October 2012 - Journal of Threatened Taxa

Mammals of Kalimpong Hills1995; Bahuguna et al. 1998; Pradhan 1998, 1999,2006; Mitra 2000a,b,c, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2003–2004;Pradhan et al. 2001a,b; Das 2003; Murmu et al. 2004;Mitra & Alfred 2002, 2007; Bhattacharyya et al. 2008)refer to the mammals occurring in the Darjeeling Hills.In contrast, only a very few scientific studies on themammals have been conducted in Kalimpong Hills.The baseline for the present study is the firstscientific research conducted in June–October 1916by N.A. Baptista, who collected as many as 560specimens of mammals belonging to 29 species under22 genera from the dense mixed and bamboo forestsof the Kalimpong Hills, east of the Teesta River, westof Ni-chu (Jaldhaka River) and Di-chu (tributary ofthe Jaldhaka) and bounded by Bhutan on the north(Wroughton 1917b). It appears that these fairly largecollections did not attribute a corresponding widerange of the mammalian species, as found in theSikkim-Bengal ‘terai’, Darjeeling Hills and Bhutan‘duars’ (Wroughton 1916a,b, 1917a).During the post-independence era, a range of80 to 90 species of mammals in Kalimpong ForestDivision (KFD) including Neora Valley have beenrecorded (Anonymous 1964), but, ironically, nosupporting checklist was appended. West BengalForest Development Corporation Limited (WBFDCL)surveyed the eastern ridges of Neora Valley in 1979and 1981 in a joint effort with Zoological Survey ofIndia (ZSI) and Botanical Survey of India (BSI). In1982, the Himalayan Club, Indian Army, ZSI andDepartment of Botany, University of Calcutta, incollaboration with KFD, organised an expedition fromLava to the uncharted western ridges. But no newrecords of mammalian species during these expeditionswere reported.During 11–18 April 1982, Dr. B. Biswas, R.K.Ghose and D.K. Ghosal of ZSI and K. Mukherjee ofWorld Wide Fund for Nature-India (WWF-I) surveyedSamsing (Neora and Murti river valleys), Mouchowki,Rangpo and Tarkhola as part of their project on thelesser cats. But due to heavy rains, they could recordonly 17 mammalian species (Biswas & Ghose 1982;Biswas et al. 1985). No lesser cat was, however,sighted by them, but the scat of an unidentified smallercat was found on the bank of Neora River.Sharma (1990) recorded 45 species of mammals inNVNP. In an account of the mammalian fauna of WestBengal, based mainly on the collections of ZSI as wellJ.K. Mallickas those recorded in the literature, Saha et al. (1992)listed 36 species (three Primates, 22 Carnivora, oneProboscidae, three Artiodactyla, and seven Rodentia)in NVNP.The Department of Zoology, University of NorthBengal in collaboration with the Department of Forests,Government of West Bengal and North Eastern Societyfor the Preservation of Nature and Wildlife (NESPON),an NGO based at Siliguri, Darjeeling, again surveyedthe upper reaches and interior forests of NVNP duringsummer (April, May and June) and early winter(October) in 1994–1996 and prepared a checklist of32 mammalian species (9 Schedule I) belonging to16 families, representing more than 17 per cent of thetotal mammalian diversity in West Bengal (Biswaset al. 1999). Singhal & Mukhopadhyay (1998) alsoreprinted the same checklist. Singhal (1999) addedtwo new records of the mammals in NVNP.WWF-India, Eastern Region (1997) recorded 17mammalian species in the Upper Neora and LowerNeora Forest Ranges of NVNP as well as Chel,Lulagaon and Lava Forest Ranges of KFD. A studyon the birds in the Lava (altitude 2,100m)-Lulagaon(altitude 1,575m) region of upper Neora during 2000–2001 reported direct and indirect evidences of themammalian species like the Tiger, Leopard, HimalayanBlack Bear, Red Panda, Himalayan Yellow-throatedMarten, Wild Dog, Barking Deer, Assamese Macaque,Wild Boar, Moupin Pika (Dipankar Ghose & SujanChatterjee pers. comm. 19 October 2009).Chakraborty et al. (2008a) enlisted 25 species ofmammals in NVNP on the basis of both sighting andindirect evidences. But Chakraborty et al. (2008b)recorded 16 mammalian species in NVNP, includingsighting of seven species, collection of the scats of fivespecies, observation of other signs of two species plusother two prey species. Ghosh et al. (2008) referred toeight key species of mammals in this area. UNESCOWorld Heritage Centre (2009) cited 19 mammalianspecies in NVNP. Bahuguna & Mallick (2010) alsomentioned 50 species of mammals in NVNP andsurrounding areas.Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | October 2012 | 4(12): 3103–31363105