RADIAL IMPACT ON ONGOING INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT ON GALLIFORMES: A CASE STUDY OF SRINAGAR GARHWAL HYDROPOWER PROJECT, UTTARAKHANDPriyanka Negi and Pramesh LakheraAbstract In the fragile ecosystem of Garhwal Himalaya, construction of hydroelectric power projects (large & small scale) is one of the main reason of loss of biodiversity and habitat destruction. The present work emphasizes to examine the radial impact of ongoing 330MW Srinagar hydropower project on the abundance of ground dwelling birds in Srinagar valley. Line Transect and trail walk methods were used to estimate the abundance of Galliformes. Disturbance gradient was defined at different parameters e. g. dam infrastructure, road network, muck disposal, forest wood cutting and human settlement. Three species of galliformes recorded; black francolin, red jungle fowl, and common quail. Result shows that there is no sign of presence of any ground dwelling birds in the core area where disturbance in peak. After that in two km range only one species (black francolin) with lowest encounter rate (0.0769±0.076) was found. After three km range species diversity is seen more. Higher encounter rate 0.651±0.60 (black francolin), 0.605±0.011 (red jungle fowl) were found after four km range where disturbance was minimum. Kruskal-Wallis test ((Hch2=10.5) show significant difference (p< 0.05) in abundance of ground dwelling bird in different range of disturbance. Results also point out that large scale of development lead to decline the sensitive avifauna in Himalayan region.
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