Herpetofauna of Kaziranga National Park

About Kaziranga

The Kaziranga National Park (26° 34' N to 26°46' N and 93° 08' E to 93° 36' E) is on the best success story in conservation of wildlife and ecosystems in Asia. The Brahmaputra River flows by the northern boundary, the alluvial deposits of which forms most part of the park. The Karbi Anglong hills stands to the south of the park. Thickly populated villages surround the park to the east and west.

The total area of the park at present is 448 sq. km. and with proposed additions the total area spreads over 860 sq. km. It offers habitat for several species of threatened wildlife of Assam.

Please log on to website http://www.kaziranga100.com to know more about the park and its conservation history.

The Project

Amphibians and reptiles of Assam have never been surveyed extensively. Inventory by the British Officials and Scientists were limited to the places that were accessible to them more than 100 years ago. The Fauna of British India (1943) has been the sole reference book on the group, even now. Work carried out by the Zoological Survey of India was never complete, rather opportunistic, covering only very accessible area in the region.

The herpetofauna of Assam plain and the hills south of Brahmaputra is further poorly estimated. Though most old literature mentions about occurrence as Assam this is entire northeast India at present, which is comprised of seven states. A review (undergoing at present) of the species diversity of herps of the region will give a different statistics on diversity of herpetofauna of Assam.

Few years back we knew only about 200 species of amphibians and reptiles occurring in the region, which is certainly an underestimation of actual species diversity considering the biogeographic position of the region. The rate of encountering new species and new records is very high and it is expected that the diversity of herpetofauna of the region should be around 500.

Kaziranga National Park, Assam represents the largest protected area comprising floodplain ecosystems (on Brahmaputra Valley) and some foothills of Karbi Anglong. Estimating the herpetofauna of the Park will give and idea of the overall diversity of the group in the floodplains. This project was taken up for a year during 2004 with financial support from the Rufford Foundation, UK and in collaboration with the Department of Environment and Forests, Government of Assam.

Objectives

  1. Inventory and evaluation of conservation status of the Herpetofauna of the Kaziranga National Park.
  2. To help the conservation and management authority of the park in preparing detailed management plan of the park where the herpetofauna are always left out.
  3. Evaluating impact of dry-season grassland burning on herpetofauna as a management practice tool for herbivores.
  4. Awareness among the forest staff about the need of conservation of the herpetofauna, which is otherwise lacking.

Results

This was the first ever inventory of herpetofauna of the Kaziranga National Park. This work made considerable progress during the short study period. A summary of the results are presented below -

SPECIES RICHNESS

Before the start of the inventory we expected to encounter a good number of species of herpetofauna in the park. But the results of this preliminary inventory have indeed surprised our team and were definitely encouraging. Altogether 86 days and more that 2700 man-hour were spent in the field to inventories the herpetofauna of the park. Following are few salient output of this inventory -

  1. 24 species of amphibians under 7 families, 14 genera were recorded.
  2. 74 species of reptiles were recorded from the park that includes 1 Crocodilian, 17 turtles, 35 snakes and 21 lizard species.
  3. 20 out of 24 species of amphibians and 56 out of 74 species reptiles were recorded for the first time from the Park.
  4. Among these herpetofauna recorded from the park, 23 species are considered as globally threatened.

IMPORTANT RECORDS

There are several important records of herpetofauna from the park that are summarized below-

AMPHIBIANS

  1. Theloderma asper, a treefrog frog known from the hills of Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland, and from South China and SE Asia was recorded for the first time from Assam plains.
  2. Phrynoglossus borealis, a small Ranid known from Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland was recorded for the first time from Kaziranga NP, Assam.
  3. Chirixalus simus, recorded as a range extension to further east.

REPTILES

Turtles

  1. Aspideretes nigricans, a Critically Endangered softshell turtle, recently reported from eastern Assam, was recorded in wild condition and for the first time from the Park.
  2. Pyxidia mouhotii, a rare box turtle was recorded for the first time from the park.
Snakes
  1. Typhlops jerdonii, a small fossorial blind snake was recorded for first time from Assam during this study in the Kaziranga NP.
  2. Ahetulla nasutus (var. rhodogaster), was the only record of the var. rhodogaster from the region since Smith (1943).
  3. Amphiesma xenura, this rare keelback was a first recorded from the Brahmaputra floodplains in Kaziranga NP.
  4. Boiga gokool, a cat snake known only from the Himalayan foothills, was recorded for first time from floodplains of Assam.
  5. Boiga cyanea, a rare cat snake was first recorded from the Brahmaputra Valley, Assam.
  6. Lycodon jara, first recorded from Assam.

