Impact
of iron ore mining on the stream insect communities of Bhadra River catchment
was studied at Kudremukh, Karnataka. The
study recorded 54 aquatic insect taxa, belonging to seven orders and
thirty-three families. Highest diversity was recorded from orders Odonata
(dragonflies and damselflies), Ephemeroptera
(mayflies) and Trichoptera (caddiesflies).
The reference sites, representing sampling sites upstream of the mining area,
had higher species richness than the mining-impacted sites. Biologically poor
characters of mining impacted streams were reflected in the diversity indices
(Simpson's and Shanon's) and biomonitoring scores (BMWP and % EPT). A Cluster
analysis of the data using Jaccard's dissimilarity index also clearly separated
the impacted Lakhyahole from rest of the sites. The importance of using
biomonitoring techniques for Environmental Impact Assessment is also discussed.
Address: Centre for Ecological Sciences
Indian Institute of Science
Bangalore- 560 012, Karnataka, India.
Phone: 3600985/3942506 E-mail: subbu@ces.iisc.ernet.in
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