October 2012 - Journal of Threatened Taxa

JoTT Re v i e w 4(12): 3103–3136Mammals of Kalimpong Hills, Darjeeling District,West Bengal, IndiaJayanta Kumar MallickWildlife Wing (Headquarters), Directorate of Forests, Government of West Bengal, Bikash Bhawan, North Block, Third Floor,Salt Lake City, West Bengal 700091, IndiaEmail: jayantamallick2007@rediffmail.comDate of publication (online): 10 October 2012Date of publication (print): 10 October 2012ISSN 0974-7907 (online) | 0974-7893 (print)Editor: L.A.K. SinghManuscript details:Ms # o2418Received 04 March 2010Final received 29 August 2012Finally accepted 05 September 2012Citation: Mallick, J.K. (2012). Mammals ofKalimpong Hills, Darjeeling District, WestBengal, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 4(12):3103–3136.Copyright: © Jayanta Kumar Mallick 2012.Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 UnportedLicense. JoTT allows unrestricted use of thisarticle in any medium for non-profit purposes,reproduction and distribution by providingadequate credit to the authors and the sourceof publication.Author Details: Jay a n t a Ku m a r Ma l l i c kpostgraduated in 1974, joined the Wildlife Wing(Headquarters) in 1976 and has been working asPA to PCCF, Wildlife, West Bengal, for the last 37years. Worked in the Project of the North-EastIndia Task Force, IUCN/SSC/Elephant SpecialistGroup and also as project consultant of the IndianSociety for Wildlife Research, Kolkata. He hasbeen involved in all departmental publications,has participated in departmental workshops,undertaken a number of studies, is lookingafter departmental data bank and has morethan hundred published articles, study reports,book and book-chapter on wildlife conservation,particularly of mammals.Acknowledgements: The author expressesheartiest thanks to all those departmental fieldstaff, officers and other respondents who sharedtheir experiences for preparation of this studyreport. I am also grateful to Dr. Dipankar Ghose(WWF-I, New Delhi) for communicating his fieldobservations. I am especially indebted to IndranilMitra, GIS specialist, for providing digitized mapsof the study area and Somnath Chakraborty forretrieving relevant data.OPEN ACCESS | FREE DOWNLOADAbstract: Neora Valley National Park (NVNP) in the Kalimpong Hills, Darjeeling District,having a wide range of altitudinal variations (183–3,200 m) and climatic conditions andforming an ecological trijunction with Sikkim and Bhutan, is the last virgin wildernessin West Bengal. It is a global hotspot for the unique ecosystem, where tropical, subtropical,temperate and sub-temperate forests represent a wealth of biodiversity includingmany threatened and rare mammals. It is the prime habitat of Ailurus fulgens (estimatedpopulation 28–32), Neofelis nebulosa (population unassessed), Ursus thibetanus (18),Bos gaurus (81), Hemitragus jemlahicus (32), Naemorhedus goral (73), Capricornissumatraensis (89), Rusa unicolor (286), Muntiacus vaginalis (590) and Sus scrofa (615).Discovery of Panthera tigris (20) in 1998 prompted the forest department to includeNVNP as a sensitive wildlife zone. Many authors recorded the mammalian diversityin Darjeeling District since the mid-nineteenth century, but most of them referred to theDarjeeling Hills. The documentations on Kalimpong Hills are scarce because of thedense canopy, thick undergrowth and inaccessible terrain, particularly in the pristineforests of Neora Valley. Consequently, a comprehensive compendium of the mammalsin this region was not prepared. A study was undertaken in 2008–2009 with a viewto bridging this knowledge-gap and presenting an updated account of the mammalianspecies in this new short-listed World Heritage Site and surrounding forests of theKalimpong Hills based on literature review, questionnaire survey, direct sighting andindirect evidences. During June–October 1916, N.A. Baptista recorded 29 mammalianspecies (22 genera) out of 563 specimens collected, from the region. The present studyregistered 99 species (68 genera) after 94 years.Keywords: Indirect evidences, Kalimpong, literature review, mammals, Neora Valley,sighting, status.INTRODUCTIONThe Indian mammals comprise of 401 species (180 genera, 45 familiesand 13 orders), constituting about 8.6% of the global mammalian species(Alfred et al. 2006). About 47% of the Indian mammals are recordedin West Bengal (Chakraborty & Agrawal 1993). Whereas Ghosh (1992)recorded 217 species and subspecies of mammals (including the extinctspecies of the 20 th century) in the state, Agrawal et al. (1992) described188 species and subspecies (103 genera, 33 families and 12 orders). Onlytwo of them (Bengal Marsh Mongoose Herpestes palustris Ghose, 1965Abbreviations: ATREE - Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment;BNHM - Bengal Natural History Museum, Darjeeling; BSI - Botanical Survey of India;FD - Forest Division; IUCN - International Union for Conservation of Nature and NaturalResources; KFD - Kalimpong Forest Division; NP - National Park; NTFP - Non-TimberForest Produce; NVNP - Neora Valley National Park; NESPON - North Eastern Societyfor the Preservation of Nature and Wildlife; SNR - Strict Nature Reserve; TE - Tea Estate;UNESCO - United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization; WBFDCL- West Bengal Forest Development Corporation Limited; WLS - Wildlife Sanctuary;WWF-I/US - World-wide Fund for Nature-India/United States; ZSI - Zoological Surveyof India.Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | October 2012 | 4(12): 3103–3136 3103