Abstract
The Pancheshwar Multipurpose Project proposed for the construction of the largest dam in South Asia is located in the biodiversity rich fragile landscape of the Indian Himalayan Region. In the present scenario, the area at Pancheshwar is being perturbed and going through forest clearance on a regular basis for pre-dam construction operations such as tunnel, road building etc. Butterflies that are vital and crucial organisms for the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems get drastically affected by such large changes in their habitats. The present study therefore aims at describing the importance of butterfly conservation with respect to their diversity and composition along different habitat conditions prevailing at the main dam site of Pancheshwar in the Western Himalaya. Previously, the rich biological diversity of butterflies had remained relatively unknown from the region. By adopting the standardized sampling techniques during 2016–2018, a total of 5341 individuals of 98 species under six butterfly families were recorded from the five representative habitat types (sampling sites) with varying degrees of disturbance. The area was found to be enriched with 23.27% of the known species from the Western Himalaya. Based on global distribution 72.44% of the total recorded species were of the Oriental region, 10.20% species showed Palaearctic distribution while seven species were endemic to the Himalaya. Moreover, the richness and abundance of butterflies varied significantly among the habitat types under various threat levels. The highly disturbed habitat (a forest area altered for pre-dam constructions which was formerly covered with canopy) yielded least diversity and richness while the forest edge habitat in a moderately degraded forest showed the highest diversity, richness and uniqueness, rendering it as a key habitat for preservation and conservation of butterflies. The other three sites selected in the riparian zone had the high similarity of butterfly assemblages. A total of 28 butterfly species were identified on the utmost conservation priorities based on their national protection status, diet specialization, local and global geographic distributions. The high diversity and heterogeneity in community composition is attributed to complex vegetation and diverse habitat conditions prevailing in a fairly isolated geographical area proposed for the mega dam construction.
Implications for insect conservation
At present, declines in the both quality and type of habitats due to the heedless on-going dam construction related activities are causing adverse affects on the rich butterfly diversity and posing paramount threats of habitat loss and extinction to butterfly fauna that include many rare, specialist, legally protected and endemic species of the fragile Himalayan ecosystem. This study thus substantiates the need for adoption of timely specified, decisive and effective conservation practices in such regions of prime biological importance.
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(Source: Ref. Sati et al. 2019) and b selected sampling sites (SS) at the proposed Pancheshwar dam site, Western Himalaya (Source: Google Maps)
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Acknowledgements
Sincere thank to the Divisional Forest Officer, Champawat Forest Division, Uttarakhand for granting us permission to carry out required field studies. We are very thankful to the Retd. Prof. P. C. Pandey, Department of Botany, DSB Campus, Kumaun University, Nainital for helping in identification of plant species. Extreme thanks to Devendra Singh Bisht and Prateek Mahendra for accompanying us during the field works. We extend our special thanks to the SSB personnel of India’s Central Armed Police Forces and local community for their kind cooperation and gracious hospitality provided throughout the field study. Critical comments and valuable suggestions of editorial team and reviewers helped much in refining the manuscript.
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10841_2020_285_MOESM1_ESM.docx
Taxonomic list of butterfly fauna (Papilionoidea) recorded in selected sampling sites at the Pancheshwar dam site, Western Himalaya (2016-18) with details on global distribution, polyphagy class and local status of each species based on relative abundance dataElectronic supplementary material 1 (DOCX 38 kb)
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Sampling site-wise matrix of Tukey’s HSD post-hoc tests for the overall species richness and abundance recorded during study period Electronic supplementary material 2 (DOCX 16 kb)
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Verma, A., Arya, M.K. Proposed Multipurpose Project at Pancheshwar in the Western Himalaya affects rich butterfly diversity: a conservation concern. J Insect Conserv 25, 89–107 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10841-020-00285-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10841-020-00285-5