9.Dr. Meenakshi Bharti , Forensic

Entomologist, Department of Zoology,
Punjabi University, Punjab.
10.Dr. JS Khuraijam, Scientist Fellow,

Botanic Garden Division, CSIR-National
Botanical Research Institute, Uttar Pradesh
Editorial Assistance
Syed Ismail. A, Sanjay. S , Aishwarya. S and Parinisha.L

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St.

Joseph’s College (Autonomous)

All rights reserved.

ISBN No.: 978-93-86519-05-4

Dr. Victor Lobo S.J.

St.Joseph’s College (Autonomous) 2

The National Conference on 'Ecology, Sustainable Development and Wildlife

Dr. M.R.Ebenezer Wilson Prof. Kiran Jeevan Dr. Jayashankar.M

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16 Bee Flora And Floral Calendar Of Bumble Bees 100

24 SEASONAL VARIATION IN SOIL MICROBIAL POPULATION IN 163

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AN ASSESSMENT OF MANGROVE DIVERSITY, MANGALORE,

MATERIALS AND METHOD:

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Figure A: Map of study site at Netravathi -Gurupura estuarine complex

Where, Pi = S / N, S = number of individuals of one species, N = total number of all

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RESULTS AND DISCUSSION:

Table A: Distribution of mangroves in selected sites of Netravathi - Gurupura estuary

Botanical Name Site 1 Site 2 Site 3 Site 4 Site 5

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13.59% Kandelia candel

Figure B: Percentage of mangroves species during the study period

Mangroves have high potential to get acclimatized to changes in the surrounding

Table B: Mangroves plants identified at Netravathi - Gurupura estuary.

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Biodiversity indices Site - 1 Site - 2 Site - 3 Site – 4 Site - 5

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MATERIALS AND METHODS

1. Plastic cups- 8cm in diameter and 9.2 cm in length.

For collection of samples:

6. Brush- brush no.1

9. Zip locks covers

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Fig 1. Sampling Sites along with the two sampling traps

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RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Sampling Elevation Sample Sample Total Vegetation Human/ Canopy Soil

Short Grass 896 6 3 4 2 15 Piperia High Full Clay

Teak Trees 901 4 0 2 7 13 Lantana Low Partial Clay

Agriculture 881 8 5 0 3 16 Solanum High None Clay

Table 1. Sampling site description

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Total sample size No. Of Coleoptera

Graph 1. Total sample and composition of coleopterans in the sample

Water Bamboo Short Tall Forest Teak Human

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Shannon’s 1.05 1.14 0.672 1.039 0.6724 0.562 1.0395

Simpson’s 0.36 0.4925 0.52 0.375 0.52 0.52 0.375

Evenness 0.96 1.65 0.970 0.946 0.9702 0.405 0.7498

Table 4. Diversity Indices and Evenness for each Sampling site

Water medium Wheat-hay medium

(Staphylinidae 8; Nitilinideae (Nitilinidae-6; Tenebrionidae- 5;

Shannon’s Diversity 1.2523 1.8045

Simpson’s Diversity 0.3764 0.1796

Evenness 0.778 0.9273

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