Exploring the Dev Nadi - Part II
Ecological Assessments and profiling initiatives are journeys that cannot come to life without having multi-stakeholders involvement and understanding. We became part of one such collaborative effort at the beginning of 2019 when multiple like-minded organizations came together to understand the current scenario of selected river catchment from Sinnar taluka of Maharashtra. The Nature Conservancy, India and the people of Dev Nadi catchment were the driving force of the collaborative effort.
The rural landscape of Sinnar catchment was an unexplored territory. Although, we as a team have gone past this region, but never looked at in detail. This is a humble attempt to take you on the journey through a Habitat & Biodiversity of Dev Nadi catchment in this article.
Beyond River:
Many of us visit various national parks, sanctuaries and other forested areas and rivers as well as part of hobby, profession and enthusiasm. We carry our binoculars and cameras with us to see and photograph various life forms such as plants, animals and landscapes on our visit. However, most of the times we get a chance to see biodiversity in a single habitat and our observations are limited to that particular habitat or landscape. When we visit any river or water-body we observe species which are found in or near the water body such as aquatic flora, birds and sometimes fishes, frogs etc. However we cannot always look beneath the water or the surrounding area.
As a part of this collaborative initiative, we looked at the landscape beyond ‘just a river’, unique opportunity we had was to look at the catchment from its head to the plains. Witness the changes from an ecological stand point exploring different types of habitats and landscapes ranging from cliffs to plateaus to hill forests to grasslands to riparian forest to see how all the embedded unique habitats works as an interconnected units to make sure ecological flows and services are maintained and a river itself.
'Ecological surveys provide insights of existing biodiversity in a particular area, its spatial distribution and helps in creating strong guidelines for ecological conservation'
Each habitat has its own set of topography and micro-climatic conditions which supports numerous life forms. Some life forms are specific to certain habitats, while some occur in diverse habitats. The presence of few life forms indicate environmental conditions such as soil moisture, degraded land, polluted water etc.
In this article we draw pictures around diverse life forms observed in Dev Nadi catchment, in a unique way. We will start our journey from the ridge and end it at the River. Let us explore the beauty of each habitat and its associated species.
Habitat & Biodiversity of Dev Nadi catchment:
Catchment of Dev Nadi is spread across 560 Sq. Km of area with more than 60+ villages and varied habitats. Few of which are dominant and few are not even seen on Google Earth or in the GIS map, but still stand out to be key areas for sustenance of various unique life forms.
As you can see, half the landscape is dominated by agriculture & rocky areas (together ~50%), followed by open scrub forest contributing ~18%, rest other areas are covered with forest, fallow lands, plateau and water-bodies (~25%), which play crucial role in supporting diversity of flora & fauna.
We conducted our study in the Summer of 2019 and Winter of 2020, In these two months we could document a total of 600+ species, of which 400+ are of plants and 200+ are of animals from the region. Sinnar is a drought-prone taluka and hence a dry land area, it has unique habitat features with diverse topography.
Ridge: Plateau & Cliff
The ridges of Western Ghats, on which one does not see a dense vegetation, but are plain land with tiny flower beds with seasonal water ponds and puddles. Otherwise appear dry in summer & winter season.
Plateaus are dominated by herbs and grasses, it harbours endemic varieties of seasonal plant and animal species. Some of these plants act as an important nectar resource for pollinators such as bees. Few of the herb species like Pogostemon deccanensis, Hygrophila serpyllum indicate high soil moisture, while few species indicate thin soil cover.
Pogostemon deccanensis, Hygrophila serpyllum, Lepidagathis cuspidata
As we descend down from the plateau, we get to see large rocky structures, mainly in the form of cliffs which stand still and act as barriers for air movement. It shows good gallery forest and nesting sites for habitat specific faunal species such as Vultures, Eagles.
Bonelli's Eagle (Left) & Indian (Rock) Eagle Owl (Right)
Hill slopes: Dry & deciduous forest
Transitional zones between our journey from top to bottom i.e. from Plateau to plains lie hilly slopes which are often covered with dense forest or dry forest depending upon in which region we are. Here in this landscape, one can see dry deciduous forests with few open shrub forests with streams and valleys. In many ways, vegetation on hilly slopes plays an important role in controlling soil erosion, holding water and providing habitat and corridor for various animal species.
Euphorbia neriifolia, Phoenix sylvestris, Opuntia elatior, Apis sp., Common Castor
Valley: Plains, Grassland and farmland
After getting down from steep and gradual slopes, we often rest at the base of hills, which is a region of grassland and farmlands. It shows an open scrub forest along with few patches of grasslands and large patches of farmland. Being close to the crops, we find various insect-eating (Insectivorous) and seed-eating (Graminivorous) birds here.
Numerous butterflies keep visiting flowers for nectoring and marshy grassland patches for mud puddling.
Water-body: River, Dams, Riparian zone and ravines
There are few dams built in the river catchment, which are found to be serving as good habitat for migratory birds. Transitional area between dam and land acting as a wetland which supports numerous lifeforms such as birds and breeding sites for frogs and odonates (dragonflies and damselflies).
Senegal Golden Dart (Damselfly) mating
Riparian zones present along the river forming important corridors for animal movements and providing shelter and habitat for certain species. A habitat similar to ravines, forming large gullies observed at the tail end of Dev Nadi.
River itself serves as a key habitat for various aquatic organisms including plants and animals. Riverbed with small pools and puddles harbouring aquatic species such as crustaceans and marshy plant species.We always look at the life above water, but there are hidden treasures lying under the water. There are few fresh-water faunal organisms such as Sponges, Beetles, Gastropods which complete their life cycle under water and help in purifying, filtering water on a regular basis. Useful indicators for change in water quality, whether good or bad.
Aquatic Plants: Marsilea quadrifolia, Ottelia alismoides, Eleocharis geniculata, Cyperus difformis
Aquatic Fauna: Barytelphusa guerini (Crab) feeding on Corvospongilla lapidosa (Sponge), Sternolophus sp (Beetle), Freshwater gastropod feeding on aquatic flora, Radiospongilla cerebellata (Sponge)
Hope you’ve enjoyed this photographic story about Biodiversity of Dev Nadi catchment. Although we see a declining trend in population and occurrence of various wild species, various life forms are yet to be explored in this landscape. People are living with wild animals for a long-time and are dependent for various purposes. In our next article, we will take you through association of people with this landscape and natural resources.
This series of articles is part of our on-going project of River catchment study funded by The Nature Conservancy, India and in association with Yuvamitra Foundation, CTARA IIT Bombay, Arid Communities & Technologies (ACT) and Oximus as project partners.
About Vanam Ecologics:
We are Pune based Ecological Consultants working in the field of conservation and restoration of natural resources. We specialize in designing ecologically sound development and ecosystem management projects. Having a broad range of clients ranging from industries to CSRs and individual farm owners to nature resorts, we work hand in gloves with all stakeholders for strengthening and achieving sustainability of ecosystem services.
For all queries, please get in touch with us on: [email protected]