Lizards

  1. Hemidactylus karenorum was first recorded from the Brahmaputra floodplains.
  2. Scincella cf. reevesi, tentatively identified and if confirmed this could be first record from India.
  3. Varanus flavescens, first locality record from Assam.
  4. Cnemaspis assamensis, record of this species from the park extended its range by c. 200 km to the east.

BURNING AND ITS AFFECT ON HERPETOFAUNA

Our observations on affect of burning on herpetofauna in the Park were short and limited due to logistic and field constrains. We recorded Kachuga tecta (n=2) and Geochlemys hamiltonii (n=3), two species of turtles that died due to direct affect of burning. However, some of our unpublished data and observations from similar habitat conditions suggest that the affect of burning is higher than we could report in similar ecosystems.

We observed widespread burning in the park during our study. We recommend a detailed and long-term study on the effect of burning on herpetofauna in the park and only then effective ways could be found to minimize the affect of burning on the lower vertebrates like amphibians and reptiles as well as on the invertebrates.

FLOOD, ROAD KILL AND RESCUE

The monsoon was perfect season to study the herpetofauna in the park but as challenging due to continuous rain, flood, bad road and threat to life from wild animals. In such a situation we decided to invest time and effort in road transect on the National Highway 37 and survey in other accessible areas around the park. This helped us in recording information on road kill, rescue of herpetofauna and in encountering number of species that took refuge on the roadside due to high flood.

We recorded 21 species road kill reptile on NH 37, including 4 species of lizards and 17 species of snakes. King cobra (Ophiophagus hannah, N=2) and Python (Python molurus, N=3) were the largest road kill species.

Further, while doing the road transect and on receipt of call we rescued 13 species of reptiles that included 4 and 9 species of lizards and snakes respectively. We also recorded 9 species of amphibians as road kill on the Highway.

AWARENESS AND CAPACITY BUILDING

  1. Two interns from Gauhati and Utkal University received basic training on practical and theoretical herpetology through field activity.
  2. Team member, Abhijit Das visited the Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata to study the museum specimens of amphibian and reptiles, and learn taxonomy from other expert there. He also visited the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, which is a premier institute in India to study and collect literature relevant to this study.
  3. Two animal keepers of the Center for Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation, Kaziranga were given hands on training to handle snakes and husbandry of herpetofauna while they are being rehabilitated in the center.
  4. Team Leader, M Firoz Ahmed received an international training on “Applied Environmental Education” in Thailand offered and supported by the Smithsonian Institution and the Environmental Education and Conservation Global, USA.
  5. 9 consultation programs were carried out in small groups for the staff of the park to aware them about amphibians and reptiles, related myths and need of conservation.
  6. 4 numbers of large size (10 X 4 feet) colour posters on the amphibians and reptiles of the Kaziranga NP were prepared and displayed at Kaziranga Centenary Celebration (11-17 February 2005). One poster is permanently displayed at the interpretation hall of the park for public awareness. And three others are used for mobile education camps in different parts of the region.

WHATS NEXT ?

  • Considering the level of awareness among the general people, the immediate plan is to prepare the colour field guide to target the managers, staff, teachers and students from the region and visitors to the park to make them aware about herpetofauna and their conservation.
  • Initiate biological studies of a few significant species found in the park and simultaneous continuation the ongoing inventory.
  • Design a long-term multidisciplinary study on affects of grassland burning on herpetofauna enriched with experiences from this study.
  • Extending the inventory beyond the park, particularly the adjacent tropical evergreen forests in Karbi Anglong Hills, as the herpetofauna of that region is never known. Several interesting species are likely to found there and most likely species never know to science before.
  • To analyse the data collected and publish scientific notes and articles out of this work as this has led to several new records and interesting observations. The publication will help the herpetologists from around the world interested in the region to plan and prioritise future studies in this hotspot region as well as the team members in their career.
  • Establish a national and international collaboration among herpetologists to increase the knowledge base and strengthen technical know how on herpetology in the region.
 

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