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Avenue Plantations as Biodiversity Havens: A Case Study of Population Status of the Indian Flying Fox, Pteropus giganteus Brunnich, 1782 and Implications for Its Conservation in the Urban Megacity, Delhi, India

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Abstract

This study provides the primary information about the population of Pteropus giganteus, a mega fruit-bat, having a permanent roost in avenue plantations of Delhi, India. These avenue plantations of Lutyens’ Delhi have a variety of tree species which serve as habitats for both roosting and foraging of fruit-eating bats, P. giganteus. These avenue trees comprise of species like Terminalia arjuna, Ficus microcarpa, Syzigium cumini, Polyalthia longifolia and Putranjiva roxburghii. The Indian flying fox (P. giganteus) was observed roosting on nine species of avenue trees in Delhi in the present study, which was undertaken for a period of 3 years from April 2014 to June 2017. In this study period, the peak colony size was observed in May, 2014 (1660 individuals). The flying foxes use 9 species of avenue trees for roosting, where the largest colony size was observed on T. arjuna. This zone is the only roosting location of the Indian flying fox in Delhi, which plays an important role in seed dispersal and pollination. The colony size was largest during the spring-summer months which showed a gradual decrease with the decline in temperature during winters. Although, year round T. arjuna had the maximum number of individuals from the colony whereas Cassia fistula, Delonix regia and Bombax ceiba had the least. The result provides the scope for an uncharismatic species beyond protected area and organismal biology, towards linkages of functional landscapes and urban ecosystem services. With proper monitoring, this area has huge potential to be converted into a ‘Conserved Roosting site’ of P. giganteus.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to the Mr. A.K. Shukla, Chief Conservator of Forests and Chief Wildlife Warden, Govt. of National Capital Territory of Delhi, for providing essential permits to conduct this study. Special thanks are due to Mr. Priyanshu Joshi, Dept. of Forests and Wildlife, Govt. of N.C.T. of Delhi for all the help during the study. The authors thank the Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Govt. of India, for granting permission to conduct surveys in the Lutyens’ Bungalow Zone. We acknowledge Mr. Souvik Dutta, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, in assisting with the statistical analysis of the paper. We thank Mr. Pradip Gaur, photographer, Mint Lounge (HT Media), for the photograph of bats used in this paper. We are thankful to Survey of India, Map sale office and New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC), for providing the toposheets of Delhi and NDMC municipality respectively, that have been digitized to prepare maps. RM, SD and PB are thankful to Dean, University School of Environment Management, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University for providing necessary facilities to conduct this study. All authors are also thankful to the two anonymous reviewers for providing valuable comments and useful suggestions to improve the manuscript. RM is thankful to Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University for funding this study by the Indraprastha Research Fellowship (IPRF) vide Letter No. 1427/2013. A part of this work was presented in the 3rd International Southeast Asian Bat Conference (SEABCO) held in Sarawak, Malaysia in August 2015. RM is grateful to Southeast Asian Bat Research and Conservation Unit (SEABRU) and Prof. Tigga Kingston for providing travel grant to attend this conference.

Travel Grant

The corresponding author was granted a student’s scholarship to attend the 3rd International Southeast Asian Bat Conference in Malaysia, 2015 by the Southeast Asian Bat Research and Conservation Unit (SEABCRU), where a part of this work was presented.

Funding

The corresponding author received funding from Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Govt. of N.C.T of Delhi via Indraprastha Research Fellowship (IPRF) (Grant No. 1427/2013).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University School of Environment Management, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Sector 16C, Dwarka, New Delhi, 110078, India

    Rajlakshmi Mishra, Sumit Dookia & Prodyut Bhattacharya

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  1. Rajlakshmi Mishra
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RM carried out the field work for the study including data collection and analysis. RM prepared the manuscript. SD and PB revised the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Rajlakshmi Mishra.

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors. The datasets generated and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Mishra, R., Dookia, S. & Bhattacharya, P. Avenue Plantations as Biodiversity Havens: A Case Study of Population Status of the Indian Flying Fox, Pteropus giganteus Brunnich, 1782 and Implications for Its Conservation in the Urban Megacity, Delhi, India. Proc Zool Soc 73, 127–136 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12595-019-00308-3

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