Vol. 110 - Part III - Zoological Survey of India

DUTTA & SAKTHIVEL : Status and distribution of four species of Hornbills from North and......A Report 95altogether six surveys were conducted coveringNarmada district of Gujarat south through Jog Falls ofKarnataka. The mechanical aid used in the field wasbinoculars (7 × 50). During field survey minute andcareful observation could only distringuish the fourdifferent species of hornbills. There were somecharacters, so close in the four species of hornbills;therefore some major criteria were chosen to identifythe species in the field shown in Table-1.A total of 228 hornbills were sighted comprising ofall four species in the surveyed areas of Western Ghats(Table-3). About 132 reported information of hornbillsother than the observed data was collected exceptMalabar Grey Hornbill (Table-4). During the entire periodof survey in Western Ghats we could fail to gather anyinformation on the presence of this species of bird inother areas.Malabar Grey Hornbill Ocyceros griseusThere were 21 birds sighted during the course ofsurvey in Western Ghats (north and central), out ofwhich 8 birds were from Karnataka and 13 birds fromMaharashtra (Table-3). Malabar Grey Hornbills werelocated from localities in Western Ghats 13 birds weresighted in Amboli Ghats in Sindhudurg district ofMaharashtra of which 7 birds were seen in a mixedflock of Malabar Pied Hornbills. 3 birds were sightedfrom Karnataka and 5 from near Molem, Goa. In theNational Zoological Collection, Kolkata, it was recordedthat majority of Malabar grey hornbills were collectedfrom Goa part of Western Ghats. The 14 examples thatwere collected, of which 12 birds were represented fromGoa during 1968-1981 periods. It was also surprisingthat no report was available for the presence of thisspecies in other areas of Western Ghats except onlyvery few places in Goa. Ali and Ripley (1970) recordeddistribution range of Malabar Grey Hornbill in WesternGhats from Mumbai and Khandala south throughsouthern Maharashtra, Goa, western Karnataka, westernTamil Nadu and Kerala. The present study revealedthat this species no longer exists in Mumbai, Khandalaup to Kolhapur and Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra.The Malabar Grey Hornbill not even found in theDharwar and Shimoga district of Karnataka and it isreplaced by another species of hornbill, the Indian GreyHornbill. The Malabar Grey Hornbill is now restrictedin its distribution in some parts of Maharashtra andGoa in Western Ghats (Fig. 3).Table-3 : The distribution of hornbills in north and central Western Ghats.Sl. Species State/District Locality Habitat TotalNo.No. bird1Malabar Grey Hornbill Sindhudurg Amboli GhatF 62(Ocyceros griseus)MaharashtraSindhudurg Amboli GhatF 7Maharashtra3 Molem, Goa Molem F 54Belgaum, NardenKarnatakaV 55 Karnataka Jog Falls F 3Total 266Indian Grey Hornbill Narmada/ Sorsi, MandviF 6(Ocyceros birostris) Gujarat range7Narmada/ Kevdi, VansdaF 7GujaratN.P.Sholapur, Villages near8 Maharashtra Nannaj V 8Sancuary9Pune,DhebewadiMaharashtraT 5