Conservation Area Series, 43 Fauna of Ranthambhore National Park Rajasthan Edited by the Director, Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata Zoological Survey of India Kolkata CITATION Editor - Director. 2010. Fauna of Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve,' Rajasthan, Conservation Area Series, 43: 1-229. (Published by the Director, Zool. Surv. India, Kolkata) Published : January, 2010 ISBN 978-81-81,1-246-2 Project Co-ordinator Sanjeev Kumar and Padma Bohra Desert Regional Centre, Zoological Survey of India, Jodhpur © Gout. of India, 2010 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED • No part of this publication may be reproduced stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. • This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise disposed of without the publisher's consent, in any form of binding or cover other than that in which, it is published. • The correct price of this publication is the price printed on this page. Any revised price indicated by a rubber stamp or by a sticker or by any other means is incorrect and should be unacceptable. PRICE Indian Rs. 600.00 Foreign : $ 40; £ 35 Published at the Publication Division by the Director Zoological Survey of India, 234/4, AJC Bose Road, 2nd MSO Building, 13th floor, Nizam Palace, Kolkata 700020 and printed at M/s Alpha Printers, New Delhi - 110 015. Fauna of Ranthambhore National Park Conservation Area Series 43 2010 1-229 1. RANTHAMBHORE NATIONAL PARK: AN OVERVIEW ................................. 1-44 Sanjeev Kumar and Padma Bohra 2. PIANr AND SOIL NEMATODES ..................................................................... 45-56 Padma Bohra and Qaiser H. Baqri 3. ARACHNIDA: SCORPIONS ............................................................................. 57-59 D. B. Bastawade 4. CHILOPODA: SCOLOPENDROMORPHA ......................................................... 61-66 Vinod Khanna 5. INSECI'A: ODONATA ....................................................................................... 67-74 Gaurav Sharma 6. INSECI'A: ISOPTERA ....................................................................................... 75-82 N.S. Rathore and Madhumita Mandai 7 INSECTA: HEMIPTERA(AQUATIC AND SEMI AQUATIC) .......................... 83-91 G. Thirumalai 8. INSECI'A: COLEOPTERA: SCARABAEIDAE ................................................ 93-118 Ram Sewak 9. INSECI'A: DIPTERA ...................................................................................... 119-122 Sanjeev Kumar 10. INSECI'A: LEPIDOPTERA: HETEROCERA ................................................ 123-132 Kailash Chandra, D.K. Nema and Sanjeev Kumar 11. INSECTA: HYMENOPTERA: FORMICIDAE ............................................ 133-144 Neena Tak 12. ICHTHYOFAUNA ......................................................................................... 145-158 Deepa Jaiswal, C.A.N. Rao, Sanjeev Kumar and Hakeel Mohd. 13. AMPHIBIA .................................................................................................... 159-162 Sanjeev Kumar and Shalini Gaur iv 14. REPTILIA ...................................................................................................... 163 -179 Sanjeev Kumar, Shalini Gaur and D. Khandal 15 . AVES .............................................................................................................. 18 1-197 Sanjeev Kumar and C. Sivaperuman 16. MAMMALIA .................................................................................................. 199-220 Sanjeev Kumar 17. THREATS AND CONSERVATION ................................................................ 221-229 Sanjeev Kumar Zool. Surv. India Fauna of Ranthambhore National Park, Conservation Area Series, 43, 2010 : 1-44. RANTHAMBHORE NATIONAL PARK : AN OVERVIEW SANJEEV KUMAR AND PADMA DOBRA Desert Regional Centre, Zoological Survey of India, Jodhpur INTRODUCTION Once spread over the country, India's wildlife heritage is now restricted and preserved in the sanctuaries, national parks and reserves of India. With growing attention of naturalists and wildlife lovers across the subcontinent, rich areas of wildlife diversity were recognized and given different status of protection depending upon the need and importance of the flora and fauna. The proclamation of Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 became one such instrument in preserving the diverse wildlife in these protected areas. So far India has 97 National Parks and 498 sanctuaries covering an area of approximately 154,931.38 sq km, which amounts to 4.71% of the total land area of the country. The present day Ranthambhore is one such nature's spot now under protection as National Park and also holds the credit of being most incredible hot spots of Indian wilderness preserved in the pristine environment of northern extremity of central India also declared as Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve. Ranthambhore-the name comes from the vast fort that stands in the middle of the forest in Sawai Madhopur district of Rajasthan State. The name is derived from two hills in the area, Ran and Thambhore. There is another version, which states that Ranthambhore was once known as Rana-Stambhapura or city with wall of pillars. Infact, traces of settlement here dates as far back as the 8th century. Ranthambhore Fort, in Sawai Madhopur, Rajasthan is commonly believed to have been built by King Jayant of the Chouhan dynasty in 1110 AD. Some say that king Sapaldaksha, also a Chouhan founded Ranthambhore in 944 AD. Some are of the opinion that a relative of King Hasti of Hastinapura, called Rati Dev was the original founder. Another mythological belief is that the worshippers of Surya or Suryavanshis were the original inhabitants of the region. The Mughal emperor Akbar also fought a battle for the control of the fort