Freshwater ecosystems of the tropics and sub-tropics are undergoing rapid deterioration due to developmental pressures, opportunistic exploitation and neglect. The challenging issues here are to improve the current knowledge of its biodiversity so that it would aid in sustainable management of the ecosystem through suitable conservation approaches. The Western Ghats is one among the 34 global hotspots of biodiversity and it lies in the western part of peninsular India in a series of hills stretching over a distance of 1,600 km from north to south and covering an area of about 1,60,000 sq.km. It harbours very rich flora and fauna and there are records of over 4,000 species of flowering plants with 38% endemics, 330 butterflies with 11% endemics, 156 reptiles with 62% endemics, 508 birds with 4% endemics, 120 mammals with 12% endemics (Daniels, 2003), 289 fishes with 41% endemics (Sreekantha et al., 2007) and 135 amphibians with 75% endemics (Gururaja, 2004). Such biodiversity coupled with the higher endemism could be credited to the prevailing climate (higher rainfall, evapotranpiration, etc.), location (mid latitude), topographic, and geological characteristics of the region.
Generally, the conservation importance of an area is determined by assessing its ecological values and functions. Assessments are based on the unique habitats and species composition, but in recent times it has been advocated to consider the catchment of a river basin for assessment involving the distribution and abundance of plants and animals within a catchment. This is in a way to bring the linkages between aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, such an approach was lacking in earlier studies. An important step is to understand the variation in relation to soil type, water status, altitude, etc. This necessitated inventorying, mapping and monitoring of the ecosystem, to arrive at viable conservation and sustainable management strategies. The Gundia River is one of the most important tributaries of river Kumarashara, which in turn is a tributary of Netravathi River. Gundia River is formed by the streams namely Yettinaholé and Kempholé to which the streams Kadumaneholé and Hongadahallé join in the course. More importantly, with a proposal of a power project in Gundia, wherein Karnataka Power Corporation Limited is contemplating to harness the water in the upper reaches of Gundia and Kumaradhara river and their tributaries with an installed capacity of 300 MWs and an annual energy generation of 616 MU, this region requires a detailed investigation on the present status of its biodiversity and ecological status.
This report focuses on the biodiversity of Gundia river basin, carried out by a multidisciplinary team, which helps to diagnose the adverse effects of the ongoing land use changes on the ecology. This study also addresses the issues like environmental management, restoration of natural ecosystems, restitution of corridors of animal migration and quality of aquatic ecosystems. These are an addition to the benchmark database on existing biodiversity and ecology of the basin. The survey and systematic study was carried out for two days (17th and 18th January 2007) in the catchment area.
The main objective of the study was to enlist the species diversity in the region, to highlight the ecological sensitivity of the region. The floral components included are trees, shrubs, herbs, orchids, etc., whereas fauna comprised of butterflies, odonates, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. |