Avian Diversity of Wetlands in and Around Jodhpur, Western Rajasthan - Aquatic Ecosystem: Biodiversity, Ecology and Conservation - page 279

the year. Jodhpur is blessed with a wide variety of
lora and fauna. The natural vegetation composed
of trees are Prosopis cineraria, Salvadora oleoides,
S. persica, Acacia senegal, and Dactyloctenium
aegyptium , whereas among shrubs Capparis
decidua, Calligonum polygonoides, Ziziphus
nummularia, Euphorbia caducifolia, Calotropis
procera, etc. Some recently planted trees are
Azadirachta indica, Mangifera indica , Ficus reli-
giosa , F. bengalensis , Delonix regia , Pongamia
pinnata , and Dalbergia sisoo on roadsides,
gardens, resorts, and official campuses; in
addition to this, Prosopis julilora has invaded
each possible place since it was introduced and
inside wetland vegeteation like Typha latifolia,
Vallisneria spp. Eichhornia crassipes,
Phragmites karka, Hydrilla verticillata Chata
spp. and Green algae are found growing .
This part of western India is famous for its
forts, cultural heritages, and handicrafts, and
these are major tourist's attraction of this city.
The famous fort Mehrangarh was founded in
1459 AD, since then up to ive decades back,
most of the population of Jodhpur was restricted
inside the old city wall and Mahamandir area out-
side city wall; the rest of the present Jodhpur was
sparsely populated. Kaylana and Balsamand
Lake and Jaswant Sagar and Umed Sagar dam
are important water bodies of the district. Total
1,934 wetlands are mapped including 1,673 small
wetlands (<2.25 ha) with 17,032 ha area. The
river/streams with 8,284 ha. contributed 48.64 %
to the total wetland area. The salt pans with
4,471ha(26.25%)isthesecondmajorwetland
category, followed by tanks/ponds with 1,798 ha
area, i.e., 10.56 %. The district is dominated by
man-made wetlands. Open water spread of the
wetlands is signiicantly higher in post-monsoon
(1,381 ha) than during pre-monsoon (254 ha),
indicating the rainfall dependence of the wet-
lands in the state. The qualitative turbidity of
water is low in both the seasons (National
WetlandAtlas 2010 ).
Almost all villages of Jodhpur had their vil-
lage pond or naadi which were locally conserved
and properly harvested; there was proper man-
agement of water due paucity of water and

rain dependence of pond. These were shelter to
several wetland birds. Migratory waterfowls use
to appear seasonally in these ponds. Migratory
birds like ducks, coots, and waders were common
visitor to these water bodies. Due to increase in
population of city and villages and with the
increase in need of water, the village ponds are
now neglected as villages have alternate source
of water supply through the government. As a
result of which, several water bodies have dimin-
ished and mismanaged as they are out of use.
On the other hand, fewer of them are still well
managed like Barli, Gudha, and Kherjarli ponds.
In Jodhpur City, Kaylana Lake has become the
only source of water supply to the city; it gets
regular water recharge from Indira Gandhi Canal,
and water level does not luctuate much through-
out the year. The regular supply of water have
increased plantation of trees and gardens. The
population of Jodhpur has increased about
27.73 % from 28.81 lac in year 2001 to 36.87 lac
in2011(CensusofIndia 2011 ). Urbanization of
the city is progressing very fast, and several sur-
rounding villages are now merged in the main
city. Plantation of trees like neem ( Azadirachta
indica ), gulmohar ( Delonix regia ), mango
( Mangifera indica ), karanj ( Pongamia pinnata ),
sheesham ( Dalbergia sisoo ), and keekar
( Prosopis julilora ) has been undertaken. There is
an impact on diversity of wetland birds due to
changed proile of the district which is enumer-
ated in the present communication.

Past Studies on Bird Community
in Jodhpur

The old records of studies on birds were carried
out way back by Adams ( 1899 ), Hume ( 1873 ,
1878 )Barnes( 1886 , 1891 ),andWhistler( 1938 )
and the comprehensive study by Ali ( 1975 ).
Thereafter extensive surveys conducted by
Roberts( 1991 ) in western Rajasthan and Pakistan
documented several endemic bird species and
there distribution. The erstwhile princely state
Jodhpur contributes about 11 % of total Thar
desert in India. The diversity of birds was very