and the region in the 16th century. Sawai Madho Singh, the ruler of J aipur in 1754 requested the Mughal emperor, Ahmed Shah to grant him Ranthambhore Fort in order to curb down the Marathas. On his refusal he fortified the Sherpur settlement of Ranthambhore and named it Sawai Madhopur in 1763, which is now a small town 14 km from Ranthambhore Fort. Later in the century especially before the arrival of British, the Fauna of Ranthambhore National Park, Conservation Area Series, 43 2 residents of Ranthambhore forests were the Meenas, a tribe who had lived fairly freely and easily in the region. By 1820 Rajputs and Britishers jointly exercised their control to use the Ranthambhore forests as their private hunting reserves. This was the period when animal hunting was organized as game for the royal heirarchy in India. In the later part of the last century the fort and the surrounding forest became the property of the Maharaja of J aipur, who built a delightful shooting lodge by the lake and limited hunting to two months in the year. In 1960-61, the Queen Elizabeth II of England and HRH Duke of Edinburgh visited Ranthambhore as guests of Maharaja of Jaipur on a "Royal Shikar" Since hunting became restricted to special guests of Maharaja it resulted in slowing down the destruction of the forest and wildlife of the entire area of Sawai Madhopur, which is now a present day Ranthambhore National Park (Fig. 1). Today Ranthambhore is one of the many protected areas in India, which began its life as hunting reserves. Nearly all the India's significant conservation laws date from the period since Independence, although there was some legislature activity during the days of the British Raj. The Britishers under various nineteenth century Forest Acts restricted the hunting rights of forest dwellers and later divided forests into shooting blocks. These were opened and closed in accordance with the abundance or scarcity of animals as game, thus providing a measure of control over the hunting exploits of the forest dwellers. Occasionally laws were passed to protect a single species whose future was deemed uncertain. On the global scale the foundation of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 1947 was the' event of considerable significance, at India's level, the then government created the Indian Board for Wildlife, which forwarded the proposals in 1953 for establishment of 18 National Parks in the country. The hunting reserve of His Highness, Maharaja of Jaipur at Sawai Madhopur was declared as Sawai Madhopur Wildlife Sanctuary in 1955. In the 1960'S many scientists feared that before long the tiger would become extinct like the cheetah in the 1950'S, and felt that new laws should be enforced to avert it. The fate of tiger spurred the Indian Government to introduce new laws to protect the country's remaining wildlife. WWF-I in 1969 was launched and later in 1972 a census of tiger was undertaken to count the dropping population from an estimated 40,000 to 1800. This prompted the Government to pass wildlife (Protection) Act in 1972 and also to launch Operation Tiger known as Project Tiger in 1973. With the launch of Project Tiger in India, the former Sawai Madhopur Wildlife Sanctuary was included as Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve amongst the first nine tiger reserves declared in 1973. Later in 1980 a part of Sawai Madhopur Wildlife Sanctuary with an area of 392.50 sq km was declared Ranthambhore National Park by designating 274.5 sq km as core area and 118 sq km as buffer area from within the Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve. In order to accommodate increasing wildlife population of this region, the adjoining forest area of Karauli and Sapotara Tehsil with an area of 674 sq km was notified as Kela Devi sanctuary in 1983. Subsequently in 1984, the forest area o K R B HR : An Q,'ervlew Fi'g.1. . anthamblhore Nationa Park Fauna of Ranthambhore National Park, Conservation Area Series, 43 4 towards the south west of Ranthambhore National Park was also notified as Sawai Mansingh Sanctuary with an area of 127.60 sq km. These Sanctuaries and the surrounding reserved and protected forest of 132.9 sq km and Kwalji closed area (part) 7.58 sq km are now part of the bigger umbrella named as Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve (Fig. 2) with a wider canvas encompassing other smaller nearby sanctuaries and other forest areas (Table 1). Table 1. Existing Area under Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve. Protected Zone Area (Sq Km) Ranthambhore National Park 329·50 Sawai Mansingh Sanctuary 127.60 Kwalji Closed Area 7.58 Kela Devi Sanctuary 674·00 Other Forest Area 132·96 Total 1334·64 The entire Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve area of 1334.64 sq. km is under protection for the unique species-tiger with more area underway (Table 2) to be added to Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve (Anon, 1999-2000). At present the Ranthambhore National Park (274.5 sq km) is managed as the core area while the remaining forest is managed as a buffer area. Table 2. Proposed Area for extention under Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve Proposed Area Area (Sq Km) Ramgarh Vishdghary Sanctuary 307·00 Area transfered from Bundi Division(Kwalji Closed Area Part) 25·98 Area transfered from Tonk Division(Kwalji Closed Area Part) 3·78 Area transfered from Karauli Division 44·14 Proposed area of Bundi Division to be includedin RTR 167·53 Proposed area of Tonk Division to be included in RTR 13·55 Proposed area on Karauli Division to be included in RTR 54.08 Proposed area of Dholpur Division to be included in RTR (a) Van Vihar Sanctuary (25.60) (b) Other Forest Areas (461.79) Total Proposed Area 1103·45 ~ s: :> ~ :> z 0 t:= larMDu~. 0 / ::r: potl'l ~ >- .6 ~ ;:, a c: ro ""1 '-. r.l E ~ a • ~ Fig. 2.