ASSESSMENT OF WATERFOWL DIVERSITY OF RIVER CHENAB, PAKISTAN - M. Altaf; A. Javid; A. M. Khan; M. Umair; Irfan; S. Ashraf; M. Idnan; M.S. Haider; Z. Ali (Journal of Animal and Plant Sciences, 2015)
River Chenab is an important wetland of Punjab province and the tree plantations around the river are the part of tropical thorn forest. But as a consequence of deforestation much of the natural forested areas have been turned to agricultural land. The main objective of study was to explore the avifaunal diversity with special focus on endangered avian species Sterna acuticauda of river Chenab. This one year study extending from May, 2013 through April, 2014 was conducted along a 90 km long belt of the river Chenab. The study was focused at three heads of the river namely head Marala (district Sialkot), head Khanki (district Gujrat) and head Qadirabad (district Gujranwala). Surveys were made during dawn (5:00 am to 8:00 am) and dusk (4:00 pm to 7:00 pm) hours and a total of 51waterbird species belonging to 33 genera, 16 families and 8 orders were recorded from the study area. Throughout the year a total of 2531 birds from recorded from head Marala, 2026 from the head Khanki and 2230 from head Qadirabad. Diversity indices were analyzed through statistical software PAST version 2.17 C. Shannon-Weiner diversity index at head Marala was 2.62, at head Khanki it was 2.64 while at head Qadirabad it was 2.78. It can be concluded from the present study that the river Chenab is waterfowl rich and should be declared as protected site for waterfowls. species have been reported from Asia (Collar et al. 2001).
Keywords: journal article; Evenness; Margalef; Wetland; Richness; Qadirabad