Volume 24, Issue 73, January - June, 2023

Species richness and diversity of avian fauna at village ponds in district Ludhiana of Punjab, India

Amritpal Singh Kaleka^1♦, Charn Kumar², Sandeep Kaur Thind¹

¹Department of Zoology and Environmental Sciences, Punjabi University, Patiala 147 002, Punjab, India
²Department of Biology, AS College, Khanna, Ludhiana 141 401, Punjab, India

^♦Corresponding author
Department of Zoology and Environmental Sciences, Punjabi University, Patiala 147 002, Punjab, India

ABSTRACT

During the present study, avian species of village ponds of district Ludhiana, Punjab have been documented and a total of 77 species referable to 13 orders and 31 families have been documented from May 2016 to April 2020. Order Passeriformes is found as dominant order with 12 families and 27 species. As per IUCN Red list 2020, all species belong to “Least Concern (LC)” category. Various statistical parameters including Shannon diversity index, Pielou’s evenness index, Margalef’s richness index and Berger-parker index of dominance have been calculated. It has also been revealed that the village ponds in the study area support great bird diversity because these are mainly surrounded by agricultural fields, scattered plantations and residential areas and constitute unique ecological systems. These water bodies are facing problems due to sewage disposal, garbage dumping, pollution, encroachment by weeds and construction of cemented walls which ultimately cause disturbance to the birds inhabiting these water bodies. These village ponds are recorded to host 29 winter migrants, which makes it important to preserve these sites from such threats.

Keywords: Avian diversity, aquatic habitats, village ponds, species, diversity indices.

Species, 2023, 24(73), e50s1546

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.54905/disssi/v24i73/e50s1546

Published: 9 June 2023